Complete Coverage: TCA Winter Press Tour 2012
RELATED:Fox Creates New Alternative Animated Content Unit
Pasadena, Calif. -- Fox Entertainment President Kevin Reilly
had to acknowledge the several shows on his network with an uncertain future at
the TCA press tour here on Sunday, and for the most part, their fates still remain
uncertain.
"We've done a good job of avoiding some of these big
decisions," Reilly joked in regards to House,
Terra Nova and Fringe.
Though Reilly hinted at TCA last summer that this season
would likely be House's last, he said
"it's hard to imagine the network without House"
and said that they haven't yet had the big meeting with producers to decide its
fate.
He did say that the producers would be given time to craft a
satisfying ending for fans, saying, "This is not going to be an unceremonious
finish."
As for Terra Nova,
which wrapped its 13-episode first season in December, Reilly said there is a
show to bring back and an audience, especially among families, to access.
While its been suggested the show's massive cost isn't cost-effective
with the ratings it turned in this fall, Reilly stated that both Fox and the
studio, 20th Television, made money on it, and defended the big
swing.
"If the show hadn't worked, I still wouldn't be
apologizing," he said. "I wish it was creatively more consistent this year but
I don't have a lot of regrets about it."
Reilly said that while Fox is still deciding if Terra Nova
is the best show to bring back, the decision will have to be made soon as the
show must get back into production in the case of a second season.
"We won't be able to drag our feet on that for too long," he
said.
Reilly described Fringe,
which was moved to Friday nights last winter and still sees middling ratings
(though it gets one of the highest DVR bumps), as "a point of pride" but noted
that it is an expensive show.
"At that rating, at that night, it's almost impossible for us to
make money on it," he said. "And we're not in the business of losing money."
Reilly again said that Fox hasn't sat down with the Fringe producers yet to make a decision,
and that a season finale script would likely have to be written before the
studio, Warner Bros., was ready to talk about possibly ending the series.
As for Glee, which
Fox has not yet renewed for a fourth season, Reilly clarified that there would
not be a spin-off series and that Lea Michele, Chris Colfer and Cory Monteith's
characters would graduate in May as planned. He teased an "interesting idea"
that will set up the series for next season, but declined to comment further,
only saying that it won't be a radical creative move, "but it's cool, it's
different."
He also said that at least Michele would still be part of the
series in some way past this season.
"Creatively we would want everybody back, but I've got to
look at the contractual situation for all of those," Reilly said referring to
Colfer and Monteith.
Reilly acknowledged the fact that Glee's ratings were down 19 percent this fall, in part because of
the show's three-week hiatus when Fox televised the World Series.
"I do conceive next year, maybe with some different
characters, maybe the ratings go back up, but if it stayed right here in the
mid-fours, that's a show that would work for us," he said.
The only series Reilly made a definitive announcement on was
Allen Gregory, which after being
pulled off Fox's midseason schedule he confirmed Sunday that the network would
not be making any more episodes of the animated comedy.
