24 prequel series, legal off-shoot not going forward
Today while at the network’s TCA Winter Press Tour event, network programming head Charlie Collier confirmed that you aren’t going to have a chance to see either one of these projects move forward to a pilot phase. Both have been in development for some time, but were clearly not strong enough to get to that next point in the process.
Does this mean that Fox is abandoning the 24 franchise overall? Not exactly. Collier made it clear that there is still an interest in continuing forward with the franchise, provided of course that the right project came up. We’re just not sure that there is a right project to be had at the moment, at least for a network like Fox. These super-serialized shows are harder to do now on a major broadcast network, especially when there are other viable options out there like Netflix or Amazon. It has to be a really killer idea where viewers are willing to commit to watching something every single week live. NBC has figured out one with This Is Us, but for most major networks that have been a little hit-and-miss these days.
Maybe this is a subject that will be revisited in a year or so’s time, though we’re not sure the climate will be any more right for it then. We’ve been in this reboot/revival era for a while now and our perception is that most viewers are at this point a little bit tired of the concept and would like to see some new ideas tried out. These may be more of a major gamble for networks to take, but every now and then you do run into a This Is Us or some other hit that has some legitimate staying power. If revivals and reboots aren’t eventually posting any better ratings than new ideas, we’re more than likely to see people move forward with them.
Fox does have plenty of other projects in development for the 2019-20 season, but we do anticipate only a small percentage of them moving forward. This is a consequence of there just being so little space after taking on so much sports programming like Thursday night football and also WWE SmackDown a little bit later this fall.
Do you still want to see more of the 24 brand, or do you think it loses a lot of its appeal without Kiefer Sutherland involved in a major on-camera role? Be sure to share right now in the comments. We’ll have more if we hear more.(Photo: Fox.)