January 13 marked the FOX Broadcasting Company day of the TV press tour, including the return of 24 and launches of new shows like Rake, Gang Related, and Surviving Jack. As we have in past days, we will be blogging the entire day, in one convenient place, although press releases will be posted separately.
FOX started with a reel with clips from all of their current shows, and brought up how happy they were with the Golden Globes wins of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
24: Live Another Day
The first panel “restarts the clock” on Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) in London. No footage was available yet, so they showed some highlights from the classic series itself.
In attendance for the 24 panel was Sutherland, Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chloe), and Executive Producers Howard Gordon, Evan Katz, Brian Grazer, and Manny Coto.
Coto mentions that they haven’t thought much about where the movie will be; the focus is on the 12 hours of Live Another Day.
Kim Raver will be back for the series, as will President James Heller.
“At the end of Season 8, Jack was basically left on the run, and when we pick up 4 years later, Jack is still a fugitive. He has disappeared, and he is still hunted,” Manny Coto says. Yvonne Strahovski (Chuck) will play a CIA agent who is hunting Jack.
Rake
Greg Kinnear stars in this comedic legal drama as criminal defense lawyer Keegan Deane. The series, from producers Peter Tolan, Michael Wimer, and Peter Duncan, stars Miranda Otto, Ian Colletti, David Harbour, Bojana Novakovic, Tara Summers, Necar Zadegan, and John Ortiz. Peter Tolan was a highlight of the panel, reading from his “journal.”
Executive Session with Kevin Reilly
Reilly has good things to say about several of their new shows, including Sleepy Hollow. FOX has 7 of the top 20 shows on TV, ratings-wise.
Other platforms are getting people to watch FOX shows – Video on Demand is up 44%. Streaming on Hulu is up 50%.
FOX is trying to get away from “pilot season,” bypassing it this time as it is “highly inefficient.” To be more creative and more talent-friendly, they have mentioned they are in series production on nine projects, including Wayward Pines, Gracepoint, Backstrom, Hieroglyph, Gotham, including Fatrick and more. This means production will start earlier than it would on most series. In the case of Gotham, which takes place in Batman’s universe, they will be staffing in February for episodes beyond a pilot. You can read more about Gotham here.
Reilly also won’t count out X Factor, but has stressed that ratings were not what was expected. A decision has not yet been made about The X Factor’s future.
Sleepy Hollow’s Season 2 order for next season is for 13 episodes, though “we may do more,” Reilly says.
Reilly has confirmed that Bruce Wayne is very much a part of Gotham, starting off the series at “around age 12.” Characters like Penguin, Catwoman, the Riddler, and the Joker were mentioned as being involved. “We will arc young Bruce Wayne from a child to the final episode of the series when he puts on a cape,” Reilly says.
American Idol
American Idol was up next, and the big message here was “they get along” – a big difference from what we had last year where everyone watched to see sparks flying between Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj. The 2014 judges’ line-up is Keith Urban, Jennifer Lopez, and Harry Connick Jr.
Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey
Seth MacFarlane is working with Neil DeGrasse Tyson to bring the classic Cosmos to present day. The show is an exploration of the universe as revealed by science. The new series will go for 13 episodes. The people behind the show were asked why this fits in on FOX, and they all seemed to think it would fit on FOX, not just for the sci-fi stuff, but for MacFarlane’s animation as well.
The Following
The Following Season 2 started off with an impressive promo reel for the January 19 season premiere, as Ryan Hardy’s hunt for Joe Carroll is renewed. The show stars James Purefoy and Kevin Bacon.
Jessica Stroup joins the cast of Season 2 as Ryan Hardy’s niece Max, a cop character that she sees as more like herself than Silver on 90210. However, she said positive things about her 90210 experience.
Surviving Jack
Surviving Jack, from Justin Halpern, Patrick Schumacker, and Bill Lawrence, is an early 90’s tale of a teenager coming of age with the stay-at-home dad from … you know where. The series stars Christopher Meloni, who does a really great comedic turn in this new role that is so different from what we saw on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Connor Buckley plays his very tall son, Frankie. Definitely one of the standout half hours of this season.
Gang Related
The gritty Gang Related stars genre TV favorite Terry O’Quinn alongside Ramon Rodriguez (Charlie’s Angels) and RZA (G.I. Joe: Retaliation) as part of Los Angeles’ elite Gang Task Force. The show looks fairly dark. It will premiere in May, around the time we see 24 again.
FOX Sports
The FOX Sports presentation included the upcoming surely fairly cold Super Bowl XVIII. They keep promoting the game as being played in New York, when it is actually New Jersey. It is quite possible this one will get dumped on with snow… we shall see, right?
