How Fox landed its ‘Finest’ hour for fall
Q: I was surprised to hear that Fox is picking up “L.A’s Finest” for its fall schedule. Has that ever happened before, with a streaming or On Demand series going to a broadcast network? – Tim Wells, via e-mail
A: Very rarely. We’d point to two examples that involved CBS All Access, one being “Star Trek: Discovery” – which aired its premiere episode on the parent CBS network (in a broadcastedited form) the same night it began on the streaming service – and the other being “The Good Fight,” which ran its first season on CBS (also in an edited version) some time after it had finished on CBS All Access.
The CW, which CBS partially owns, will be doing something similar with a couple of shows in the months leading up to the start of its new season (which it intends to launch in January).
It also has acquired another CBS All Access show “Tell Me a Story” (which ended its two-season life there this past February) as well as “Swamp Thing,” which originally was streamed on DC Universe.
Back on “L.A.’s Finest,” an irony of it ending up on Fox is that it was sold to (and ultimately turned down by) NBC before becoming a series initially available only On Demand for subscribers to the Spectrum cable system. (A number of streaming services began carrying it later.) The “Bad Boys”-inspired police show is expected to debut its second season later this year on Spectrum, and it has two marketable stars in Jessica Alba and Gabrielle Union, which undoubtedly was a factor when Fox got a shot at it.