Michael Thorn, the president of Fox TV, says that both the WGA and SAG-SAFTRA strikes need to be resolved by the end of this month or else, popular TV series like 9-1-1: Lone Star and The Cleaning Lady won’t be renewed.
Thorn told Deadline in an interview, “You’re going get to a point in the fall, in the late fall, where it’s going to be very hard to launch within the traditional TV viewing season. If the strikes aren’t resolved before October 1, that’s when challenging scheduling choices will need to be considered.”
He continues, “If that means the [delayed scripted] show could work and succeed in the summer [of 2024], great, or If it’s better to wait for the fall and use football and sports to promote/launch scripted seasons, we’ll do that.”
“You could use October 1 as the date by which the writer and actor strikes need to be settled,” Thorn added. “Every show is different but sometimes when you’re staring at a May launch date, you always wonder, ‘Is that the best time?’” to premiere a season/series.
29 days ago, the Writers Guild (WGA) had responded to the latest offer from the AMPTP, but there hasn’t been a new meeting scheduled since then. Progress is even slower with SAG-AFTRA. Sources have informed TVLine that it will take around eight weeks for scripted shows to resume production once the strikes are resolved.
In Fox TV’s fall lineup, there’s a whole evening dedicated to animated shows on Sundays. The rest of the week is filled with various cooking competitions hosted by Gordon Ramsay, new seasons of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, Name That Tune, and The Masked Singer, reruns of 9-1-1: Lone Star, the new Snake Oil game show hosted by David Spade, and the well-known Friday Night SmackDown.
The show 9-1-1: Lone Star is ready to hit your screens once again on FOX TV from January 18, 2023.
