Just because a massive merger between Disney and Fox is underway, don’t expect The X-Files to eventually serve as a lead-in to Grey’s Anatomy.
“Fox Broadcasting Shows will continue to be on FBC,” Chairman and CEO Dana Walden told reporters Thursday in Pasadena. “There is no plans to move Fox shows over to ABC.”
But there will be a new division as part of the billion-dollar merger. Fox Broadcasting Co, along with Fox News and the Fox owned and operated stations, will be spun off into the “new Fox,” explained Fox TV Group Chairman Gary Newman.
“It will be a very robust, nimble company,” Newman told reporters during the semi-annual Television Critics Association tour. “It’s an exciting and dynamic time for the TV business. New Fox will chart a new course.”
For the next 12 to 18 months, however, it will remain business as usual. “I do not mean to say what the future is,” cautions Newman. “The truth is, we don’t really know. We have to operate as if the deal won’t go through. Our anticipation is that it will go through… it will pass regulatory muster. This development season, we are reading scripts. We will make a similar amount of pilots as we have made in the past. We aren’t going to worry about what happens down the road when this deal happens.”
There haven’t even been creative discussions about the content, Newman added, though he is confident that Disney won’t “Disney-fy” their shows. “They were incredibly vocal to us about how much they liked our brand, how much they admired the programming,” he told reporters. “We have every expectation they are not acquiring Fox to somehow turn it into some form of a PG company, to ‘Disney-fy’ it. They will be encouraging of our content.”
(Excerpt) Read more in: Entertainment Weekly