__twocolumncontent.jpg)
Image by Frank Micelotta/FOX
For those who think the conversation around broadcast is sinking into the wake left by the streaming speedboat, Fox Television Group co-chair Dana Walden opened the network’s TCA executive session on Thursday by pointing to the contrary: The phenomenal rise of Empire.
“Some of our competitors are reluctant to give ratings information,” she told the crowd in attendance, “but we will account for every last viewer” of a show whose final episode of its first season took in more than 17 million viewers – the culmination of a run that consistently added viewers week over week throughout its meteoric run.
It was thus to the surprise of few that Walden proceeded to announce that Fox has ordered Star, a new pilot from Empire co-creator Lee Daniels that will focus on the trials and travails of three young Atlanta women who form a girl band.
The new show, which will take a more performer POV-driven angle as opposed to Empire’s perspective from the dark heart of the industry machine itself, continues a growing trend in scripted music-themed programming that seems to be sweeping not only Fox but TV at large.
“This isn’t a new formula,” Walden said, but it is “a potent mix” that allows a network, as evidenced by the economic juggernaut of Fox’s Glee, “to have an entirely separate business that feeds directly back into the show.”
Star could also help fill the dearth of music-themed unscripted programming that will be left when American Idol embarks on its final tour this fall. Fox will have its work cut out for it to fill those hours and Walden said that they won’t be “limited to reality. An entire development slate is ramping up toward not having American Idol.” Fox is no doubt treading carefully with reality thanks to the recent demises of both Utopia and Knock Knock Live. Of the latter, Walden expressed regret about its release strategy.
“Summer is a very hard time to launch a new show and we found ourselves on the marketing side without any assets [for Knock Knock],” she said. “Looking back, we would have scheduled it during a different time of year, when there was more on the air and more possibility to tease a show.”
Though triumphant recently with shows like Empire and also Last Man on Earth (not to mention 59 Emmy noms – second only to HBO), Walden and Fox Television Group co-chair Gary Newman’s first year on the job has not been without its hurdles.
In addition to the troubles in reality, Sleepy Hollow’s struggles to rebound from a nine-month hiatus following a highly rated season one taught them “a lot last year about our serialized dramas and what a contemporary audience will tolerate in terms of repeats,” said Walden. “We were using a very conventional method of scheduling shows that don’t feel very conventional.”
To that end, the network’s tent-pole shows will enjoy “virtually uninterrupted runs of episodes through fall” with “significant marketing funds set aside to ramp back up for a second set of episodes in spring that won’t challenge audiences to figure out when we’re in originals and when we’re in repeats.”
Hopefully further injecting life into Sleepy Hollow, a crossover between it and Bones is planned for the fall. “You have to try and find events that give viewers a reason to come to a show,” said Gary Newman, explaining that broadcast remains unique against the tide of streaming for its ability to “create a cultural event and a social event… You get that one big moment when you release a show on streaming, but you don’t get that ongoing cultural impact where people can spend 12 to 13 weeks making it something to look forward to… There’s an ability to connect deeply with an audience with airing shows week after week.”
Tags: