Fox Television Group bosses Dana Walden and Gary Newman confirmed today, that the network is in talks with Simon Cowell. This, along with a few other announcements and revelations at the FOX executive panel at the Television Critics Association tour in Los Angeles. Here’s a roundup of news:
- Newman confirmed that FOX is, indeed, in talks with Simon Cowell: “We are in talks with Simon Cowell, nothing to announce right now, but would love to be back in business with him.” After the panel, Newman offered a few specifics, that the conversations have centered on “a performance oriented show as well as other types of shows.“ On stage, Newman said, “We have a tremendous amount of respect for him, being able to find stars, being a tremendous talent magnet” Added Walden, “He is a person that epitomizes showmanship.”
- On Utopia‘s s $50 million” fail, Newman said, “We’ve always encouraged our team to take big, bold swings” but in this instance, there was a lack of urgency [to the show] without any scheduled eliminations or contests. It was an admirable effort and it just didn’t work out. (And the FOX reality chief presiding over the the debacle, Simon Andreas, was canned).
- The Network invited Red Band Society producer, ABC Studios, to produce more episodes of the series with a lower budget, to air this summer, but the studio said no. Newman said Red Band’s Society’s “creative team did a great job, the show felt soulful and truthful and like there was integrity to it. It just didn’t resonate on air with our audience in the way we would have hoped.”
- An X Files revival? “It’s been reported, and it’s true, that we’ve had some conversations about [reviving] X-Files,” ideally with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, Newman said. “But I have nothing that we can announce at this time.” EEEEPPP!
- There are no current plans to bring back 24: Live Another Day, although there have been some discussions.
- For you Bones fans: There were no renewal announcements today, as FOX is still in talks with leads Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz. The execs are “hopeful” the show will be back for at least another season.
