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With American Idol into its last season, Fox TV Group Chiefs Dana Walden and Gary Newman are focusing on primetime development, spending some 30% more on new series for next season, the duo said during Fox’s session at Winter TCA in Pasadena, Calif., on Friday.
That perhaps explains why Fox is loading up on reboots, with 24: Legacy and Prison Break both on the docket, even before its eight new episodes of X-Files premieres on Jan. 24.
The new version of 24 will feature an all-new cast of characters — read: not Kiefer Sutherland — and focus on “a military hero’s return to the U.S. and the trouble that follows him back, compelling him to ask CTU for help in saving his life and stopping what potentially could be one of the largest-scale terror attacks on American soil,” according to the network.
Howard Gordon (Homeland, 24), Manny Coto (24) and Evan Katz (24) will serve as executive producers. The project will be produced by 20th Century Fox Television, Imagine Television and Gordon’s Teakwood Lane Productions.
Fox also is bringing back Prison Break as an event series, starring Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell reprising their original roles as brothers Michael Scofield and Lincoln Burrows. The original producing team of series creator Paul T. Scheuring (Zero Hour), Neal Moritz (The Fast and the Furious franchise), Marty Adelstein (Aquarius, Last Man Standing) and Dawn Olmstead (The Whispers, Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce) will return to executive produce the new series, with Scheuring serving as showrunner/writer.
Prison Break last aired on the network in 2005.
Walden and Newman also announced the non-surprise that Empire is renewed for season three, while Scream Queens is renewed for season two, when it will leave its plush sorority house setting in favor of a hospital.
“This young and upscale audience is watching the show on their own terms,” Newman said, reported B&C. Fox data shows that 30% of Scream Queens’ viewers watch live, 26% via DVR and the remaining 44% on VOD as well as ad-supported streaming platforms such as Hulu and Fox Now. Roughly 62% of viewing occurs outside the same-day period.
That said, “monetizing non-Nielsen rated viewing remains a challenge. Advertisers, understandably, want a reliable currency and we’re working on that,” said Newman.
Like NBC, Fox is turning to live television events to draw viewers, with live musical Grease to air on Jan. 31, and The Passion coming on Palm Sunday, March 20. Country star Trisha Yearwood will star as Mary in The Passion, the story of Jesus Christ’s betrayal, crucifixion and resurrection, which will take place in the modern-day and air live from New Orleans. Fox also announced that Tim Curry, the original star of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, is joining Fox’s live broadcast of that show in the role of the criminologist/narrator. Fox will air Rocky Horror this fall, likely in the Halloween timeframe.
While it’s looking for new primetime fare, Fox may not be able to afford to let go of veteran shows with ratings track records, but season 11 still may be Bones’ last. The series’ stars and producers are currently involved in a lawsuit with studio Twentieth Century Fox TV over profits, but the lawsuit has “no impact, really, on our decision,” said Walden, according to THR.
The future of some younger shows — Sleepy Hollow, now in season three, and rookies Grandfathered and The Grinder — also don’t seem to be assured, reports Variety.
Meanwhile, American Idol host Ryan Seacrest and the show’s judges don’t seem quite ready to let it go.
Said Seacrest: “The numbers look great this season, they look really good, and I think we’re all pleased that people are watching and some people are coming back to watch … Does that mean it’s the end? I’m not so sure.”
Read more: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter
[Images courtesy of Fox]
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