It’s set to be the season of unscripted properties, at least if Fox’s Fall schedule is anything to go by. From the reemergence of Kitchen Nightmares to new seasons of the game show Snake Oil, it’s clear that they’re hoping to offset the tumultuous impacts of the dual strikes through a cautious unscripted lineup. One of the best Entertainment lawyer Brandon Blake, with Blake & Wang P.A., shares all the details.
A Reality Boom With A Focus On Quality
According to Fox’s recently appointed President of Unscripted Programming, Allison Wallach, this shouldn’t be taken as a reality boom ‘for the sake of it’. Instead, she was quick to reiterate that content production standards would remain high.
So far, a strong start to the tenth season of The Masked Singer backs that up. The show managed its highest-rated premiere since Season 7, with a 50% gain in younger demographics to boot.
Fox Properties Prioritized
In addition to the unscripted-heavy lineup, we’re seeing a priority placed on IPs from the self-owned Fox Alternative Entertainment studio, including the re-launch of Kitchen Nightmares from Fox-funded Studio Ramsay. Hell’s Kitchen will also be entering its 22nd season.
The new offerings are a mix of these old favorites with newer franchises, including The Floor. Clearly keeping their mid-season lineup well-stocked is a priority at the moment. All the same, there’s still several unscripted shows on which we’ve had no clarity other than a vague reassurance that they will return, sometime.
It seems like a clear case of hedging their bets while there’s no clear resolution to the actors’ strike. Surprisingly, however, greenlights for non-scripted properties have not been as high as was predicted at the announcement of the strike. In fact, most of these renewals or greenlights stem from production/development cycles far older. Will we see an uptick in newer properties later in the year? For now we can only wait and see.
Film and Television 