FX has elected not to pick up Saint George, which premiered its 10-week test run on FX on March 6, to series, according to sources.
Executives at FX were not available at press time to confirm.
Saint George, which starred George Lopez and was produced by Lionsgate Television, didn’t come out of the gate strong, opening at 1.2 million viewers, dropping to less than 0.8 million in its second week and continuing to decline from there.
Had the show met certain predetermined ratings thresholds, FX would have been contractually obligated to order 90 episodes and Lionsgate-owned Debmar-Mercury would have taken the show into broadcast syndication. This is the model that Debmar-Mercury pioneered with Tyler Perry’s House of Payne and continued with Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns and Are We There Yet?, all of which aired on TBS and then moved on to TV stations.
This fall, Debmar-Mercury will roll out another show developed via that 10-90 model — Anger Management, starring Charlie Sheen — on broadcast stations. Even though the companies have decided not to proceed with the show, sources say Lionsgate would be willing to consider working again with Lopez, whose Warner Bros.-produced sitcom, George Lopez, was a solid performer on ABC and aired in syndication from 2002 to 2007.
FX is prepping to test another 10-90 show — Partners, starring Martin Lawrence and Kelsey Grammer — starting Monday, Aug. 4. Lionsgate also has another 10-90 starring Kevin James in the works.
