As 9-1-1 Moves From Fox to ABC This Fall, Are Lone Star Crossovers Kaput?
Future crossovers between 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lone Star are “extremely unlikely,” a Fox exec says — though not simply because the mothership is, a bit surprisingly, moving to ABC for Season 7.
Earlier this month, it was announced that 9-1-1‘s current sixth season would be its last on Fox, and that the procedural had been renewed for a Season 7 on ABC. Meanwhile, 9-1-1: Lone Star was renewed for a fifth season, staying put on Fox. (In a nutshell, since Fox hasn’t produced/owned the 9-1-1 shows for a couple of years, it decided to stop paying Disney to air the mothership.)
Ahead of Fox’s Monday afternoon Upfront presentation, TVLine asked Michael Thorn, President of Scripted Programming for Fox Entertainment, if 9-1-1 franchise fans had seen the last of the crossovers, which admittedly have been few to date.
“Crossovers have always been really hard because they’re such ambitious schedules,” Thorn acknowledged. “We weren’t able to do it every year when both shows were on our network anyway, so I would say it’s extremely unlikely” there will be others moving forward.
As for whether there is any “handshake agreement” between Fox and ABC to not air the 9-1-1s opposite each other (neither network has released a fall schedule yet), Thorn said, “Right now we’re really focused on our own schedule,” adding: “I can’t really speak to what ABC is going to do with 9-1-1, but rest assured we’re going to relaunch [Lone Star].”
Want scoop on any of the 9-1-1 shows? Email InsideLine@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line.
Great news, never liked them anyway.
It is a very surprising move. I was shocked. However, I prefer it continuing on another network. I find it really funny that FOX has issues with crossovers, but NBC has no issues doing them with Law & Order!
It’s because they put the 9-1-1 on hiatus for a portion of the season, and only schedule Lonestar the second half this season. So, no wonder they could not find time to figure it out. Even though you would if you have a spinoff, you would want to try to crossover your shows more often.
To be honest, all the Law & Orders were on NBC, which made crossovers happen very easily. At least until Criminal Intent moved to USA.
All the L&O shows are filmed in NYC and on a similar production schedule, which I believe makes that process easier. They also air back to back so it’s seamless for live viewers. It’s more frustrating for me as a Peacock viewer to have to go back and forth to make sure I’m watching the storyline in order, especially when I’m not aware a crossover will be occurring.
A journalist who is covering the upfronts just tweeted that a Fox exec (Rob Wade) also said that they actually made the decision to cancel 9-1-1 last year. I’d be interested in whether TPTB at 9-1-1 were aware of the cancellation at that time or if had less notice. These BTS moves intrigue me.
So ABC cancelled good shows to bring over this old show from Fox? Is that correct? And did they really renew Rookie Feds? Who watches that show?
Lots of us..they are both good shows ..
Can anybody explain why this change is happening?
See sentence #4.
Matt, have you done a primer of how the tv business works for those of us who are not intimately involved? I think the readers might find it helpful. We are seeing more and more shows canceled or moved because one networks airs it, but the production is owned/partially owned by a company owned by a competing network.
I assume this has always been the case, but consolidating in the industry and lower network ratings complicate the negotiations..
Simple explanation: If a network airs a show that is produced by a different company, the only money it makes is from the sale of commercial time, which does not cover the cost of production, especially for a show that runs upwards of $10 million an episode. All the revenue from syndication, streaming, DVDs, foreign sales, etc., goes to the producing studio. In other words, Fox gets bupkis from 9-1-1 after each episode airs, while Disney makes all the money. That might be a sound business model for anyone named Trump, but not people with an ounce of common sense. Since Disney owns ABC, it makes sense for them to take over 9-1-1, so they’ll take in 100% of the revenues. And I wouldn’t be surprised if “Lone Star” ends up there eventually as well.
I would imagine that Fox does pocket some ad revenue from cable and satellite on demand as well as streaming of the most recent episodes on the Fox website, but that’s probably nothing compared earnings from streaming on Hulu, of which Disney owns two-thirds (and should have 100 percent after the planned buyout of Comcast’s Hulu share).
Tell me you have Trump derangement syndrome without telling me you have TDS…. you have to bring President Trump into a conversation that has absolutely nothing to do with politics in any way shape or form
Actually, it does. Trump and his fellow ogres believe that “socialism” is any help provided to citizens that is funded by their taxes–including the fire department, the police department and–oh, yeah–the FBI.
To clarify, the production company is on the hook for the production costs beyond the fee it gets from the network, so it needs the other revenue in order to break even and potentially turn a profit.
From the network’s perspective, when buying content from other production studios, it limits its risk to the fee it pays, while also limiting the upside to just the commercial time sold (and whatever value it places on showing its own promos during the show’s slot).
It’s not like they did that many crossovers anyway. I’m just glad both shows are still on. Doesn’t matter to me which network.
They said the same thing about Buffy and Angel at first, and then they still were able to mention each other’s characters and Angel appeared in the Buffy series finale … so, maybe there’s hope!
With reference to The WB and UPN airing both shows.