The sixth season finale on May 15 will be the final episode on Fox. But it won't be a finale for Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Tim Minear's drama. The series has been picked up by ABC and will be on the Disney network next season, making it one of the most high-profile moves ever.
This is not a sudden development and was not done in a vacuum. Deadline reported in March that while spinoff 9-1-1: Lone Star was a certainty for a fifth season, 9-1-1 might not be renewed by Fox and that ABC could pick up the series if it did.
“It has been an honor to be the founding network of 9-1-1 and we are grateful to Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Tim Minear, together with Angela Bassett, Peter Krause, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Oliver Stark, Aisha Hinds, Kenneth Choi, Ryan Guzman and the rest of the cast and crew, and 20th Television for delivering such an impactful series to Fox,” Fox said in a statement. “We wish them well after 9-1-1’s final Fox season concludes.”
9-1-1 should have a relatively smooth transition to ABC, which has been focusing on drama procedurals lately and already has a program on the air that previously had a long run on Fox before being canceled for financial reasons, American idol.
“Thanks to the creative drive of Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Tim Minear, as well as the talented cast, 9-1-1 has been one of the most defining and original dramas on network television over the last six seasons and we are honored to bring it to the esteemed group of series on ABC,” said Craig Erwich, president, Disney Television Group. “It’s a privilege to keep 9-1-1 in the family with 20th Television producing, and we look forward to telling more heart-racing and uplifting stories about these beloved characters on our air.”
For Fox, the cancellation was a financial decision. Six seasons in, 9-1-1 remains the network’s top-rated scripted series in adults 18-49 and its most-watched series overall, but it is also its most expensive at about $9 million-$10 million an episode, I hear. It is a six-year-old high-end drama with big-name cast, led by Oscar nominee Bassett and Krause, and storylines featuring major disasters that involve elaborate visual effects and stunts.
9-1-1 was developed and picked up to series under a different economic model when the Fox network and then-20th Century Fox TV were part of the same company, before Disney acquired key Fox assets, including the TV studio. (Lone Star was ordered after 20th TV had gone to Disney.)
It is harder for non-vertically integrated broadcast networks like Fox to make numbers work on series from outside studios. Fox has no ownership in 9-1-1 and, while it remains Fox’s flagship scripted shows, its ratings — along with those for most other shows on linear television — have slipped.
Fox recently also canceled another six-year 20th TV drama, which had launched alongside 9-1-1, The Resident. Last year, both 9-1-1 and The Resident went down to the wire, only closing renewals an hour or so before Fox’s upfront presentation.
Instead, the network has been investing in scripted series it owns or co-owns, like the just picked up new lifeguard drama for next season, HI-Surf, from producer John Wells, which is co-produced by Warner Bros. TV and Fox Entertainment and envisioned by the network as a potential franchise in the vein of 9-1-1.
HI-Surf was ordered to fill the void left by 9-1-1. It's one of two new hour-long scripted series already ordered for next season, along with the medical drama Doc. Meanwhile, Fox continues to do business with 20th TV. In addition to 9-1-1: Lone Star, the network also recently renewed The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Bob's Burgers animated series for two seasons.
In addition to the strong performance of 9-1-1 in linear and streaming, the fact that the main cast members have at least one more year left on their contracts also helped, eliminating the need for separate talent negotiations. The drama stars Angela Bassett, Peter Krause, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Oliver Stark, Kenneth Choi, Aisha Hinds, Ryan Guzman, Corinne Massiah, Marcanthonee Jon Reis, and Gavin McHugh as Christopher Diaz.
In season seven on ABC, 9-1-1 continues to explore the high-pressure experiences of first responders, including police officers and firefighters, who find themselves in the most frightening, shocking, and heartbreaking situations. The series was created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Tim Minear. Alexis Martin Woodall, Angela Bassett, Peter Krause, John J. Gray, Kristen Reidel and Juan Carlos Coto also serve as executive producers.
This would be the last scripted series to be bailed out after cancellation by the production studio's sister network, as more episode production benefits the studio and its parent company, alongside series such as Medium, which moved from NBC to CBS, Scrubs (NBC-ABC ), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Fox-NBC) and last year Magnum, P.I. (CBS-NBC).
In addition to 9-1-1: Lone Star, Fox's roster of recurring scripted series includes The Cleaning Lady (US), Accused (US), Alert: Missing Persons Unit, all of which are co-productions. New series for next season also include wholly owned or co-produced animated comedies Krapopolis, Grimsburg and Universal Basic Guys/Hoagie Bros.