There is already some really interesting news coming from Fox's 2015 upfronts, which kicked off with a conference call this morning. One of the biggest announcements was that the network will be using their broadcast of the NFL's NFC Championship game on Sunday, January 24th to promote and launch the new X-Files event series.

As we reported in the past, both David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson will return, and the series will be back for 6 episodes. Executive producer/creator Chris Carter has said the show’s return is like coming back from “a 13-year commercial break,” and “The good news is the world has only gotten that much stranger, a perfect time to tell these six stories.”

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Image via 20th Century Fox.

When asked why Fox has chosen to launch the series behind the NFC Championship game, (in other words, why waste a week of presumably great Monday night ratings?) the reasoning was they wanted make sure that even though The X-Files already has a built-in, excited audience, they wanted to give it "the most maximum exposure."

So here's the schedule breakdown: the series will launch on Sunday, the 24th, and its second episode will air on Monday the 25th. Then, The X-Files will serve as the lead-in for those next 5 weeks to the new DC series Lucifer, which Fox hopes will have a domino boosting effect across their schedule.

When asked whether fans can expect a stand alone arc or whether or not the new episodes will tie into a deeper mythology, Fox execs said, "you will see a combination of episodes." They also suggested there will be a little something for everyone (as far as the fandom is concerned).

Finally, it was also confirmed that production on the new series will begin in June, so stay tuned for more updates as we have them!


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Image via 20th Century Fox