Fox Stations Going Into ‘Anger Management’

Fox Television Stations (FTS) and Debmar Mercury have completed a deal that will bring the Lionsgate Television-produced Anger Management to Fox Television Stations for an off-net syndication launch in September 2014. Anger Management stars Charlie Sheen and made its debut on FX in June 2012.

In making the announcement, Frank Cicha, FTS SVP of programming , said in a statement: “Typical wisdom says off-cable shows aren’t right for general syndication, but that’s way too narrow minded for today’s reality. When a program produces these ratings, regardless of the platform, you have to take it seriously. We did, and we expect Anger Management to be a key piece of our sitcom dominance for years to come.”

The following Fox-owned duopolies will debut the hit sitcom: WNYW-WWOR New York; KTTV-KCOP Los Angeles; WFLD-WPWR Chicago; KDFW-KDFI Dallas; WTTG-WDCA Washington; KRIV-KTXH  Houston; KSAZ-KUTP Phoenix; KMSP-WFTC Minneapolis; and WOFL-WRBW Orlando, Fla.

Anger Management will join Fox Television Stations’ roster of off-network comedies, including syndication’s top two sitcoms of the past five years, The Big Bang Theory and 20th Television’s Modern Family. Fox will offer double runs of Anger Management Monday-Sunday.

As part of Debmar-Mercury’s original deal with FX, when Anger Management met a designated average ratings threshold over the airing of eight of the first 10 episodes of the series, it triggered an automatic additional 90-episode order from the network (a model the company pioneered with the Tyler Perry sitcoms House of Payne and Meet The Browns). The program will retain simultaneous exclusive cable rights to its reruns, beginning in fall 2014.

Bruce Helford is executive producer/showrunner. Mark Burg, Joe Roth, Vince Totino and Dave Caplan are executive producers. Anger Management is produced by Lionsgate Television and distributed by Debmar-Mercury.