It’s an upfronts miracle: Fox and 20th Television have closed Season 6 renewals of 9-1-1 and The Resident for the 2022-23 season.
I hear the negotiations were completed shortly before the Fox upfront presentation’s 4 p.m. ET start. The two shows, both in their fifth seasons, were featured briefly in the presentation’s opening montage, but the previously renewed 9-1-1: Lone Star was mentioned in the opening remarks by Fox head of sales Marianne Gambelli. There were no specific reference to 9-1-1 and The Resident since the Fox presentation had been pre-taped, so no last-minute tweaks were possible.
More from Deadline
As Deadline had been reporting over the weekend, renewal negotiations on both shows went down to the wire and could not close by Sunday night for 9-1-1 and The Resident to be included in Fox’s 2022-23 content slate release sent out Monday morning.
From what I’ve heard, the two sides were not that far apart by Sunday night, and both made concessions in order for Fox to have its highest-rated scripted series 9-1-1 and fellow formidable drama The Resident in their upfront lineup.
Cancellations/Renewals Scorecard: TV Shows Ended Or Continuing In 2021-22 Season
It was a likely case of Fox focusing its attention on the tough decisions involving bubble shows, and the ones that were no-brainers ended up taking longer in the final stretch. Renewal negotiations are more complicated now that Fox and 9-1-1 and The Resident studio 20th Television are no longer part of the same company following the studio’s acquisition by Disney. That makes the financials — already challenging for long-running shows such as 9-1-1 and The Resident — even more complicated. The Season 4 renewal of the younger 9-1-1: Lone Star was able to close before Monday.
“We are in good-faith negotiations [on 9-1-1 and The Resident],” Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier said on Fox’s upfront call Monday morning. “Based on the long history with 20th Television, I think we are in pretty good shape. We adore [co-creator/EP] Ryan [Murphy] and are so pleased that Lone Star ls locked and loaded.”
As we reported, Fox also is in renewal talks with 20th TV for the studio’s contingent of animated Fox veterans The Simpsons, Family Guy and Bob’s Burgers. Because animated series are on a different timeline, those renewals are not as pressing as the network has new episodes of all three for next season.
9-1-1 and The Resident are Fox’s highest-rated series on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. 9-1-1 follows the busy lives of Los Angeles-based first responders: police officers, paramedics, firefighters and dispatchers. It stars Angela Bassett, Peter Krause, Oliver Stark, Ryan Guzman, Aisha Hinds, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Kenneth Choi, among others. The show’s Season 5 finale is set to air tonight.
Created by Amy Holden Jones, Hayley Schore and Roshan Sethi, The Resident is a medical drama following the lives of the doctors and nurses at the fictional Chastain Park Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. The cast includes Matt Czuchry, Manish Dayal, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Bruce Greenwood, Jane Leeves and Jessica Lucas.
The series faced challenges going into Season 5 on the heels of multiple cast-member departures including longtime series stars Emily VanCamp and Shaunette Renée Wilson, as well as Morris Chestnut, who joined the show in Season 3 — but ratings remained steady.
The drama’s May 17 finale should get a nice boost in viewership with the temporary return of VanCamp’s character Nic Nevin via flashbacks to help the series end strong. She returns just as her widower Conrad (Czuchry) is needing help moving on with his life romantically.
Rosy Cordero contributed to this report.
Best of Deadline
Sign up for Deadline’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
