Fox

Anthony Anderson has been tapped as host of the 75th Emmy Awards on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan. 15, 2024. The three-hour ceremony, delayed from its original September 2023 date because of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, will air live coast-to-coast on Fox.

Fox will air the special M*A*S*H: The Comedy That Changed Television on New Year’s Day. The special goes for two hours and features cast members Alan Alda, Gary Burghoff, William Christopher, Jamie Farr, Mike Farrell, Wayne Rogers and Loretta Swit, and executive producers Gene Reynolds and Burt Metcalfe, sharing their memories of the venerable show.

So You Think You Can Dance returns to Fox on March 4 for Season 18. Joining Nigel Lythgoe on the judging panel are Allison Hoker, choreographer for Dancing with the Stars, and Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who was a professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars. Cat Deeley returns as host.

Fox Television Stations is urging the FCC to renew the license of its WTXF Philadelphia “without delay,” claiming opponents have turned the renewal into a quarrel over issues that fall outside the scope of the agency’s review.

The rivalry game between the No. 2 and No. 3 teams averaged more than 19 million viewers on Fox this past Saturday, marking the largest audience for their matchup since 2006 (when the teams were No. 1 and No. 2). That game holds the audience record with 21 million viewers on ABC. While this game always manages decent viewership, it’s likely this is its peak for a while, given the increased interest in Michigan this season due to head coach Jim Harbaugh’s suspension over an illegal scouting scandal.

Fox is looking to March for the return of its scripted slate. The network has unveiled its midseason schedule including the return of The Cleaning Lady, Alert: Missing Persons Unit and Animal Control. The trio of scripted shows are premiering at the beginning of March following the writers and actors strike. Elsewhere, Family Guy is moving to a midweek slot on Wednesdays after Animal Control, building out another comedy hour. It is thought to be the first time that Peter Griffin and family have aired midweek on Fox.

The company has hired Google exec Rachel Berk as SVP, distribution, platform partnerships. In the newly created role, Berk will manage partnerships for Fox brands including Tubi across connected TV services. Reporting to BJ Elias, EVP of distribution, advanced services, Berk will lead the platform distribution team, responsible for the domestic and international distribution of connected TV services from Fox brands including Tubi, Fox Sports, Fox Local, Fox News and Fox Nation across platforms including Amazon, Roku and Samsung.

According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, the fifth season of the spinoff series will consist of 12 episodes. Fox will use Lone Star, its highest-rated drama, to launch its new shows Doc and Rescue: Hi-Surf, both of which were ordered earlier this year but have yet to begin production.

The newest surprise at Fox’s Masked Singer isn’t tied to an appearance by a mysterious celebrity. On Wednesday night, the popular reality-competition program will bring an advertiser into its format for the first time since launching in 2019. From the opening shot to the end of the contest, Singer will use characters and other trappings from Universal’s new Trolls Band Together movie, slated to open on Friday. Singer panelist Ken Jeong will even be spotted wearing a colored wig to make himself look more like one of the creatures in the animated film.

Anthony Anderson will host a midseason musical game show for Fox with his mother. Jamie Foxx executive produces We Are Family, and it will premiere Wednesday, Jan. 3. It will showcase non-famous relatives of celebrities executing solo performances and duets with their hidden famous family member.

Lowe also produces the “massive” 81-contestant gamer, which premieres in January.

Fox is telling the FCC that documents its critics want the regulator to compel it to produce aren’t relevant to a challenge to the company’s license for WTXF Philadelphia — a challenge Fox says the commission should reject.

Fox will be continuing its “She’s a Hero” campaign by putting a spotlight on women in STEM during Thursday’s episode of Lego Masters. Fox’s She’s a Hero is part of the Association of National Advertisers’ SeeHer initiative, designed to provide accurate portrayals of women and girls in media. L’Oreal Paris continues as sponsor of Fox’s “She’s a Hero” effort.

Welcome to Flatch will not see season three on Fox. Jenny Bicks writes and executive produces the single-cam, documentary-style comedy, and Paul Feig directs and executive produces. The show premiered in March 2022.

Even now, in his emeritus status, he will continue to offer counsel to his successor, son Lachlan Murdoch. And the elder Mr. Murdoch indicated in a statement to employees that he intended to be active in providing that counsel. But the announcement was nonetheless potentially epochal, marking at least the formal end to an active career during which the senior Murdoch built the most important and politically influential media empire on the planet. His companies, infused with a brand of right-wing populism, have amassed the power to shape, and at times make or break, presidents and prime ministers.

In a significant shakeup of pro wrestling programming, WWE SmackDown will leave Fox and jump to USA Network, beginning in October 2024. In addition, the WWE will produce four primetime specials per year, which will air in primetime on the NBC broadcast network.

Technology leaders from Fox Corp., Sinclair, Ross Video and Evertz will discuss how technology, IT and security leaders at media companies and broadcast technology companies are working together to secure the supply chain in a panel at TVNewsCheck’s Cybersecurity for Broadcasters Retreat, set for Oct. 26 at NAB Show New York. Register here.

Fox scored a record audience with its broadcast of Colorado’s win against TCU on Saturday. The football game, which was watched by nearly 7.3M people, was the most-watched telecast of the day on any network. It also set the record for Fox’s most-watched Week 1 Big Noon Saturday matchup ever — up 17% over the program’s 2022 average (an audience of about 6.2M). On Fox Sports’ digital platforms, the game also managed to become the fourth most-streamed college football game in the network’s history.

ESPN scores second place primetime finish.

Nexstar and Fox today announced that they have reached a comprehensive multi-year agreement renewing the Fox affiliations of 29 Nexstar-owned stations across the United States, including those in six of […]

Harold Feld: “While getting the FCC to hold a hearing — let alone deny Fox29’s application for renewal — is certainly a long shot given how the FCC works, this is not a frivolous claim. To the contrary, it raises some very interesting questions from an FCC law perspective. So it is worth actually walking through the process here and what questions the FCC would need to resolve either to dismiss the petition to deny or to designate for a hearing. Because ultimately, unless the FCC finds a procedural deficiency, the FCC is going to have to actually write up a real and binding decision with real consequences and real precedential value.

The challenge to Fox’s WTXF Philadelphia license is drawing a crowd, including founding president of Fox Broadcasting Jamie Kellner. Already this week Alfred Sikes, the Republican FCC chairman whose commission helped pave the way for the creation of a fourth network, registered his support for holding a hearing on Fox’s qualifications to be an FCC licensee. Now Kellner, along with former Democratic FCC Commissioner Ervin Duggan and ex-Fox News Channel commentator Bill Kristol, former editor of The Weekly Standard, have joined the chorus of Fox critics.

Gordon Ramsay’s MasterChef has been renewed for a 14th season at Fox ahead of airing its milestone 250th episode Wednesday at 8 p.m.

Fox is invoking the First Amendment in its opposition to a challenge to its character qualifications to hold an FCC broadcast license. The Media and Democracy Project (MAD), citing Fox’s settlement of the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit over election misinformation, last month challenged the renewal of Fox’s WTFX Philadelphia, and by extension Fox’s character qualifications for holding any TV station licenses at all. According to a copy of its opposition to that challenge, filed with the FCC Wednesday (Aug. 2), Fox says MAD has failed to make a case that Fox’s license renewal should be denied and is treading dangerous ground.

The game on Monday in Auckland, New Zealand, which kicked off at 3 a.m. ET, averaged 1,354,000 viewers. Fox and Nielsen said the audience peaked at 1.73 million for the final 15 minutes. Fox said the match was the most-watched overnight program in its history.

The game on Thursday afternoon in Wellington, New Zealand, which kicked off at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday night, averaged 6,429,000 viewers on Fox, making it the most-watched group stage telecast since Fox started covering it in 2015. Fox and Nielsen said the audience peaked at 8.45 million for the final 15 minutes.

CBS and Fox weighed in on their upfronts today, following NBC last week. CBS has closed its 2024 selling season up “low-to-mid single digits” in dollar commitments. Fox Corp. showed gains in news and is looking at a fall slate of sports, animated and unsripted content. Both companies, along with the rest of the television industry, have been in unusually protracted negotiations amid unprecedented Hollywood labor action and a problematic ad market.

Several of the country’s biggest entertainment and streaming companies are teaming up to fight hundreds of local broadcasters over a years-old provision that would determine whether they are forced to negotiate directly with those local stations for distribution deals.  The Preserve Viewer Choice Coalition, which launched Wednesday, is made up of major entertainment companies and their broadcast networks, including Disney/ABC, Paramount/CBS, Fox Corp./Fox, NBCUniversal/NBC/Telemundo, Warner Bros. Discovery, Univision and Roku.

The United States’ 3-0 victory over Vietnam in the Women’s World Cup drew 6.26 million viewers, making it the most-watched soccer telecast in the U.S. since last year’s men’s World Cup final. It is also the largest combined English- and Spanish-language audience for a U.S. women’s group stage match.