FX at TCA: Executive Session Live-Blog

It’s time for the FX’ turn at the Television Critics Association press tour!

Follow along to hear what John Landgraf, CEO, FX Networks & FX Productions, has to say…

9:24 AM: Landgraf says FXX is performing ahead of where they thought it would be at this point.

9:25 AM: “Whenever Tracy [Morgan] decides he’s ready to come back, we’ll be ready to get going,” Landgraf says of having to postpone their show with Morgan due to his recent accident.

Landgraf says the past six months have been the best in the network’s history.

9:27 AM: Landgraf says the JUSTIFIED final season should be a “fitting” end to the series.

9:29 AM: Re: TYRANT, it has had “excellent audience response and feedback…we like what we’ve seen very much.” And for safety reasons, they’ve moved the show’s production to Turkey. No decision yet on a season 2.

9:31 AM: Landgraf says they feel “bullish” about their two new comedies, YOU’RE THE WORST and MARRIED. He points out none of their comedies exploded originally out of the gate, and often debuted to mixed reviews.

9:33 AM: Kurt Sutter is working on a new FX series set in “early 1300s.”

9:35 AM: With FARGO getting the official renewal today, Landgraf says the earliest it would be on TV is “a year from this fall.”

9:37 AM: “The characters are really original…some of them really strange,” Landgraf says of AHS: FREAK SHOW. He says it falls somewhere on the spectrum between ASYLUM and COVEN.

9:38 AM: Landgraf says there will be new actors on FARGO, not only new characters. The situation of the repeating actors works for AHS, but “FARGO demands a different level of realism,” Landgraf says.

9:40 AM: “I miss trends…I miss things sometimes,” Landgraf admits. Zombies were a “sub-genre of a sub-genre” he says, pointing out only WORLD WAR Z has made over $100 million domestically. He had concerns horror shows wouldn’t allow for character drama. He says there are too many vampire shows out there, but the vamp shows have been romanticized — in THE STRAIN, they’re gross, and the show is different enough that it could work.

9:44 AM: They don’t know for sure, but they are hoping to return to Calgary for FARGO’s second season.

9:46 AM: Landgraf says FX always wanted to emulate the Showtimes and HBOs of the world, versus other basic cable stations. In recent years, there has been such an explosion of original programming that it makes it hard to find your own ground.

9:48 AM: “I’m still getting profit checks from [RENO 911],” Landgraf says of his time as a producer. He says it makes all the difference when the creative team feels like the executives are behind them, supporting the show.

9:50 AM: “What we loved about Kamau [Bell] is he had a point of view about the future of this country,” Landgraf says of the canceled show. “He built a show around everybody’s point of view…we took a shot with it. I think the show wasn’t quite good enough yet. It was brilliant sometimes, but what hard about that format is you have to be consistently excellent.”

9:54 AM: “I think we will do hour[-long] shows on FXX,” Landgraf says. He thinks it’ll be a while before FX and FXX shake out. He says as they get better reach, things will become more clear.

9:57 AM: “I think we really needed Billy Bob Thorton,” Landgraf says of FARGO. He points out since Thorton worked with the Coen brothers, it added an extra seal of approval. As for season 2, “it would be nice to have a movie star, but it’s not really necessary.”