Over the course of three months, Cindy Snow went from a hot prospect to a shoo-in for series pickup that was announced at Fox’s upfront presentation to a show returned to its producers to shop elsewhere.
As Deadline reported in July, Fox opted not to move forward with the single-camera meteorologist comedy from creator Steve Yockey and Warner Bros. Television after the clock ran out for the network to make a deal in time to have the show ready for a January launch. Fox instead made the decision to go with another single-camera comedy, the Fox-owned Animal Control, from Bob Fisher, Rob Greenberg and Dan Sterling, which got a straight-to-series order for midseason
One of the sticking points in the Cindy Snow talks was in-season stacking rights as Fox’s deal with long-time in-season stacking partner Hulu is up in 2023 and, faced with uncertainty, the independent network has been asking outside studios for flexibility to be able to sell the show to a new in-season stacking partner should the Hulu deal not get renewed. That is something WBTV — as well as other Fox suppliers — have had an issue with as the move could impact a potential library (out-of-season) streaming sale.
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“Warner Bros. is an important partner for us and both companies are determined to figure out our digital strategy together. Our studio relationships — whether it’s Warner Bros. or Sony or Lionsgate or Disney — remain strong,” Fox Entertainment President Michael Thorn told Deadline in an interview tied to the network’s TCA presentation. “Cindy Snow got caught in the middle of these ongoing conversations and had nothing [to do with it]. We love it, we love Steve and we love the show, but we had an airdate to hit and fortunately we had a project in-house that we love as much in Animal Control, and it’s really exciting for us to be able to order our first 100% Fox-owned comedy especially from that creative team. I know we’ll work it out with Warner Bros. and we have some great shows with them still like The Cleaning Lady and Call Me Kat. It’s just things take time, unfortunately.”
Fox is already in negotiations with Disney-controlled Hulu, and there have been promising signs that their current deal could be extended beyond 2023, sources said.
Thorn also addressed Cindy Snow‘s potential future at Fox. As Deadline reported, the network had left the door open to pick up the show for fall 2023 if it does not find a new home in the meantime.
“We try to be the best partners we can to our creators, and we gave them the ability to shop it elsewhere,” he said. “But we said to [Yockey] quite clearly, if you don’t find that home, please come back to us, and hopefully by the time that plays out if you haven’t found a home and we’ve reached our digital solution, then we can reconsider the show for the following year. We absolutely would reconsider it.”
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