looks like someone at Fox Television has 2 brain cells

Dennis Toy · Post by **Dennis Toy** » 2005-01-18 12:53am

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u ... x_s_fall_2

LOS ANGELES - The sagging Fox network's chief executive admitted Monday it had leaned too heavily on reality programming this TV season, including the disastrous "Who's Your Daddy?"

Reuters Photo

Fox has been caught on the wrong side of audience taste in the past few months. Scripted series like ABC's Golden Globe-winning "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" are hot, while viewers seem to have little patience for new reality series.

There were others, but Fox's problems were symbolized by "Who's Your Daddy?," the Jan. 3 show where an adopted daughter picked her birth father out of eight strangers and won a $100,000 prize.

Adoption advocates were appalled; the public didn't seem to care. Only 6.3 million people watched, according to Nielsen Media Research. Five other "Who's Your Daddy" episodes already filmed will be shelved, Fox entertainment president Gail Berman said Monday.

At its best, Fox is a mix of scripted and unscripted, high-brow and low-brow. "The Simpsons" can comfortably co-exist with "COPS," she said.

"In the case of this fall we drifted to too much on the unscripted side," Berman said. "But I think the audience expects loud things from Fox. Sometimes they work ... and sometimes they don't."

Fox is averaging 5.9 million viewers in prime-time this season, down from 6.5 million at this point last year, Nielsen said. More importantly for the youth-obsessed Fox, it is solidly in fourth place among viewers aged 18-to-49. It finished last season second behind NBC in this demographic.

So worried is Fox about audience trends that Berman was lowering expectations for its most popular show, "American Idol," which debuts this week. She said she expected ratings to decline in its fourth season.

Fox loudly proclaimed an all-season strategy last year, promising to debut new series all year round, including summer. Viewers rejected that, too, but Berman isn't giving up.

"There's no question that the audience, in our mind, is ready, willing and able to accept new programming in the summer," she said.

Fox will tweak the strategy this year, debuting some new shows in May instead of June, she said.

One new series will be the animated "American Dad," which is given a sneak peek after the Super Bowl. It's from "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane, who is also making new episodes of that cartoon after the cancelled series became an unexpected hit on DVD. Both new shows launch May 1.

Fox also announced that "That '70s Show" has been renewed for an eighth season, even though series stars Topher Grace (news) and Ashton Kutcher aren't returning. Both stars will make occasional guest appearances, Berman said.

Well theres no liquid nitrogen accident on the capital beltway so hell aint frozen.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2005-01-18 01:03am

24 is about the only reason I bother tuning into Fox for anything but Simpsons reruns anymore.

Post by **Vympel** » 2005-01-18 01:25am

Fox= morons. They cancel everything remotely good in sight. I wish they'd go under.

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2005-01-18 01:54am

Ever since I got my Firefly DVD I've been showing it to people and everyone goes "WHY! WHY WAS IT CANCELLED?!"

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2005-01-18 02:04am

The better questions with regards to FOX programming would be why do they even bother airing some of the stuff they do?

It seems that they have someone with a little bit of pull that has at least some brains because they keep trying to put cool shows on, but it seems like there's someone else who absolutely hates those shows and does all they can to kill them. Most of the time I bet they already plan on them being replaced before they even air them.

It has to have been an absolute fluke that they were able to run so many seasons of the X-Files on that network.

Damn, if they'd even done a few seasons of some of the shows that FOX started and then canned it would probably be my favorite broadcast network by far. It's just insane what they've been doing.

I will say that all this reality tv crap fits with Fox News and News Corps better. It's just all garbage.

Marksist · Post by **Marksist** » 2005-01-18 03:40am

Fox= morons. They cancel everything remotely good in sight. I wish they'd go under.

Yeah I've really hated Fox after they fucked over Family Guy and Futurama. I was a huge fan of Family Guy when it came out, and I had to research when the damn show was going to come on, because they changed it so much, and never advertised it. They better not fuck with it this time around.

Crown · Post by **Crown** » 2005-01-18 03:47am

Anyone who didn't know Fox was run by a bunch of morons when they canceled S:AAB are a bit on the slow side.

Although I love this quote;

At its best, Fox is a mix of scripted and unscripted, high-brow and low-brow. "The Simpsons" can comfortably co-exist with "COPS," she said.

Pitty that the 'Low Brow' tends to massively and overwhelmingly outweigh the high-brow, no?

Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba · Post by **Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba** » 2005-01-18 06:59am

All I watch FOX for is Seinfeld and The Smipsons at 10:00 so I can cozily slide from Kids in the Hall to Family Guy at 11:00.

I mean, they cancel everything good, and milk what they don't cancel until it sucks.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2005-01-18 08:09am

say what you will about The Family Guy, but the new episode still only managed to give FOX a 4th place showing in it's timeslot. One or two million seething rabid fans who buy DVD's aren't enough to sustain a show.

Loner · Post by **Loner** » 2005-01-18 10:58am

Crown wrote:Anyone who didn't know Fox was run by a bunch of morons when they canceled S:AAB are a bit on the slow side.

Rumor has it that the show will released on DVD this year.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2005-01-18 11:39am

Loner wrote:
Crown wrote:Anyone who didn't know Fox was run by a bunch of morons when they canceled S:AAB are a bit on the slow side.
Rumor has it that the show will released on DVD this year.

For real? Too bad they won't be able to bring that one back after a good showing on DVD.

Crown · Post by **Crown** » 2005-01-18 12:20pm

Master of Ossus wrote:
Loner wrote:
Crown wrote:Anyone who didn't know Fox was run by a bunch of morons when they canceled S:AAB are a bit on the slow side.
Rumor has it that the show will released on DVD this year.
For real? Too bad they won't be able to bring that one back after a good showing on DVD.

Sweeeeeet! I hope it includes writer/director commentary. Morgan/Wong sound like two piss funny guys, should be great!

Loner · Post by **Loner** » 2005-01-18 12:34pm

Crown wrote:
Master of Ossus wrote:
Loner wrote: Rumor has it that the show will released on DVD this year.
For real? Too bad they won't be able to bring that one back after a good showing on DVD.
Sweeeeeet! I hope it includes writer/director commentary. Morgan/Wong sound like two piss funny guys, should be great!

I'm not sure, but here's the rumor:

11/17/04

Some quick 20th Century Fox news for you today. The studio has tentatively set Chris Carter's The Lone Gunmen: The Complete Series for release early in 2005. Also on the way for 2005 is Space Above and Beyond: The Complete Series (although the specific release timeframe has yet to be decided). Unfortunately, the Adam West camp classic Batman: The Complete Series is still up in the air for a variety of reasons (we suspect having to do with the fact that the rest of the Batman franchise rights are at Warner at the moment), but there's hope that it will be released eventually. And on the catalog film front, you'll be happy to learn that the long awaited Office Space: Special Edition is shaping up nicely and will include some very cool bonus material. Expect that in 2005 as well.

Stay tuned...

Digital Bits is reliable when it comes DVD rumors, so I'm sure it'll be out sometime this year.