Cannes Film Festival 2013

FX x FX = Twice as good? Or half?

Reports say cable channel will split its comedy and drama series across two different channels

<p>Will the gang from "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" be at the center of an FX spin-off channel?</p>

Will the gang from "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" be at the center of an FX spin-off channel?

Credit: FX

When it comes to original programming, FX is one of the most consistent, entertaining channels in all of television. But will two FX channels be better than one?

According to several published reports (like this one in Broadcasting & Cable), Fox Networks is on the verge of changing its Fox Soccer channel into an FX spin-off network, tentatively titled FXX, with a focus on both comedy and a slightly younger audience to differentiate itself from FX.

A Fox statement on the subject says, "We are constantly evaluating our programming offerings and this is just one notion we have considered over the past year or so," but sources close to the situation called the reports fairly accurate so far.

The idea would be a split along the lines of how Turner has differentiated TNT (drama) and TBS (comedy). "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" was specifically cited as a series that would relocate to the new channel; its seasons tend to begin in September, which is what B&C said is the target date for launching FXX (or FX2, or whatever it's ultimately called).

Where that leaves a show like "Louie" — which is as much comedy and drama, and is told from the point of view of a depressed man in his mid-40s — is unclear, but for the most part it's easy to see which shows would go where. We can all mock the back-90 episode order that FX gave to Charlie Sheen's "Anger Management," but that show would provide a lot of inventory for a new channel focusing more on comedy.

For a long time in the post-"Shield" era, FX found comedy a tough nut to crack. Now the channel has a robust enough lineup — including "Sunny," "Louie" (which will be taking 2013 off, anyway, providing plenty of opportunity to figure out where it belongs), "The League," "Archer," the new "Legit" (which I reviewed yesterday), "Anger Management" and "Wilfred," and it would be easy to move one or both of the channel's new late-night talk shows ("BrandX with Russell Brand" and "Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell") to a new channel.

Of course, doing so would leave FX with only one or two original series at a time, with a drama on Tuesdays and sometimes on Wednesdays. On the plus side, that could lead to even more series being greenlit to pick up the slack on both ends, and while not every FX series works, their shows are usually interesting enough that I'd welcome the prospect of twice as many.

Maybe it'll be too much of a good thing, but first all the paperwork has to be done before we can worry about that.

Alan-sepinwall-sm
Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching
Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com

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  • Default-avatar

    Kip Mooney

    Do you think maybe FX will move its dramas to Sunday nights as an attempt to go head-to-head with HBO and Showtime?

    January 17, 2013 at 3:16PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Default-avatar

      mj15 Good God, I hope not. My Sunday schedules are jam-packed as it is.

      January 17, 2013 at 4:08PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      Greg I don't see why they would. They already have Tuesdays and Wednesdays stablished for dramas, might as well stay the same way.

      January 17, 2013 at 4:19PM EST
  • Default-avatar

    renton

    And I guess FXXX will be Fox's porn channel?

    January 17, 2013 at 3:19PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Default-avatar

      sajid anwar Coming up next on FXXX, U.S. Marshall Raylan delivers pizza to a sorority house, triggering a night of naughty passion

      January 17, 2013 at 3:33PM EST
    • Danae_happy_talkback_profile

      Oaktown Girl @Sajid - I'd sure as hell take that delivery!:)

      On a more serious note, Alan: do you think if FX had been split into 2 separate channels a few year years ago, a show like "Terriers" would not have been given more time?

      January 17, 2013 at 4:34PM EST
    • Midnight_run_mca255950_talkback_profile

      sepinwall I don't think it can be overstated how genuinely terrible the Terriers ratings were. If a new comedy on the new channel were doing that, they might be more patient with it, but a drama on FX proper? Nope.

      January 17, 2013 at 5:10PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      Peter Ladig FX changed into a hard core porn channel so gradually, you hardly noticed.....

      January 17, 2013 at 6:28PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      TheTick I guess that would be 'Lustified' then?

      January 19, 2013 at 8:57PM EST
    • Danae_happy_talkback_profile

      Oaktown Girl @Tick - Ha! Outstanding.

      January 19, 2013 at 11:38PM EST
  • Default-avatar

    Zach R.

    Interesting. I suppose this is in reaction to Fox losing the rights to the EPL which made up a big chunk of their programming on Fox Soccer.

    January 17, 2013 at 3:29PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Default-avatar

      Jill Oh, ha, I did not know this. Oops.

      January 17, 2013 at 3:31PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      Jobin00 Agree with Zach. This seems to be Fox trying to reinvent FSC, so that it doesn't have to reduce its cable fees due to the loss of the EPL.

      FXX - Comedy and Champions League basically.

      January 17, 2013 at 4:10PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      Chili P Champions League soccer will most likely move to Fox Sports 1, which will be replacing the Speed Channel in August: http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2012/11/26/Media/FoxSports1.aspx

      Fox Sports 1 is going to be their all-sports competitor to ESPN, so any remaining bits of soccer inventory (Champions League, FA Cup, SPL) will likely move there.

      January 17, 2013 at 5:15PM EST
  • Default-avatar

    Patty

    But which FX will haz da moveez?

    January 17, 2013 at 3:30PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Midnight_run_mca255950_talkback_profile

      sepinwall Both, apparently. That's part of why FX has been buying up so many movie titles of late; they may need twice as much inventory.

      January 17, 2013 at 3:35PM EST
  • Default-avatar

    Jill

    Wait, I can't watch my Premier League games (go Cardiff!) next year because FOX essentially wants to give that misogynistic douchebag his own channel!? Grrr. Angry.

    January 17, 2013 at 3:30PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Default-avatar

      Zach R. Actually Fox lost the rights to the EPL to NBC. You'll still be able to watch them, just on a different channel.

      January 17, 2013 at 3:32PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      Chris L When's Cardiff ever played in the Premier League?

      January 17, 2013 at 4:14PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      MC Cardiff City is top of the Championship table, so there's a good chance they be in the EPL next season.

      January 17, 2013 at 4:22PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      Grant What misogynistic douchebag are you referring to?

      January 17, 2013 at 5:09PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      CinemaPsycho I think he means Charlie Sheen. Or maybe Wilfred.

      January 18, 2013 at 2:18AM EST
  • Default-avatar

    DAG

    why FXX? Why not FFX - which stands for Funny FX

    January 17, 2013 at 3:43PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Lorisavatar_talkback_profile

    scoopie77

    Do you think this was in the back of their mind when they gave Charlie Sheen that huge order? They're doing those 90 episodes in two years!

    January 17, 2013 at 3:46PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Lorisavatar_talkback_profile

    scoopie77

    Another question...very few people have Fox Soccer on their cable packages. Is that going to stay the same with the switch or will both of them be on the packages everybody gets?

    January 17, 2013 at 3:47PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    HeavyRaines17

    Will this make John Landgraf a mogul? Will he use these powers for good or evil?

    January 17, 2013 at 3:59PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Default-avatar

      Tausif Khan Will Landgraf be tasked with running both networks?

      January 18, 2013 at 7:45AM EST
  • 500full_talkback_profile

    velocityknown

    Step 1: Bring back Terriers for the drama channel.

    January 17, 2013 at 4:05PM EST Reply to Comment
    • I second this.

      January 17, 2013 at 4:13PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      Bunny Colvin Step 3: Profits

      January 17, 2013 at 4:57PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      Peter Step 2: Don't call it Terriers

      January 17, 2013 at 9:07PM EST
  • Default-avatar

    srpad

    Louie would pretty much have to go on the Comedy side. You and I know better but it's a half hour show by a stand up comedian. Putting it on the drama channel is basically begging for new viewers to never find it or be turned off from watching.

    January 17, 2013 at 4:35PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Default-avatar

      joel Except for the part where Louie is already on the "drama" channel that people can find on the dial and have programmed into their DVRs. They're going to actually have way more trouble migrating all their comedy viewers to a new channel than keeping Louie on the "drama" side.

      And by the way, this is a terrible idea. TNT and TBS were long-standing channels. Rebranding them wasn't really that hard. This is completely different and essentially waters down an existing brand that finally found a really solid viewer base and voice for itself. But good luck to you both, FX/FXX.

      January 17, 2013 at 6:25PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      leemats I agree. Plus, since it is submitted as a comedy for awards consideration, I think they want it to be viewed as a comedy rather than a drama.

      January 17, 2013 at 6:29PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      SlackerInc Personally, I see it as much more of a drama (and a very good one), with only the standup scenes making me laugh.

      January 19, 2013 at 3:24PM EST
  • Default-avatar

    Sareeta

    So this means it might only be available for people with a more expensive cable package? I.e., FX is available to most digital cable subscribers; I'm not sure that the sports channel is available with the basic package.

    January 17, 2013 at 9:09PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Default-avatar

      Matt Or for many people who do happen to got the soccer channel, it won't be in HD

      January 17, 2013 at 10:34PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      CinemaPsycho Yeah, on my cable FXX will have to be on channel 288 or something. That's not a smart move.

      January 18, 2013 at 2:16AM EST
  • Default-avatar

    briguyx

    If this means "Powers" gets on the air, I'm all for it!

    January 18, 2013 at 12:46AM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    Dave

    Fox Soccer Channel isn't on everyone's cable package though, is it?

    January 18, 2013 at 9:42AM EST Reply to Comment
    • Default-avatar

      NJMark No, but they will certainly negotiate (or leverage or package) the "new" channel onto as many systems as possible.

      And for those who do have it, it probably won't stay on channel 748 or whatever it is.

      January 18, 2013 at 1:42PM EST
  • Default-avatar

    Dave

    I think it would be certain that Louie goes with the comedies, it's a half hour and too hilarious to fit in with their dramas.

    January 18, 2013 at 9:44AM EST Reply to Comment
    • Default-avatar

      SlackerInc I don't agree with the half hour/hour definitional boundary (Edie Falco complained about this re: the categorisation of Nurse Jackie), and other than the brief standup scenes I don't see what is "hilarious" about Louie.

      January 19, 2013 at 3:29PM EST

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