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By Suzanne

Interview with FOX Executives 5/11/15

It was fun to hear about all of the upcoming shows. Last year I was in a similar call with ABC executives. Unfortunately, there were so many people on this one, that they ran out of time, so I didn't get a chance to ask a question. Too bad! I wanted to ask why they are only doing 6 episodes of "X-Files."

Final Transcript
FBC PUBLICITY: FOX 2015 Programming Presentation
May 11, 2015/9:00 a.m. EDT

SPEAKERS
Gary Newman: Chairman and CEO, Fox Television Group
Dana Walden: Chairman and CEO, Fox Television Group
Joe Earley: COO, Fox Television Group
Toby Byrne: President, Advertising Sales, Fox Networks Group
David Madden: President, Entertainment, FOX
Dan Harrison: EVP, Strategic Program Planning, FOX
Shannon Ryan: EVP, Marketing & Communications, FOX

PRESENTATION

Moderator: Welcome to the FOX Publicity FOX 2015 Programming Presentation Conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session, and instructions will be given at that time. As a reminder, today’s conference is being recorded and I would now like to turn the conference over to our first speaker, Ms. Shannon Ryan. Please go ahead.

Shannon: Thank you, Brad. Good morning, everyone. Thanks so much for joining us this morning. We’re here to review our new slate and schedule, but before we get started, I just want to remind everyone that you can download today’s press release along with show descriptions, photos, ratings, and other helpful information from our press site at foxflash.com. On FoxFlash, after today’s upfront presentation, we’ll also be posting video clips from the new series that Dana and Gary unveil this afternoon. I know that many people are still dialing in, so I’ll begin with just a few key highlights from the season.

We came out of the season with the No. 1 series on broadcast television, EMPIRE, which unseated “The Big Bang Theory.” It was also the season’s No. 1 show on social media, outperforming “The Walking Dead” and “Scandal.”

We also launched two solid new hits in GOTHAM and THE LAST MAN ON EARTH. GOTHAM emerged as the season’s highest-rated new drama with men, behind only EMPIRE, and THE LAST MAN ON EARTH is the season’s No. 1 new comedy with Adults 18 to 34 and Men 18 to 49. Both of these shows performed well in the traditional ratings, and also got huge lifts for multiplatform viewing - more than 100% for GOTHAM and 200% for THE LAST MAN ON EARTH. We’re also happy to report that BROOKLYN NINE-NINE was one of only two sophomore comedies to grow year-over-year this season and MASTERCHEF JUNIOR emerged as the only unscripted show on broadcast to post gains this year.

We continue to connect with those hard-to-reach young demos. Our median age remains the youngest at the big four and is a full decade younger than CBS.

Hopefully, by now, everyone’s logged onto the call and has the release. So, let’s get to it.

Today to talk a little bit about next season and answer your questions, we have with us the Chairmen and CEOs of Fox Television Group, Gary Newman and Dana Walden; Fox Television Group’s COO, Joe Earley; Fox Networks Group’s President of Advertising Sales, Toby Byrne; FOX President of Entertainment, David Madden, and FOX EVP of Strategic Program Planning, Dan Harrison. So now, I’m going to turn it over to Dana and Gary.

Gary: Thanks, Shannon. Hello, everyone. We’re so glad you could join us this morning, and a special thanks to those of you on the West Coast who woke up extra early for the call.

As Shannon noted, we celebrated a number of wins this seasons with the new series GOTHAM, THE LAST MAN ON EARTH and EMPIRE, and we’re really excited to build off that strength with nine new series, as well as big event specials, including the return of THE X-FILES. Each one represents the bold programming that is part of FOX’s DNA.

You’ll see in our release that we’re supporting all of our new and returning shows with very strategic scheduling. Contemporary viewers have a lot of choices and the erratic scheduling and repeats of the past just don’t work anymore. Many of our shows this season will have two installments of virtually uninterrupted runs of originals: Part One in the fall, leading to a big cliffhanger; and then Part Two in the spring. This will give more consistency for our viewers and create built-in events for our series twice a year. Bold programming, strategic scheduling and breakthrough marketing, these are the things that FOX does best and they’re guiding our strategy for next season.

Dana: Hi, everyone. It’s Dana. I’m going to talk to you about the fall. We’re kicking off Premiere Week on Sunday, Sept. 20, with the biggest TV event of the fall, the Emmys. It’s going to be hosted, as you know, by our very own Andy Samberg. Andy’s talented, funny, and he’s going to bring a fresh, young energy to the show. Then, on Mondays, we’ll have GOTHAM, which was our big fall drama tentpole, and we’re going to use it at 8:00, leaving it in its time period from last season, to platform our new futuristic crime drama, MINORITY REPORT, at 9:00.

MINORITY REPORT is based on Steven Spielberg’s film from 2002. It centers around our hero “Dash,” who can see murders before they’re committed. He secretly teams up with a detective and together, they’re going to try and prevent the horrible crimes that he sees.

GOTHAM and MINORITY REPORT both share very muscular DNA. They are action-packed series and we’ve got the perfect platform for them on Sunday night with our football. So, we have a great opportunity to promote those shows Sunday, going into Monday.

On Tuesday, we want to do for the night what we did Wednesday with EMPIRE. We are looking to create a big, noisy star-packed night of television. So, we’re making a very bold move. The whole night will be brand-new. It’s a big shot and really it’s one that we would only make if we had the goods, and we do.

GRANDFATHERED is going to kick off the night. It’s starring John Stamos and it’s going to platform our Rob Lowe series, THE GRINDER, which also stars Fred Savage. Both of the shows have charismatic male leads at the center. At the core, they’re both about family and that makes them very broad and relatable for men -- and women. They also have workplace elements to both of them.

GRANDFATHERED and THE GRINDER will lead into our wildly original new series from Ryan Murphy, SCREAM QUEENS, at 9:00. It’s a horror comedy that Ryan describes as “Heathers” meets “Friday the 13th,” and it has an amazing all-star cast: Emma Roberts, Jamie Lee Curtis, Keke Palmer, Lea Michele, Abigail Breslin, Niecy Nash, Nick Jonas and Ariana Grande. Those are just a few of the big stars who are going to be in the show. So again, that night is about big stars and bold moves.

Gary: On Wednesdays in the fall, we’ve got exciting characters set in glamorous worlds. EMPIRE will return at 9:00. Fans made EMPIRE an appointment on Wednesday nights all season long. We’d be crazy to move it. We want to thank and reward our fans by keeping it in that time period.

The show broke records all season long and completely transfixed viewers across the country. And next season, we’ll have 18 all-new, addictive episodes. They’ll be split into two seasons. The stories we’ve heard for Season Two already are just going to blow away the audience.

Leading into EMPIRE is our new medical procedural, ROSEWOOD. It stars the unbelievably charismatic Morris Chestnut as Miami’s top private pathologist, working on the city’s toughest homicide investigations. The cases are complex, the technology he uses to solve them is really cool and it’s all set against a backdrop of a gorgeous city, beautiful people and the Florida sun.

Thursday, we’re pairing BONES and SLEEPY HOLLOW. This is a combination that has worked really well in the past for us. They have compatible audiences and pairing them again this fall can strengthen and grow those loyal fan bases.

Dana: So, Friday in the fall will be unscripted for us: MASTERCHEF JUNIOR at 8:00, leading into WORLD’S FUNNIEST at 9:00. Saturdays will remain our sports night. and on Sunday, we’re going to keep our whole lineup intact. It performed very well for us last year. THE SIMPSONS and FAMILY GUY are going to platform BROOKLYN NINE-NINE, which was up 9% this season, and THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, which ended up being the No. 1 new comedy with Men 18 to 49.

Our Sunday night remains the best place on television to reach a broad audience with a unique concentration of young men. So, advertisers can count on us again for that this season.

That’s our fall. I just want to touch a little bit before we open to questions on our midseason. In January, we have our event series, THE X-FILES. We’re very excited about this. We think it’ll be a huge reward for fans of this legendary show. It’s taken us a very long time to get these three back together and they actually go into production in June. We’re going to use the NFC Championship game to launch this event.

Then we’ve also got GREASE: LIVE on Sunday, January 31. It’s going to be a live three-hour event starring Julianne Hough as “Sandy” and Vanessa Hudgens as “Rizzo.” It’s going to be a big night of family viewing on FOX.

On Monday nights, once MINORITY REPORT finishes its fall run, LUCIFER will launch out of THE X-FILES for a short time and then it will be paired with GOTHAM, which made great sense to us -- two DC Entertainment properties on the night. LUCIFER follows the devil himself. He’s relocated to where else -- Los Angeles, and gets his kicks helping the LAPD punish bad guys. It’s a lot of fun and there’s an absolutely captivating star at the center, Tom Ellis, who’s really a breakout. We had him in one of our cable shows last year and he’s just primed to breakout.

On other drama news, THE FRANKENSTEIN CODE will join the schedule midseason. It’s a modern retelling of the Frankenstein story with a compelling emotional hook -- what would you do with a second chance? The show will have broad appeal. It tested very well with men and women and like all of our new dramas, it’s built around a big, compelling central character.

We also have two new comedies for midseason. After SCREAM QUEENS ends its run in December, we’ll move back to a four-comedy block on Tuesday. NEW GIRL is going to join the schedule at 9:00, and by premiering it in January, it’s going to allow us to schedule 22 episodes to run consecutively with virtually no interruptions. That was a lot of our strategy this year. Gary talked to you a little bit about Part One and Two of our bigger series, and then when possible, if we can run without any interruptions, that’s going to be a goal of ours, as well. So, NEW GIRL is the first.

Then NEW GIRL is going to be the perfect platform for our young ensemble comedy, THE GUIDE TO SURVIVING LIFE, and we also have BOB’S BURGERS and BORDERTOWN, our new animated series from the producers of FAMILY GUY, on Sundays in midseason.

Gary: So, that’s the basic rundown of our schedule. We’ll have strength across the week and we’re platforming compelling new series that can breakthrough. We know this is just the beginning, and there’s a lot more work to do, but we feel energized by what we’ve been able to achieve this season and our momentum going into next season. So, let’s take some questions.

Shannon: Brad, do you want to open it up to questions?

Moderator:: Our first question today comes from the line of Joe Adalian from vulture.com.

Adalian: Hello, Gary/Dana. How are you today?

Gary: Good, Joe.

Dana: Good. Hey, Joe.

Adalian: Cool. I have a question regarding EMPIRE. Obviously, monster hit. On the one hand, you would think there’s nothing else you need to do other than hope it just comes back big again next year. But, I’m wondering, it’s been sort of quiet on the EMPIRE front since the show went off. Obviously, you’ve had your season to worry about. I’m wondering if you plan to do anything over the summer to reinvest viewers in the show with the marketing, but also more importantly, do you think the audience, despite being as huge as it was, can be expanded even more and are there any specific concrete plans to make the show available for catchup beyond where it is on streaming? Will there be reruns on FOX? Will you be doing anything else? What’s the plan for making sure Season Two of EMPIRE is as big if not bigger?

Dana: Yes, all good questions, Joe. You know what? I’m going to have Joe Earley answer a lot of your questions in terms of what we’re doing over the bridge with EMPIRE, because we’ve got a lot of big events scheduled. The cast actually has been out. Jussie and Yazz have been out, performing in various markets. They’ve done mall tours. They’ve performed in smaller venues. They’ve done quite a thorough publicity tour as you saw. Taraji hosted “Saturday Night Live.”

We’ve got some exciting plans that will kick off in June, some that are a little premature to discuss, but we’ve also got just amazing guest stars that have lined up to be on this show, that I think will help us not only bring back an audience that fell in love with this show in the first season, but helped to expand it, as well. Although, again, we don’t want to be greedy. If we came back with the audience that we left off with, we would be thrilled.

Based on the creative that we heard from our executive producers the week before last, I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. But, at this point, the requests for this cast are so numerous, we’re trying to make it so that they can be out there, but still get a little bit of rest prior to an enormous production season with all new music.

I saw we just signed Ne-Yo, who is going to write original music for the second season, along with Timbaland. That’s a pretty big shot in the arm if you’re looking for a credible hit maker being authentically, organically involved in the show. But, I’ll let Joe talk to you about what our bridge plans are.

Joe: Yes, and we’ve actually this actual bridge plan going since a few weeks into the show, when we realized we were going to have a pretty long break in between seasons, and audience kept growing unbelievably every week. We’re not going to take anything for granted. We are going to continue to service the amazing core audience that we have. We do believe there is an opportunity to grow the show. So, we have been focused on catch-up.

It’s sort of similar to when we launched GLEE behind AMERICAN IDOL, and spent the summer catching people up with that show. We’ve spent this summer doing a big push to catch up on all of the platforms where we have it. It’s on FOX NOW. It’s on demand. It’s on SVOD. We have it unauthenticated everywhere so people can catch up on all 12 episodes and be ready to join us when the show returns.

Big marketing plans, big publicity plans, as Dana mentioned, and then there will be an off-air campaign that will obviously kick in to return it, Hulu’s been a great partner on the show and we saw record viewing numbers for it on our MVPD partners in-season, and that has continued post-season. So, we are seeing new viewers coming in and it will be our goal to amass them in the fall to keep it the must-see phenomenon that it is.

Adalian: Just real quickly, will there be a linear platform for the reruns, or is linear reruns just over?

Joe: That’s a pretty big statement that you’re making.

Adalian: Not a statement; a question.

Joe: For this particular show, we’re not repeating it. We’re not repeating it on FOX prime.

Adalian: Okay. Thank you.

Moderator:: We do have a question from the line of Joe Flint with The Wall Street Journal. Please go ahead.

Flint: Hello, two if you don’t mind. One, I was just wanting to talk about what went into the decision-making to finally bring AMERICAN IDOL to an end, and sort of talk a little about its contributions to the network over the last 15 years. Then I also have just an upfront sales question for Toby, if I may.

Gary: Sure. Let me address the AMERICAN IDOL question. It was not an easy decision. AMERICAN IDOL has been such a vital part of FOX for its run and we spent a lot of time talking with the producers about the future of AMERICAN IDOL, and collectively, we all arrived at the conclusion that it was time to bring the show to an end. But we really wanted to do it in a way that felt special and celebratory and treated the show the way it deserved to be treated. And so, next year, we’re announcing it as the final season. It is going to be a true season-long celebration. We’re already talking about surprises we can have for the fans to make it feel special, and to send it off in a way that is as significant as the run it has had on our network.

Flint: Okay, and Toby, there’s a lot talk this year about how tough the upfront market will be just as digital platforms begin to really take hold and take more dollars away. What are you anticipating going into selling season?

Toby: In some ways, I think the upfront market is always tough. It’s a negotiation that’s very important. But as we look at the impact of the upfront and how things have been evolving, I think as dollars have moved to digital, the large bulk of those dollars have gone to Google and Facebook. At our premium environment, our digital offerings are really compelling, as well. As ad serving and measurement has caught up, we’ll have the opportunity to really take advantage of that audience.

So, things have evolved. It’s a great opportunity. We are in conversations with our clients, 12 months a year, and as we get to this season, it’s a chance for us to capitalize on those conversations and seek out bigger and deeper partnerships with our clients and try to move the ball forward. But, we certainly are judged on our sales 12 months a year, not just the upfront.

Flint: Okay. All right. Thank you.

Moderator:: We do have a question from the line of David Bauder with the Associated Press. Please go ahead.

Bauder: Hello, good morning. Two quick ones; on IDOL, do you hope that some of the past people like Simon Cowell or Randy or Paula Abdul come back and have some role in the final season?

Dana: Yes, we would welcome any of them back. Obviously, the executive producers are focused right now on ending this season in a big way and we have a big finale show Wednesday night for that. But, we’re having conversations with them about anything that you can imagine in terms of what would be celebratory, what would feel nostalgic and all of the things that you might do to send the show off in a way that feels memorable.

Bauder: Quickly, I see that Rob Lowe is also in a series that NBC announced yesterday. How is he going to be able to do both?

Dana: That show has wrapped production. It’s, I believe, a miniseries event.

Bauder: The NBC show?

Dana: Yes. It’s a limited series and he’s wrapped his obligation. He’s in first position on THE GRINDER.

Bauder: Thank you.

Moderator:: We do have a question from the line of Michael Schneider with TV Guide. Please go ahead.

Schneider: Hello, guys. Good morning. I wanted to follow-up on all the IDOL questions and the future of IDOL beyond FOX. I mean have you talked to Fremantle and 19 about what happens to the franchise after you guys end its run? Do you still sort of have any sort of first-look rights to it, or is there a chance you think they might end up doing something else with the brand elsewhere?

Gary: We certainly haven’t had any kind of detailed conversations with them about life post-next-season, but we have a very collaborative relationship with Fremantle. Core Media is part of the greater 21st Century Fox family. I think the future for the franchise—that story remains to be written. IDOL still is a popular franchise in other parts of the world. So, collectively with them, it just felt like it was the right time to bring this run to a close. And, as for the future, there are endless possibilities.

Schneider: How seriously did you guys look at that this summer, or just blowing up the format and doing something completely different before you came to the conclusion it was time to end it all together?

Gary: We really didn’t give a lot of thought to that. IDOL was the No. 1 show on broadcast television, I believe, for eight seasons, and it was a collective decision that we made with the producers that the right way to send this show out is in the time period that it’s had for these last years and to make it a celebratory event. It still has a great deal of popularity in viewing and we’re going to deliver a really special season next year.

Schneider: All right. Thanks.

Moderator:: We do have a question from the line of Amanda Steiner with People.com. Please go ahead.

Steiner: Hey, there. I know you’ve covered IDOL a lot so far, but I’m just wondering if you have any sort of surprises you’d like to share from the finale of this season to get people ready for the 15th season and any other sort of surprises you’d like to tease about the 15th season.

Dana: We really don’t have anything to share today about what’s going to happen next season. Again, we’re just staying focused right now on ending this season. As you can imagine, the conversations that we’ve been having with them about what next season will look like and making a pretty emotional decision to bring the show to an end -- those have consumed the conversations we’ve had this far. I’m sure next week, after the show has wrapped, we’ll start having more concrete conversations about exactly what next season will look like.

I will tell you though, having spent time very recently with former IDOL judges, there’s a lot of enthusiasm about coming back and paying tribute to a show that launched many, many successful careers. I think there’s going to be a lot of enthusiasm around former contestants and judges being a part of the show.

Steiner: Will Brian Dunkleman make an appearance?

Dana: That is a really good question.

Steiner: That would be actually amazing.

Dana: Where is Brian Dunkleman? If you get me his number, I will call and invite him.

Steiner: Amazing. All right. Thank you.

Moderator:: We do have a question from the line of Matt Mitovich from TVLine. Please go ahead.

Mitovich: Good morning, everyone. Thank you for your time today. I have two questions. I know you said you’d be crazy to move EMPIRE, but is part of the reason it’s staying at 9:00 is because of the content; you just didn’t want to or couldn’t run it at 8:00? Then secondly, is there any talk about further “24” in the future?

Gary: With respect to EMPIRE, we actually said exactly how we felt about it, which is the show really was appointment television in a way that’s kind of unprecedented in this day and age. It didn’t make any sense to us at all to move it. The content wasn’t an issue. We think the show could play at 8:00, but we really wanted to reward the fans and make it as easy for people to find it live as ever.

I’m sorry? The second question?

Mitovich: Any plans for further editions of “24?”

Gary: Nothing immediate. We have been developing another version of “24,” but it’s still fairly early in the development process. So, there just would be nothing that we could tell you at this time, other than we are working on something.

Mitovich: Thank you.

Moderator:: We do have a question from the line of Daniel Fienberg with Hitfix.com. Please go ahead.

Fienberg: Hey, guys. Thanks for doing this call. I guess my question is about X-FILES and the thought process behind using the football game to launch a property that presumably has a built-in audience that’s already anticipating it and therefore sort of using up one-third of your run over two nights.

Dana: That’s a good question. We thought a lot about how to event-ize, bringing the show back from a scheduling perspective. We’ve got a lot going on in midseason on our schedule, and it felt like the best way to capitalize on all of the opportunities was to give THE X-FILES -- something that’s so highly anticipated, that fans had been literally clamoring for for a decade -- the best maximum exposure in that post-NFC game time period. And then, starting the next day with the first of the next five episodes. So, it’ll air Sunday night and then Monday night and then for the next weeks, which will give us a great opportunity to platform our new show, LUCIFER¸ on Monday night.

So, when we looked at all of the options that we had, it just felt like that was the one that gave the greatest exposure to THE X-FILES, something our fans are waiting for, and also create a great circulation on our air to promote all of our midseason launches and platform LUCIFER. So, it felt just like a win, any way you looked at it.

Fienberg: What has Chris Carter told you guys regarding sort of the different [indiscernible] episodes and stand-alone kind of material?

Dana: Well, have you ever met Chris Carter? Because he doesn’t tell us a lot (laughter). No, I think there will be a combination. I think you will see a combination of episodes. If you are a loyal fan, you became familiar with the process of mixing stand-alones and the deeper mythology episodes. I think everyone will be happy with what he’s got planned.

Fienberg: Excellent. Thank you guys much.

Moderator:: We do have a question from the line of Cynthia Littleton with Variety. Please go ahead.

Littleton: Hello. Good morning. Two questions for you. One, just very specifically, the IDOL scheduling plan. Will it be the same as always, two installments during the week, the performance and the results, and then a follow on that.

Gary: Yes. IDOL is going to have a similar structure to what it had this year. When it comes on in January, it’s going to be on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and then eventually will move to Thursdays, like we did this year.

Fienberg: Performance and results in the same show. We didn’t do a traditional results show this year, and we’ll continue to not do a traditional results show next year.

Littleton: Right. Got you. Thank you. Then a more general question. There’s a lot of attention being placed this year on live programming events. You all have GREASE and AMERICAN IDOL has its component of live. Can you talk about what the value of that is in this era of multi-platform viewing that we’re in?

Dana: Well, I think there’s a great value. Along with the ones that you just mentioned, we also have the Emmys this year that we feel is going to give our Premiere Week a tremendous amount of attention and circulation. Like any form of programming, I think we all believe that a great network schedule has a mix of programming. You have live programs to drive circulation across the week; specials that feel like they become promotional platforms for your series.

But, notwithstanding the popularity of live shows, EMPIRE, which became the No. 1 show on broadcast last year, not a live show - a drama -came on with AMERICAN IDOL. So, we kind of got the best of both worlds. You had an opportunity in IDOL to bring people in live where they feel like there’s a can’t-miss quality, don’t want to be left out of the conversation, and then you complement a show like that with a drama that similarly creates that kind of buzz of “I don’t want to be in the office the next day and hear what happened last night on EMPIRE.”

So, any schedule is best when each type of storytelling is represented in a proper proportion of the schedule.

Cynthia: Thank you.

Moderator:: Our last question of the day comes from the line of Jethro Nededog from Business Insider. Please go ahead.

Nededog: Hello, everyone.

Gary: Hello.

Nededog: So, [indiscernible] a lot of work on AMERICAN IDOL creatively to help rejuvenate it, to bring up the ratings. Now that it’s ending after next season, is FOX out of the singing competition business, or are you guys looking at other projects, developing anything?

Gary: No. I don’t think we’d ever make that kind of proclamation. Obviously, IDOL’s been such a strong performer for us and continues to be a strong performer. We have a new head of unscripted programming, Corie Henson, who we hired a few months ago. She and her team are developing all sorts of unscripted programs, including performance shows and we’ll see what comes in, that feels most creatively vibrant. We certainly could end up in that space.

I would say it feels that, in that space, you need to recreate or reinvent performance shows somewhat, but that certainly would be a challenge we would welcome if we feel like we’ve got the germ of a great idea.

Nededog: Thank you.

Shannon: Okay. Great. So, we will have a transcript available of the call later today and do you have the playback information, Brad?

Moderator:: Of course. Ladies and gentlemen, today’s conference will be available for replay after 10:45 a.m. through May 18th. You may access the AT&T Teleconference Replay System at any time. That does conclude your conference for today. Thank you for your participation and for using the AT&T Executive Teleconference Service.

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