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When Comedy Central and 20th Century Fox announced that Futurama would be returning, the press release had an interesting section that read, "Twentieth Century Fox Television retains the option to license the original runs of the new episodes to a broadcast network." This opened the door for the brand new episodes to potentially air on any of the networks, should a deal be made, but the most obvious place this would happen was FOX – After all, the show first aired on that network, and the 20th Century Fox/FOX network corporate connection made it seem likely as well.
So far though no such deal has been announced and this morning, I asked FOX Broadcasting Company's President of Entertainment Kevin Reilly about whether the network was considering airing Futurama before Comedy Central. Reilly's answer seemed to imply that in fact FOX has decided to see the numbers on cable first instead, as he told me, "Well, it's going to do its run on Comedy Central first and [we'll] see how it fares," implying FOX might consider airing the show again after Comedy Central. It's worth noting Comedy Central has ordered 26 episodes, which are likely being broken up over two years, so if FOX cut a new deal for Futurama after episodes began premiering on Comedy Central, some new installments could still then debut first on FOX.
Said Reilly of Futurama's potentially ever returning to FOX, "Obviously, that was the
Family Guy story. They really saw a lot of continued commercial business on that and a lot of fan interest, and so obviously that's what led to that order. If we see a renaissance with the show -- it's a good show, we really like the show -- sure, that's not out of the equation."
Reilly reiterated that there "is a negotiated window" where Futurama could be picked up to air on a network before Comedy Central, but added, "We have not committed to airing that."
source
So far though no such deal has been announced and this morning, I asked FOX Broadcasting Company's President of Entertainment Kevin Reilly about whether the network was considering airing Futurama before Comedy Central. Reilly's answer seemed to imply that in fact FOX has decided to see the numbers on cable first instead, as he told me, "Well, it's going to do its run on Comedy Central first and [we'll] see how it fares," implying FOX might consider airing the show again after Comedy Central. It's worth noting Comedy Central has ordered 26 episodes, which are likely being broken up over two years, so if FOX cut a new deal for Futurama after episodes began premiering on Comedy Central, some new installments could still then debut first on FOX.
Said Reilly of Futurama's potentially ever returning to FOX, "Obviously, that was the
Family Guy story. They really saw a lot of continued commercial business on that and a lot of fan interest, and so obviously that's what led to that order. If we see a renaissance with the show -- it's a good show, we really like the show -- sure, that's not out of the equation."
Reilly reiterated that there "is a negotiated window" where Futurama could be picked up to air on a network before Comedy Central, but added, "We have not committed to airing that."
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