How Fox Plans to Continue Its 18-49 Win Streak This Season

The new TV season is less than two weeks away, and Fox will be gunning for its third consecutive season win in the adults 18-49 demographic most coveted by advertisers. But in order to do that, the network will also need to try to stop the migration of viewers from linear to streaming, which accelerated during the pandemic (almost all broadcasters weathered double-digit drops in the 18-49 demo and total viewers last season). However, Michael Thorn, president of entertainment, Fox Entertainment, said his network is “well positioned” to thrive this season and recapture the 18-49 crown, thanks to its mix of sports and using “some of the biggest shows or brands across all of television” to launch a trio of new series this fall: dramas The Big Leap and Our Kind of People, and avatar singing competition series Alter Ego. As Fox held its Television Critics Association’s summer press tour presentation today, Thorn spoke with Adweek about Fox’s fall lineup, how the network will leverage Call Me Kat star Mayim Bialik’s new Jeopardy! job and how Covid-19 has permanently changed its business. (The interview has been condensed and edited.) Adweek: After last fall’s piecemeal schedule during the pandemic, you’re back with a more of a normal lineup this fall, premiering almost everything the first week of the new season. What is like to enter the season with more of a sense of normalcy than last year?Michael Thorn: We believe we have an incredible strong schedule with some really unique returning assets—whether it be 9-1-1, The Masked Singer and The Resident—where we’re going to use our successful shows, no secret, to launch our new series. And really capitalize on the sports, including the NFL and the World Series, to help launch and sustain our new shows. We feel like we're pretty well positioned, and where we're looking at some of the traditional levers on Fox to hopefully win another season. Fox Will Debut Almost Its Entire Fall Lineup the Week of September 20 What stands out about your new scripted fall shows?With The Big Leap and Our Kind of People, we've been waiting to get these shows on the air for almost two years now. And I can't wait to premiere them. Both series are very unique. We feel like they're perfectly timed for today, with The Big Leap being this aspirational show about second chances, and a group of ordinary people who are getting another [chance] to start over and rediscover themselves, which I think is something everyone wants right now. Our Kind of People is, on one hand, a show about a very complicated family, from the point of view of this really strong, young woman who shows up at the Oaks Bluff to claim her fortune. But at the same time, it looks at Black excellence and some other themes in a way you've never seen before. And both signature soaps feel distinct to Fox. Fox is very selective about what you premiere in the fall, because three nights of your schedule are devoted to sports. But this fall you have three new shows, more than usual for you. Why did you decide to do that, instead of saving them for midseason?When you look at the foundation of our returning schedule, those are some of the biggest shows or brands across all of television. And so we felt like we had the opportunity, because of the success of those shows, to launch three new ones, and use the lead-ins, as well as well as sports, to help us achieve those goals. And we think we can pull it off. You're right, we typically look to capitalize on on our midseason shows. We've had real success launching Call Me Kat last season, as the No. 1 new comedy, and we have high hopes for Monarch, our country music drama, which we're putting behind the NFC Championship [in January. And with [new drama] Cleaning Lady behind 9-1-1: Lone Star, we're looking to capitalize on our previous midseason success, but also, again, using some of our most established shows to help strengthen the launches of our new shows. Speaking of Call Me Kat, when you renewed that show—which seemed like a bubble show at the time—you probably had no idea how much we would all be talking about Mayim Bialik in the coming months thanks to her new Jeopardy! job. Has that buzz made you rethink how you’ll deploy that show in midseason?First of all, Mayim is a beloved TV star and even before her current role in Jeopardy last season, she has an audience that galvanizes around her and connects to her in a really special way. She's an incredible talent. And Kat wasn't a bubble show for us. Kat was kind of a no-brainer, given the ratings it was doing relative to other comedies, and we really look at it as a success story that we believe we can grow. Do we hope that the topicality and focus on Jeopardy and her involvement in it can help create a discussion around her and Call Me Kat? Absolutely. But she has a day job, too, so you have to juxtapose the schedules to see if they can both work. We're generally very supportive of our talent, doing more than one thing, as long as it doesn't interfere with their shows. Usually when you’re approaching a new fall season, you’re trying to get people to watch our new shows. This year, you have the additional challenge of trying to reverse the viewing patterns that developed during the pandemic and get people back to linear.Our feeling is right now, the audience is craving really inspired new series. And that's probably another one of the reasons why we're launching three shows in the fall between Alter Ego and Big Leap and Our Kind of People, where we think we have really compelling programming. And want to take advantage of the fact that there’s strong creative, and we want to get it out to the marketplace. But you're right in pointing out that reaching an audience in this climate is challenging. So we've started some big marketing campaigns for these shows. You will start to see, some unique marketing ideas from [recently-promoted Fox Entertainment marketing chief] Darren Schillace and his marketing team. And we're going to use every lever in our arsenal, from sports, to our symbiotic relationship with Tubi, where we're going to just really make sure that these series have an opportunity to be checked out by the audience. I just think there's an opportunity for good shows to break out, period. What have you learned from navigating the last season during the pandemic that may have permanently changed the way you do business?On the scripted side, there's no “one size fits all” to the development process anymore, where it used to be script to pilot to series. We now sometimes shoot pilots, sometimes we go from script to series or a writers room to series. We're experimenting with cost effective models like Fantasy Island this summer. If there was a silver lining to this terrible pandemic, it was it gave us the benefit of time to step back and look at how do we do things differently. And process is absolutely one of them. The other thing is, on our animation business, we realized we could just keep going with little to no impact on it. And we have looked to our animation business to see, what are we doing there that we can incorporate into our other businesses and learn from that? So the biggest takeaway is reevaluating process, and looking for more efficient ways to get at better creative. Our Kind of People, for example, is one of our first script to series attempts. Monarch will be our second, and so we'll see what we learn from those processes and how we apply it going forward. Is there anything else you’re excited about as the new season approaches?I'm very excited about [animated series] The Great North returning. Oftentimes the linear numbers for animation aren't as big as live action or unscripted—even though the delayed viewing numbers on a show like Great North are extraordinary—but animation is a long game. It takes time to build a passionate audience. Bob’s Burgers, which has been around 10 years, is a newbie compared to The Simpsons and Family Guy. The second season is excellent, and I'm really excited to get more eyeballs on it and see how we can grow that show over time—because I think there's something really special there.

TCA Press Tour

How Fox Plans to Continue Its 18-49 Win Streak This Season, Despite Linear Ratings Drops

Entertainment chief Michael Thorn on fall strategy and the ways Covid-19 has permanently changed the business

Jason Lynch

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Jason Lynch