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Fox aired the series premiere of "New Amsterdam" last night which featured a high-power lead-in: "American Idol." In fact, the show will follow "Idol" twice before settling into its regular air schedule, Mondays at 9, the one previously occupied by "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" and "24."

That's quite an opportunity for a show that has struggled to actually be seen on the network. Many in the television industry weren't certain it would ever see the light of day.

"To be honest, when we were pushed from fall to spring, I was quite relieved, because we'd just started production on the show, and it was nice, I felt anyway, to not have to focus on a premiere three weeks into production but to just be able to get the time to do the show," said leading man Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who plays the immortal New York detective John Amsterdam.

But with the delay came concerns.

"Of course there's a lot of speculation. Being from Denmark, I had friends calling me from Denmark, saying, 'Are you coming home now? What's happening?' And I'd say, 'I'm on set. I can't talk right now.," he said.

"Amsterdam" has one advantage over other shows this season -- filming completed only a few days before the writers strike began.

"I knew things would change all the time. It's the name of the game," Coster-Waldau said. "It's not just television. It's in movies. You see people juggle the movies around all the time as well. Maybe ask the programmer or whoever's in charge, because I've not wanted to think too much about that."

"New Amsterdam" airs next on Thursday at 9 p.m. ET before settling into Monday nights at 9 ET on Fox.