FOX
Fox, which is riding high on Glee, has the Death Star (American Idol) and has contractors busily at work on Death Star 2 (a.k.a. Simon Cowell’s X Factor), presented at the Television Critics Association’s press tour yesterday. Here’s what they had to say—and didn’t:
* The biggest news hovering over the entire TCA tour has been the future of the judges’ panel on American Idol. Ellen is gone, rumors are swirling, and this would be the day for Fox to announce its big news, in front of a room of journalists from across the country. Except it had none. No J-Lo, no Steven Tyler, not even Nigel Lythgoe. About all that Fox chief Peter Rice would say is that the network was taking, um, steps to make sure that the show stayed popular. Well, that’s it, folks! Thanks for coming out to L.A.!
* When Fox announced Terra Nova, a time-travel/dinosaur series from Steven Spielberg without so much as a scrap of footage shot, the project had a worrisome air of vaporware: I thought it might turn out to be another Dark Angel (an ambitious, big-name project that got on air a year later than scheduled) or go the way of many never-realized “Untitled Big-Shot-Producer Projects” of years past. It turns out the show will be delayed, but, Fox swears, will exist, and will get a high-profile launch. The show, originally planned for midseason, will debut in fall 2011, with a sneak preview (a la Glee) in May. And we know it’ll be on schedule, because they have a time machine.
* You’ve got to love a producer who’s willing to go on stage and use the words “spectacular failure” in connection with him own show. The makers of Lone Star—a very promising pilot about a oil-biz con artist with two lives, two wives and two jobs—say that their ambitious show may well have been a better fit for cable than for Fox. Says Kyle Killen, “I have no idea if this is a good idea for a broadcast network. But if it’s a failure, it’s going to be spectacular failure — and I love that idea and it’s why we are where we are.” And looking at a fall full of tepid crime and spy procedurals and Friends-style relationship comedies, I’m glad someone’s trying.
* Will Arnett and Mitch Hurwitz to critics: They don’t think Running Wilde‘s pilot is that terrific either. But they’re working on it! (And the Arrested Development movie? Still a definite consideration of a possibility!)
* Attention, Ms. Betty White: Cloris Leachman is coming for you.