Fox announced its lineup of series for the 2022-23 season Monday morning — one that’s missing two anchors of the network’s schedule for the past several years.
As of publication time, Fox had not yet worked out renewal deals for 911 and The Resident, which rank first and fifth in total viewers (excluding sports) on the network this season. Both shows are set to close out their fifth seasons this week.
More from The Hollywood Reporter
Negotiations to bring both series back are ongoing, but they may not be wrapped up by the time Fox presents its slate to advertisers Monday afternoon. In addition to leading the network in total viewers this season, 911 is also Fox’s top-rated series in the key ad demographic of adults 18-49.
Without 911 and The Resident, Fox would have holes to fill leading off its Monday and Tuesday nights. That’s in addition to the vacancy created by Thursday Night Football moving from the network to Amazon’s Prime Video in the fall.
The Resident and 911 are both produced by Disney’s 20th Television — aka the former 20th Century Fox TV, which was Fox’s sister studio prior to the blockbuster $71.3 billion deal that closed in 2019 and saw the studio and News Corp’s cable entertainment assets go to Disney. The network did renew 911 spinoff 911: Lone Star for 2022-23.
“We’re in good faith negotiations with 20th, and based on our long history with that company, we think we’re in pretty good shape,” Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier told reporters Monday morning. “We adore [911 executive producer] Ryan [Murphy], and we’re so pleased to have 911: Lone Star locked and loaded. We’re in good faith negotiations, and we feel good about it.”
Fox also took the unusual step of not releasing a fall schedule Monday morning, opting instead to highlight its overall slate rather than specific time periods. Instead, the network announced a slate of series that includes several renewals and series orders across genres.
“We had planned not to come out with a schedule,” Collier said. Fox will highlight its cross-platform programming, including its ad-supported streaming service Tubi, at Monday’s presentation, and “we thought focusing on the linear grid was not the way to go,” Collier said.
The lack of a schedule means advertisers and viewers will have to wait to see how Fox fills the NFL hole on Thursday and just which series are set for fall debuts and which will be held for later in the season.
Fox has also picked up The Masked Singer for an eighth season, along with comedies Call Me Kat and Welcome to Flatch and the cooking competition Crime Scene Kitchen. They join the previously renewed Next Level Chef, Hell’s Kitchen and The Cleaning Lady, as well as the network’s animated series Bob’s Burgers, Family Guy, The Great North, Housebroken and The Simpsons. The second season premiere of Next Level Chef will get the prime post-Super Bowl slot on Feb. 12, 2023.
The network will also add three dramas, with missing-persons series Alert — which counts Jamie Foxx as an executive producer — joining the previously announced courtroom anthology Accused and country music drama Monarch (which had its premiere date pushed back from January to the 2022-23 season). Animated series Grimsburg and Krapopolis, which Fox ordered to series in 2021, will also join the slate next season, as will Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars, the latest collaboration between Fox and the celebrity chef.
Additionally, Fox will move Fantasy Island and Lego Masters from planned summer berths to in-season premieres. A celebrity holiday edition of Lego Masters, subtitled Holiday Bricktacular, is set to run over four nights in late fall.
Several unscripted series that aired this season are still awaiting word on their fates. Fox has not yet made decisions on Alter Ego, I Can See Your Voice, Domino Masters, The Real Dirty Dancing and its Joe Millionaire revival.
Best of The Hollywood Reporter
