In his first programming purchase since joining Fox, network entertainment president Kevin Reilly made a series commitment to a new drama produced by "The Shield" showrunner Shawn Ryan.

The untitled program follows the tenants of a haunted house over several decades.

The project was initially put on the market as a spec script by David Schulner, who has worked on shows including "Desperate Housewives" and "What About Brian?" In a bidding war Fox bested CBS for the project.

Michael Cuesta ("Dexter," "Six Feet Under") is expected to direct and executive produce the pilot, which will be produced by Twentieth Century Fox Television and Little Engine Productions, Fox confirmed.

The deal with Mr. Ryan continues the FX glory-days reunion at Fox, where former FX President-CEO Peter Liguori recently hired Mr. Reilly, who once served as Mr. Liguori's entertainment president at the cable network.

Fox also shuffled its fall schedule late last week, extending summer breakout "Don't Forget the Lyrics" into the season and pushing immortal-detective drama "New Amsterdam" to next year.

Also, "Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares" was shifted to Wednesdays at 9 p.m., where the other networks are all running dramas.

Fox's fall schedule is considered heavy on reality shows, and pushing "Amsterdam" loses another hour of scripted programming.

"We wanted to go into fourth quarter with the strongest schedule that we could," said Fox scheduling chief Preston Beckman.

"We've had a phenomenally successful show in ‘Lyrics' that we wanted to keep on our schedule. We've been looking all summer at Wednesdays at 9 p.m., where you have five networks all with dramas. We figured before somebody else figured it out, we'd put an alternative in the time period," Mr. Beckman said.

Fox plans to give "Amsterdam" a preview in a post-"American Idol" slot next year. Earlier this spring, "Idol" successfully launched the game show "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader," but it wasn't able to save drama "The Wedding Bells."

Also, by pushing the "Amsterdam" premiere while starting production this month, the show provides a bit of insurance against a possible writers strike.

• Inside Reilly’s Bidding War