Fox Chiefs Talk Reboots, ‘X-Files’ Future and Strains of Peak TV Era

The enormity of the TV series landscape these days has helped fuel Fox’s push 
into the past with reboots and revivals of familiar properties. But shows with built-in 
brand names still have to earn their way on to the schedule, Fox Television Group 
chief Dana Walden and Fox entertainment president David Madden emphasized 
Monday during the exec Q&A session of Fox’s Television Critics Association 
presentation.

“Reboots are not a guarantee of success — we certainly know that as well as 
anyone,” Walden said. “Our hope was that the well-known titles — if and only if well 
executed — would lighten the load on our marketing team (by) taking advantage of 
viewers’ awareness.”

Bowing on Fox in the 2016-17 season are new iterations of “24” and “Prison Break” 
and adaptations of movies “Lethal Weapon” and “The Exorcist.” The explosion of 
TV series options for viewers has made reboots more appealing, Walden said. but 
in other ways they face a higher bar in getting on the air. Walden said she was 
flat-out “skeptical” when she heard that “Lethal Weapon” was being shopped as a 
TV series. She had doubts that the action franchise could sustain as a series and 
she had even bigger doubts about the ability to cast worthy successors to the 
buddy cop characters played by Mel Gibson and Danny Glover.

After Damon Wayans and “Recify’s” Clayne Crawford were set in the lead roles, 
Walden said the pilot “leapt over the bar” to secure a prime spot on Fox’s fall launch 
schedule. Walden enthused that the series produced by McG and Warner Bros. 
TV delivers “drama, humor, heart and a level of action rarely seen on television.”

Madden also stressed that while the reboots command much of the spotlight, 
seven of Fox’s 11 new series are based on wholly original ideas.

“That clearly remains our predominant business,” Madden said. “As we are now 
starting with comedy and drama development, most of what we’ll be looking at will 
be original because that’s the nature of what we do.”

Among other topics touched on during the Q&A session and the post-panel 
discussions:

• Fox is hoping to do another batch of “The X-Files” episodes, after the show’s successful revival earlier this year, and is in discussions with stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson and creator Chris Carter. Walden said she hoped to have more than six episodes in the next go-round.
• Walden indicated that M. Night Shyamalan’s drama “Wayward Pines” is a contender for a third season renewal, despite its weaker ratings in season two. She said the director has pitched an intriguing idea for season three.
• Producer Mark Burnett has teamed with the online service Shazam to develop a “Name That Tune”-style music game show.