Fox will move American Idol to three nights a week in February in an effort to bolster its increasingly strike-affected schedule.

An additional Idol episode will air on at least three Thursdays from February 21, giving a boost to the two remaining first-run episodes of Kelsey Grammer comedy Back to You.

The network will also re-jig some planned premieres, putting new dramas New Amsterdam and Canterbury's Law into prestigious Monday night timeslots in March and April respectively. The two had originally been scheduled to bow in February and April in Friday night slots; instead, the time periods will be occupied by Bones reruns.

"The world has changed from November 1 to January 1," Fox chief of scheduling Preston Beckman told Variety. "We reassessed our schedule in light of the fact that the strike was going to continue for a while."