Fox at TCA: Live-Blog

Fox Co-Chairmen Dana Walden and Gary Newman are holding an executive session to kick of their network’s TCA day at 10 AM PT, and odds are good they’ll be talking about some of the recent high-profile cancellations and pick-ups.

Follow along for our live-blog of what goes down…

10:00: We’re starting with a sizzle reel. Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of sports.

10:04: Walden, in her opening remarks, says they won’t be claiming business as usual this go-round; however, they don’t know what’s going to happen with the companies and its various management pieces yet.

10:06: One of the perks of the “New Fox”? Indie studios (AKA studios not tied to a particular network) will have a potential home in the network.

10:08: There are two 24 takes in the work—one is the reported potential Jack Bauer prequel, and the other is an entirely new story set in the legal arena.

10:09: Fox has ordered THE MASKED SINGER.

10:11: “Matt Miller started developing that character,” Newman says of the LETHAL WEAPON new character played by Seann William Scott. “It was very much informed by the actor he was able to get.”

LETHAL WEAPON was also nearly canceled…it took Scott’s casting for it to get its renewal.

10:12: “We’ve left it up to them,” Walden says of THE SIMPSONS handling of Apu. “They’ve treated the show and the characters on the show with such respect…ultimately we decided it was their decision.”

10:14: We very much liked Brian D’Arcy James. “Kelsey Grammer became available and expressed interest in the show,” Newman says of recasting PROVEN INNOCENT. They’re potentially looking to move James into another role on the series.

10:15: Connie Britton was always scheduled to be a one-season arc on 9-1-1. If she wants to come back, they’re welcome her.

10:17: “We had a great time working with that cast and executive producers on that show…[but] we couldn’t justify the economics,” Walden says of LUCIFER. She says they weren’t surprised by the response on social media, but they had discussed things thoroughly before they canceled it.

10:18: “Ever since the show went off the air, we’ve talked about how do you reimagine 24,” Newman says. The prequel, “people love Jack Bauer. You would tell a story that the audience would connect with. How did that character become who he was?”

“Moving that idea from terrorism into the legal world, is something that happened as far back as maybe season 3 or 4 [of the original],” he continues. That particular spinoff would take place as the legal team was trying to stop an execution.

10:21: Walden says that despite the outside conflict, it’s pretty easy to focus on the work—they’re looking ahead at what is coming up and prioritizing.

10:24: Despite the extensive amount of sports on their lineup, they’re “launching shows all season long” so there’s opportunities all year to put in scripted programming.

10:27: “There are no plans for them to go anywhere other than Fox,” Walden says of THE SIMPSONS. There are a couple of years of episodes in progress, she says. There’s “upside” to having the show on the network…”there’s no consideration of not having” the show on the network. Newman echoed he anticipated keeping the show on Fox.

10:31: “There are a lot of reasons” to keep a show alive, especially if there is prestige associated with a show.

10:32: “Right now, the producers’ plans are to simply not address if he might be a Trump supporter,” Newman says of Tim Allen’s LAST MAN STANDING character.

10:34: “It was less an agenda to go to multi-cam,” Newman says. They had a desire to bring back LMS, and they thought it was canceled too soon. “It happened pretty organically than a move [where] we wanted to replace all of our comedies.”

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