Complete Coverage: Upfronts 2012
New York -- While FX spent the last year prioritizing the
launch of new comedies -- Wilfred and Unsupervised as well as the upcoming
Charlie Sheen vehicle Anger Management and late night shows with Russell Brand
and W. Kamau Bell
-- its focus in the upcoming year will be on dramas, said FX President John
Landgraf at the network's upfront event Thursday evening.
In addition to its previously ordered pilot for the spydrama The Americans
-- which has cast Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys in the leads -- Landgraf said two
or three more drama pilots will be announced in the coming months, with the
goal of getting two new series on the air by this time next year.
Landgraf also addressed the recent reports of ratings declines
at the top 10 cable networks in the first quarter of 2012, and said that FX
expected the dip because its inventory of movies was down in the first quarter,
and that it did not have to offer make-goods to advertisers as a result. And
while Landgraf said he could not speak for other networks, he said, "I don't
feel like that's a trend that's going to continue" at FX in 2012.
In other announcements: Despite the series lacklusterratings,
FX has greenlit a second season of the animated Unsupervised. The comedy from
the writers of Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia drew 510,000 total viewers in
its last original episode, according to Nielsen; its lead-in, Archer, drew 1.3 million viewers.
FX held its annual upfront party at Lucky Strike Lanes,
where media buyers participated in a bowling tournament alongside network stars
like Sheen, Louis C.K. and Timothy Olyphant.
