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Top-rated procedural 9-1-1 cancelled at Fox, jumps to Disney’s ABC for S7

Angela Bassett as Athena Grant in 9-1-1

US procedural 9-1-1, which is the top-rated series on US broadcaster Fox, is moving to Disney-owned ABC for its seventh season after the Murdoch family-owned network opted not to renew it.

The series, produced by Disney’s 20th Television in association with Ryan Murphy Television and Brad Falchuk Teley-Vision and starring Angela Bassett and Peter Krause, will join ABC’s 2023/24 programming line-up.

While Fox is not renewing 9-1-1, it has renewed its spin-off series 9-1-1: Lone Star for a fifth season. Both series are created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Tim Minear.

The reason behind Fox’s decision to cancel 9-1-1 is understood to be a financial one. The series, which is produced by Disney’s 20th Television (formerly known as 20th Century Fox), was developed and commissioned at a time when the broadcaster and studio were both under the Fox umbrella.

That changed when Disney acquired Fox’s entertainment assets in 2019, after which Fox no longer held any ownership in the property. According to reports, Fox was paying upwards of US$9m per episode for 9-1-1, a steep price in a challenging economic environment even for a proven ratings winner on US broadcast. Another factor in the cancellation is that ratings have started to drop off slightly, making the per-episode cost harder to justify.

At the same time, Fox Entertainment is now pursuing a strategy built around ownership and joint ownership of content, and is building a robust stable of in-house assets (including Fox Alternative Entertainment, Studio Ramsay Global, Bento Box Entertainment, Fox Entertainment Studios, TMZ and MarVista Entertainment) that are able to supply programming to the main Fox network at a much lower cost.

“It has been an honour 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. We wish them well after 9-1-1’s final Fox season concludes,” said Fox.

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