Fox Pulls Back From Live-Action Comedies, Seeks Viable Business Model
Fox is down to one live-action comedy series next season, Animal Control, starring Joel McHale, after cancelling sophomore Going Dutch.
While a couple of half-hour projects, including Mammoth, Thunderjacks and King Gary, had been heating up at the network over the past few of weeks, Fox Entertainment CEO Rob Wade and Fox Television Network President Michael Thorn indicated that they are hitting pause on live-action comedy greenlights until they come up with a business model that works for a linear network.
A couple of years ago, Fox established a $3 million-$4 million per episode range for drama series as it was adjusting to its status as an independent broadcast network following Disney’s acquisition of Fox assets, including studio 20th Television.
Recently, I’ve been hearing chatter that Fox has been floating a $1.6M per episode price tag for live-action comedies.
According to sources, the network has not yet settled on a number as the process of hammering out a financial framework is ongoing. And it likely won’t be one license fee but multiple tiers as is the case with dramas.
While $3M-$4M remains Fox’s sweet spot with shows such as Doc and Best Medicine, the network also employs the lower-cost international co-production model for shows such as Murder In a Small Town, which comes in at under $1M an episode. There is also a premium tier of dramas like Memory of a Killer and Baywatch that coast more than $4M an episode.
“One of the things that Rob and I have spent a lot of time on is taking a look at, how do you do the best creative in the best model that’s built for linear today?,” Thorn said on an upfront call Sunday ahead of Fox’s Monday presentation. “And candidly, we’ve spent a lot of time on both drama and unscripted, and I wouldn’t say we can spike the ball on either, but we’ve really evolved those production models forward in a way that sets us up for success, and now we’re taking a step back, and we’re doing the same thing on live-action comedy.”
While Fox brass are brainstorming feasible business model ideas, the network’s lone live-action comedy Animal Control, which is owned by Fox, is joining the Sunday animation block for its upcoming fifth season.
“We believe in the genre, you’ll see more from us in the future, but right now, our first priority is cementing Animal Control status as a hit show, while we look at what’s our next move in the live-action space,” Thorn said.
Wade echoed his comments.
“We’re confident that we will be seeing more comedy on the network in the future, and I think this just gives us an opportunity to pause and, as Michael says, really dig into that business model and work out how we can make it effective in the long term,” he said.
New live-action comedy series orders are expected as early as June.
In the meanwhile, Fox is leaning into comedic content beyond the traditional scripted comedy space, with comedic dramas such as Best Medicine, starring Josh Charles, and comedic game shows such as the upcoming Nation’s Dumbest. The network employs comedians as hosts of many of its game shows, including McHale (The 1% Club), Ken Jeong (99 To Beat), Jay Pharoah (The Quiz with Balls) and Jane Lynch (Celebrity Weakest Link).
