Fox announced today that Kevin Reilly, Chairman of Entertainment, is stepping down from his position by the end of June.
The announcement is not a surprise because their ratings were going down almost as fast as the Titanic did this season. American Idol revamped their show to get more viewers, but the over 40 judging panel caused the show to lose almost a 1/3rd of the viewers they had during their peek. Then there is Glee that saw it’s viewership down to less than 3 million viewers. And yet that show was renewed and Almost Human that saw twice as many viewers was not. On the Almost Human note, the cult cop show was seen by more people than The Following, a show about a cult, and that too was renewed while AH wasn’t. And I think the final nail in his ratings coffin was this Tuesday when I Wanna Marry Harry was seen by just over 1 million people. That is The CW numbers, so that is really really bad for Fox. And I am knocking The CW because I love that network.
While he was ratings challenged this season, I think his other mistake was getting rid of pilot season. As soon as he said that at the Winter TCAs, I knew he was out. And now a few months later he is gone,
What this all mean for Fox’s fall, it is too early to tell. But I do expect that there will be some changes. I also think that there needs to be some changes if they want to keep the network viable. I mean other than Mondays, when they have on Gotham and Sleepy Hollow, I think their lineup is in big trouble. So I really think they will be making some changes. Hopefully it will be picking up the cancelled Almost Human and maybe Enlisted, Surviving Jack and/or Dads and putting them back on the air. Jack did better than Mindy in the ratings and yet she still has a show.
