Fox entertainment chairman Kevin Reilly trotted on stage Tuesday with his usual combination of candor and charm.
“We all screw up,” he shrugged during his forty-five minutes before the Television Critics Association, before deadpanning: “Just look at my fall.” The self-deprecating jab was warranted, given a first half of the season that saw Fox slide 24 percent in the ratings among the key 18 to 49 demographic. His Mob Doctor flat-lined, The X Factor tumbled nearly 25 percent and his critically adored comedy block has failed to lure viewers.
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Peppered with a wide-ranging collection of questions, the network vet managed to touch on everything from In Living Color's future to Britney Spears' performance. Here's a look at the highlights:
Comedy’s Unfunny Reality
Reilly didn’t dance around his disappointment, calling the ratings performance of his Tuesday night comedy block –featuring New Girl, Raising Hope, The Mindy Project andBen & Kate-- his biggest frustration of the fall. Particularly because creatively, he was thrilled. “Our shows weren’t rejected; they were never really sampled,” he acknowledged, noting that comedy is a genre that requires the kind of patience that the broadcast business no longer allows. Unlike dramas, which can demand a certain level of active viewing, there’s not as much “urgency to view” with comedy fare.
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Don't Hold Your Breath
In Living Color is kaput. Reilly noted that the iteration that his net had been working on in recent months did not meet --much less raise-- the high bar set by the original. He hasn't lost all hope for a revival, however; but if Fox does decide to try again, they'll need to go a different route. As for Goodwin Games, the Becki Newton comedy from the How I Met Your Mother producers, he has no immediate plans to schedule it because he doesn't see it moving the needle, ratings-wise. He noted the half-hour effort could make it to air as late as summer.
Cable Competition
Few things were more aggrivating to Reilly this fall than hearing people tell him that they were binge-viewing episodes of Breaking Bad. It's no knock on the show, which he recognizes is tremendous, but rather a commentary on his growing field of competition. "The challenge is that we are competing with television," he said, referencing rival fare now on broadcast and cable. That's why his mid-season effort, the Kevin Bacon serial killer series The Following, is designed to go toe-to-toe with those cable offerings in both intensity and quality. As he sees it, there's no reason why a broadcast thriller can't be as captivating as the cable equivalents. "Before there was cable, Fox was cable... We were the edge of what was bold," he reminded the room, adding that he'd like to put the fox back in Fox.
Britney, Britney, Britney
Viewers may have been disappointed by Britney Spears' performance on X Factor, but not Reilly. Asked if he wanted to see her back next season, he said he would. "I think Britney did a great job... People got to know her a little bit. Maybe people were waiting for dramatic displays," he said, taking the opportunity to praise the already renewed show, which lost roughly a quarter of its audeince in its second (rebooted) season. "It was a better show this year," he continued, suggesting that he was disappointed that LA Reid had opted to move on. As for NBC's decision to program The Voice against the premiere of X Factor's premiere, he cracked a smile: "It went in the file for later reference. The score will be settled at a later date."
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