{"id":422353,"date":"2026-05-11T14:15:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T14:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/422353\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T14:15:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T14:15:14","slug":"fox-pulls-back-from-live-action-comedies-seeks-viable-business-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/422353\/","title":{"rendered":"Fox Pulls Back From Live-Action Comedies, Seeks Viable Business Model"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFox<\/a> is down to one live-action comedy series next season, Animal Control<\/a>, starring Joel McHale, after cancelling sophomore<\/a> Going Dutch. <\/p>\n

\n\tWhile a couple of half-hour projects, including Mammoth, Thunderjacks, King Gary and an Andrea Savage show, had been heating up at the network over the past few of weeks, Fox Entertainment CEO Rob Wade<\/a> and Fox Television Network President Michael Thorn<\/a> indicated that they are hitting pause on live-action comedy greenlights until they come up with a business model that works for a linear network.<\/p>\n

\n\tA couple of years ago, Fox established a $3 million-$4 million per episode range for drama series as it was adjusting to its status as an independent broadcast network following Disney\u2019s acquisition of Fox assets, including studio 20th Television.<\/p>\n

\n\tRecently, I\u2019ve been hearing chatter that Fox has been floating a $1.6M per episode price tag for live-action comedies. <\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to sources, the network has not yet settled on a number as the process of hammering out a financial framework is ongoing. And it likely won\u2019t be one license fee but multiple tiers as is the case with dramas. <\/p>\n

\n\tWhile $3M-$4M remains Fox\u2019s sweet spot with shows such as Doc and Best Medicine, the network also employs the lower-cost international co-production model for shows such as Murder In a Small Town, which comes in at under $1M an episode. There is also a premium tier of dramas like Memory of a Killer and Baywatch that coast more than $4M an episode.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOne of the things that Rob and I have spent a lot of time on is taking a look at, how do you do the best creative in the best model that\u2019s built for linear today?,\u201d Thorn said on an upfront call Sunday ahead of Fox\u2019s Monday presentation. \u201cAnd candidly, we\u2019ve spent a lot of time on both drama and unscripted, and I wouldn\u2019t say we can spike the ball on either, but we\u2019ve really evolved those production models forward in a way that sets us up for success, and now we\u2019re taking a step back, and we\u2019re doing the same thing on live-action comedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Fox brass are brainstorming feasible business model ideas, the network\u2019s lone live-action comedy Animal Control, which is owned by Fox, is joining the Sunday animation block<\/a> for its upcoming fifth season.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe believe in the genre, you\u2019ll see more from us in the future, but right now, our first priority is cementing Animal Control status as a hit show, while we look at what\u2019s our next move in the live-action space,\u201d Thorn said.<\/p>\n

\n\tWade echoed his comments.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re confident that we will be seeing more comedy on the network in the future, and I think this just gives us an opportunity to pause and, as Michael says, really dig into that business model and work out how we can make it effective in the long term,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\tNew live-action comedy series orders are expected as early as June. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn the meanwhile, Fox is leaning into comedic content beyond the traditional scripted comedy space, with comedic dramas such as Best Medicine, starring Josh Charles, and comedic game shows such as the upcoming Nation\u2019s Dumbest. The network employs comedians as hosts of many of its game shows, including McHale (The 1% Club), Ken Jeong (99 To Beat), Jay Pharoah (The Quiz with Balls) and Jane Lynch (Celebrity Weakest Link). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fox is down to one live-action comedy series next season, Animal Control, starring Joel McHale, after cancelling sophomore…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[108200,156,4131,35991,111,139,69,216839,437],"class_list":["post-422353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-animal-control","tag-entertainment","tag-fox","tag-michael-thorn","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rob-wade","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}