Dana Walden FOX Television Group Chairman and CEO

Fox’s Dana Walden on Future of 24: Legacy, Renewal Chances

By 24 Spoilers , March 6th, 2017 · 21 comments

Fox Television Group Chairman and CEO Dana Walden spoke at the INTV conference in Jerusalem and was asked about the renewal chances of 24: Legacy by Deadline. Here’s what she had to say:

With regard to 24: Legacy, Walden is feeling mixed. “I’m a little sad because I feel like it’s a really good show. We’re doing about 7-8 million viewers over seven days per episode. It’s not terrible. We had really high hopes for the show.

Perhaps our launch strategy was a little over-ambitious.” The show first aired after the Super Bowl which ran late and the second episode was the following night. “Then we were off to the races,” Walden said, “and there was catch-up involved. I think people weren’t clear about when the next episode would be, even though we messaged a lot. Messages get lost after a game like that. So, I’m feeling mixed.

I feel very proud of the show and extremely grateful to the creators and the great actors who have done a really wonderful job. I’m wondering whether broadcast can sustain something so serialized.”

On its renewal chances, Walden told me, “We’re going to see. I would love nothing more than to bring it back because I thought it was great but we’re just going to have to see how our pilots come in, how it continues to perform and weigh all of the information we have in May.”

It’s not exactly a great sign when one of the key executives in charge of renewals at FOX is “a little sad” and can only describe the ratings as being “not terrible.” Perhaps worst of all, she is questioning whether the heavily serialized format of the show can even work on broadcast television. None of this sounds like good news for 24: Legacy‘s renewal chances.

Walden ends by saying they’ll make a decision in May – FOX’s Upfronts Presentation takes place on May 15th. The entire season of 24: Legacy will have finished airing by then (as will FOX’s other revival, Prison Break). So they will have a complete set of data and trends to look at along with a number of potential new series. At the moment though, it is very much up in the air.

Source Deadline

Related Topics · 24: Legacy, Dana Walden, Future of 24, Ratings

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21 Comments

Comments Closed

Justin Urciuoli

March 6, 2017 at 3:08 pm

I think 24 Legacy will be renewed for another season. Dana Walden has a great relationship with producers of the show. The show has more stories to tell and even admitted the show’s ratings are not terrible or bad. She even said the series is averaging 7-8 million viewers. She is just sad because the show’s ratings are not higher but admitted they were a little over ambitious with their marketing and their launch was a bit flawed.

24 Legacy would be better than a new Pilot as the show is an established brand.

The fact that she loves the show, and said she would love nothing more than to bring the show back is a good sign.

24 Legacy IMO is like CSI, Law and Order, Chicago franchise, star trek and bond. Those spinoffs of the originals started off low in the ratings and grew their fan base as the shows went on. 24 season 1 in 2001 had 7-8 million viewers and grew its viewership in seasons 2-5 after Fox released on DVD and saw the success of it in England.

Its a good sign that Fox measures their shows now with DVR+7 ratings, online and on demand ratings plus how it does as a fox property, story-lines, success in other countries, relationship with producers. Its doing better than many other shows, always makes the top 16 in DVR+7 ratings and they know fans want more Jack, Chloe and Kate.

I think Tony will bring in viewers as well.

24 Legacy I think can sustain as a broadcast show. But I also think there is a possibility Fox and producers can always pitch the show to netflix and the show can live a very long life on netflix as people like to binge watch 24 without commercials due to the serialized nature of the show.

Dana walden’s comments can be interpreted many ways. Words can be interpreted as positive or negative depending on how someone views it. In my views, I think there was a lot of positive here about the future of 24 Legacy. She is not going to be committal to another season at this time as they have no deal in place yet and they still have to hear a pitch of a season 2 from the creators. As well, I am sure the producers of 24 Legacy would be pissed if Fox were not to renew.

A lot of fans on FB have emailed Dana walden telling her why they think the show should be renewed.

Tonight’s episode according to Manny Coto is the best one they have ever done in his opinion.

Also it was the producers who pitched 24 Legacy to Fox not Fox who asked for another 24.

JohnGormleyJG

March 6, 2017 at 3:17 pm

People are probably dismiss or scroll over Justin’s comment. But there are are a lot of good points in here.

JD

March 7, 2017 at 10:09 am

People have good reason to dismiss him–all he ever talks about are the ratings of this show and how they are “spellbinding” despite looking otherwise.

Oh, and it doesn’t help his reputation as some of us knew him from IMDB.com where he kept flooding the 24 boards with the same messages.

So, yes–people have good reason to dismiss him and no–I haven’t seen a “good point” from him yet.

Clem Fandango

March 6, 2017 at 6:30 pm

Where did Manny Coto say tonights was the best ever??
I would have thought they would be bragging more about tonys return.

XAM

March 6, 2017 at 4:37 pm

PLEASE make one final season with Jack and Tony, and pretty fucking please make it the final, definitive ending… even if you’re tempted by the thought of making more when ratings skyrocket (which they will).

You’re always stuck in a catch 22 with Fox.

Low ratings? Fuck you it’s cancelled!
High ratings? Fuck you, make some more!

JD

March 7, 2017 at 10:10 am

Pffft!!! Good luck with that wish. They wouldn’t even let Chris Carter end The X-Files on all the occasions he wanted to, leaving us with nothing but incomplete endings for Mulder/Scully.

William R Futrell jr

April 4, 2017 at 9:12 pm

I’m with ya on that.Bring back Jack.Its just not the same without him.

Justin Urciuoli

March 6, 2017 at 5:16 pm

I do think the chances of 24 Legacy getting renewed by Fox is good as ratings could be doing much worse then they are. Also Fox trusts Howard Gordon, Manny Coto, Jon Cassar, Robert Cochran, Joel Surnow, Kiefer Sutherland, David Fury, etc. Also Dana’s comments can be interpreted in many different ways either positive or negative depending on a person’s mindset or view. No interpretation is right or wrong. But I also think Dana maybe made it seem a little bit worse than it had to be as maybe she wants to stir up reaction for 24 Legacy!

24 Spoilers

March 6, 2017 at 8:53 pm

I don’t see how Dana Walden’s comments can be interpreted “many different ways.” Nothing was ambiguous about her statement at all.

The ratings for 24: Legacy failed to live up to Fox’s expectations which made her sad/disappointed. She is not sure the format is sustainable on a broadcast network (which Fox obviously is). Unlike other Fox mid-season series that got early renewals (STAR, The Mick), they’re waiting to see how Legacy performs for the rest of the season, likely because it keeps dropping week after week. And they’re also waiting for their pilots to come in (which basically means if they have pilots they think will perform better than 24: Legacy, they’ll do those instead of renewing 24).

The only remotely positive thing Walden said was that she’s “proud” of the show/creators which is a meaningless statement to be honest. That doesn’t mean anything when it comes to renewing shows.

Jacob Black

March 6, 2017 at 9:36 pm

OK let’s say if the ratings stabilize/improve and their pilots aren’t great, Dana & co consider renewing it. I wonder if they’ll have some stipulations for the producers… like you have to bring back more characters from the original show, you have to get rid of these characters from Legacy, and then pitch the story of the second season two us. Then if we like the pitch, we’ll renew. And we’ll make it more consumable for broadcast television by releasing two episodes per week, so ensure plenty of lead-time. I think that’s what I would do if I were them, especially since over half of Fox’s current offerings are doing worse. Better yet Prison Break gets renewed for season six and is paired with Legacy season two. We know that is a good pairing as it has worked well for Fox in the past. So basically if Dana & co go forward with hindsight in mind, Legacy could work long-term.

24marathonman

March 6, 2017 at 10:07 pm

I bet Amazon or Netflix will pick it up if FOX does not renew.

Justin Urciuoli

March 10, 2017 at 5:18 pm

Dana only said she was a little sad about the ratings being not higher. But she even admitted the 7-8 million viewers is not terrible or bad. That is positive right there. She also admitted their launch strategy for the show was over ambitious and flawed. Positive right there. She said the show is really good, she is proud of the show, the creators and cast and would love nothing to bring the show back. Positive again. If they renew The Exorcist which is a more serialized show than 24 Legacy can get renewed. The show was on for 15 years and was able to sustain itself as a serialized show for that long. So IMHO it is sustainable. Also 24 Legacy is more well established than their pilots and an in house production. Fox knows there is more story to tell for 24 Legacy, fans want to see Jack, Chloe and Kate again, its making money in 160 countries, and 12 episodes is way less cheaper to produce than a 22-24 episode show. Fox Dana walden and Gary Newman have been long time supporters of 24 and they trust the producers and have a great relationship with them

Kevin

March 6, 2017 at 5:34 pm

Wouldn’t be shocked or surprised if 24: Legacy gets renewed. We know that the Eric Carter character should become a CTU agent right up until the final hour and the casting of Corey Hawkins is good as the new lead in my opinion if you “trolls” don’t believe me.

Acer4666

March 6, 2017 at 8:12 pm

I wouldn’t be too surprised if Legacy is the nail in the coffin of 24. It’s a shame that Fox hold the rights and are unlikely to do anything particularly fresh with it. A company like Netflix would probably give a creatively ambitious production team a chance with the formula, and then it would see some decent ratings over time. But if they just crank out the same stuff as they are doing, it will just be a slow death, as we are seeing.

Jacob Black

March 6, 2017 at 9:07 pm

I think the producers underestimated the value audiences have for characters they fall in love with. When you bring an old show back from the dead, it needs to have what people remember. They thought the format was the star… WRONG! This is fundamental… it’s an emotional connection with the characters. That’s why 24 didn’t get cancelled after the disappointing season 6 and more people tuned in for season 7… because it was a continuation of the characters people loved like Tony, Chloe, Bill and Jack. If you have enough of those alumni in there without Jack, then it still feels like 24. But in the case of 24: Legacy it feels hollowed out… like the same sort of things are happening BUT I DON’T CARE MUCH ABOUT THE PEOPLE THEY’RE HAPPENING TO.

What would have been a much better pitch is if the producers came to Kiefer and said we have a great idea for season 9 part 2… You are brought back to LA by the Russians covertly, only to escape and die saving your daughter and her family. Then the rest of the season explores the conspiracy behind the death of Jack Bauer, and all the characters grieving for him as well. And Kiefer might’ve agreed to it because he wanted his character to be killed, and for 24 to continue without him. But no FOX refused for him to die, and now he’s in limbo, while the other characters are put on the backburner because Kiefer won’t sign on for anymore 24. And now FOX is gonna be like “well I guess 24 doesn’t work without Kiefer, we tried, but it’s dead.” So in conclusion I think the blame rests on the producers.

24marathonman

March 6, 2017 at 10:23 pm

Agreed they should have brought back more of the old characters even if they couldn’t get Jack back. They should have used season 4 as a guide. Season 4 was a masterpiece on how they blended together the old characters (Michelle, Tony, David Palmer) who were on their way out and the new characters (Heller, Audrey, Cheng, Edgar, Bill) who were on their way in. Chloe, Nadia, Karen even Arlo or Hastings would have been a help this season. Just a lot more of the familiar faces.

24marathonman

March 6, 2017 at 10:47 pm

Heck, since Keifer is no longer in the cast, maybe Cole Ortiz could come back, LOL.

TJ

March 7, 2017 at 12:43 am

Plain and simple, the acting in the series across the board has been mediocre and none of the characters being played are compelling enough to root for or want to see more of them – whether it’s the Carter lead, the filler plotlines of the wife/drug brother; the senator/father; or CTU analyst and his implied male relationship with an agent, they’re all boring.

Frankly, after watching the first 3-4 episodes in their entirety, I’ve lost hope for it getting any better. Like the Bourne series tried to do with another lead actor in a one-off sequel, this reboot with a new cast is as flat as 4-day old soda; if Walden really is a supporter of the show and its legacy, she should persuade Kiefer to finish out the cliffhangers from S9 next season.

RapineDel

March 7, 2017 at 8:27 am

I think it’s gotten better. Episodes 5 and 6 were a lot better then the first 4. Some of the main cast are definitely quite ordinary but I’ve definitely seen worse. I think most of the problems come from Fox wanting to keep it dumbed down, if it was on a better network like Homeland is or even Netflix etc. I think a show like this could do much better viewer/quality wise.

Jay

March 7, 2017 at 7:12 pm

I think WAY TOO MUCH info is revealed in the trailers for the next episode. The suspense is not completely there and this has been a problem for this show for a number of years.

With that said, I think they need to bring back Charles Logan, Chloe O’Brian, and either Belcheck or Heller to make the show feel like 24 again. I think Keifer is still holding out for a 24 movie and I think they tried to appease him with Redemption, which if the quality/ratings for Redemption is any indicator, that is why we will never see a 24 movie.