The Fall TV season is upon us and Fox is kicking things off with the returns of “9-1-1,” “The Resident” “The Cleaning Lady” and its iconic Sunday animation block, as well as the debut of Susan Sarandon and Trace Adkins country music drama “Monarch” and an eye toward more fresh scripted content to come.
Though Fox won’t be the home of the “Ally McBeal” reboot or the “Married… With Children” animated series, both in-the-works projects based on titles that originated at Fox, and is still remaining tight-lipped on more seasons of the Disney-owned “The Simpsons,” Variety found plenty to discuss with Fox Entertainment president of entertainment Michael Thorn pegged to the broadcaster’s day of panels at the virtual Television Critics Association press tour Wednesday.
From that down-to-the-wire “9-1-1″/”Lone Star” renewal last spring to making deals with top talent that have different political leanings from sibling channel Fox News, here’s what Thorn had to say.
Readers can find Variety‘s new interview with Fox’s unscripted chief Rob Wade here.
We heard some rumors that 20th Television was in talks to move “9-1-1” to ABC, its sister network, for Season 6 — and that was what led to that very last-minute renewal of “9-1-1,” but not “Lone Star,” during upfronts. Is there any truth to that?
I would have to believe that every network would want “9-1-1,” if they could afford it. It’s one of the biggest shows on TV. But really, the truth is this is old-school, down-to-the-wire negotiation that, like a lot of these negotiations, come down literally to the last second. And in the case of “9-1-1,” it was actually a second past the last second. It actually closed as I was walking into our upfront. This was just a case of old-school, third-party negotiation on a hit show that went down to the wire. Everyone involved believes it’s always in the best interest of the show, and therefore the creators and talent, to stay on the platform you were born on, and so that was always the goal. There were no threats to move it to ABC, and it was just a very thoughtful negotiation on an important show for both companies.
Where are you at with the animated “Flintstones” spinoff series “Bedrock” from Elizabeth Banks?
On “Bedrock,” we haven’t cast any voices yet, but we are in the process of casting voices for the presentation that we’re making with Warner Animation.
Will you be airing any Tubi originals on Fox linear?
Yes. There isn’t one specifically yet that we’ve identified to say that one of the movies could premiere on Tubi and have a window. But that is absolutely a possibility and something we’ve talked about, we just have to find the right one. With MarVista being one of the major providers to Tubi and being a new but terrific piece in Fox Entertainment capabilities, I expect to be doing stuff — both long form and hopefully series with MarVista, as well. I anticipate within relationships between the companies there will be some overlap, we just haven’t identified that first one yet.
Do you find it difficult to attract talent and make any of the new direct deals Fox Entertainment is making with creators because of your connection to Fox News under the same parent company?
Not at all. What’s great is most of the creative community is completely aware that we’re very separate companies and, as Charlie says, we don’t give feedback to Fox News on what their programming is and they don’t give it to us. And we’re both trying to be independent, successful sibling companies. And I think what we find is, most of the creators we work or try to work with really respond to the kind of stories that we’re telling, whether it’s something like “The Cleaning Lady” or “Krapopolis” — where our animation brand remains the strongest in the marketplace, regardless of the type of platform — we still really have incredible relationships and are able to leverage our independence in a way that’s even better than we thought. So this idea that we can go to people, talent, whether it’s a producer, writer, creative team, and say, “Come work with us, there’s no layers. It’s just our team and your team and we can have a transparent direct relationship as we try to find our next shared signature series”… That kind of no-filter, no-layered relationship has been really great, not just for us but for the talent. And in fact, because of approaching deals like that, we’ve won tiebreakers where we’re competing for projects with other companies. And this kind of independent dynamic has allowed us to win deals when the dollars are quote, unquote similar. I think you’ve probably heard when talking to talent, there tends to be a frustration with the amount of layers creators find when they’re developing or making series, and what we offer is a removal of those layers. And this kind of transparent dynamic that we believe will create a better environment for the creator, a better work experience and an alternative to the traditional approach.
All that being said, we have great shows with great partners, and we still see value in having great studio partners. But for a handful of writers who are free balls, who maybe have been frustrated with the traditional system, we think we have this great alternative to offer them. To be honest, I’m actually surprised by how positive the response has been there. This season for us is like another chapter in our growth strategy. You see it with “Monarch,” our first owned drama, with “Krapopolis,” which we’re going to preview an episode of at the end of Thanksgiving weekend behind a big weekend of programming for us, and then premiere it in May. That’s our first 100%-owned animated series. And while we’ll continue to work with our studio partners, you’re going to see us make more deals that allow us to have greater ownership in our projects and build them from the ground up to work for our platform in a way that we think is really exciting.
Will we get another genuine “9-1-1”-“Lone Star” crossover episode this season?
I mean, I would love it. We love when there’s opportunities to cross-pollinate between the shows. Both series are so ambitious in their storytelling that sometimes it’s harder than it would appear to align the crossover opportunities. But, and I know you know him and are as much of a fan of him as I am, if any showrunner can figure out how to overcome an obstacle, it’s Tim Minear. So we always ask for it, and if he can find a way, along with Ryan and Brad, he’ll find a way to really do it. So I hope so, but there’s nothing planned yet.
Read More About:
Source: Read Full Article
