Fox Defends Canceling 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' & 'Lucifer'; NBC Explains Saving B99

Fox also explained why it saved "Last Man Standing."

These past couple of weeks have been sheer madness on the TV schedule front. Canceled, renewed, saved, on the bubble. One of the biggest headlines last week was Fox dumping "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," only for NBC to pick it up just one day later.

NBC entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt explained why they so quickly saved the show (via EW):

"Brooklyn is a show our company produces for Fox, so it's a show that's very close to us. I've been saying to certain people in the press that if we knew Andy Samberg was going to be cast in that show, we never would have sold it to Fox. We've been watching it closely ever since. ... We jumped on it really quickly and are thrilled to have it and think it fits into our brand of comedy in many ways better than it fit into Fox's brand of comedy. It feels like it goes along shows like A.P. Bio, Will & Grace, Superstore, and The Good Place. ... It's also one of the few comedies in recent years that does a robust international number, and it has a syndication upside, which a lot of shows don't have anymore."

Greenblatt said it was great to see that the fans were as outraged as they were by Fox's B99 cancellation. But it sounds like the fan push to renew the show wasn't really a big factor for NBC, since they were already on the same page.

However, he added, "We love when fans yell and scream on Twitter, but we hope that transfers and they watch the show." Yeah, don't forget to watch the show. Hopefully NBC just puts it on at one specific day and time and doesn't move it around. Fox didn't seem to know what to do with it.

Speaking of Fox, the network revealed its Fall 2018-2019 schedule on Monday. Fox Television Group Chairmen and CEO Dana Walden answered why they canceled "Brooklyn Nine-Nine":

"It was based on a variety of factors. We love this show, those are great creators, it's a phenomenal cast. We ordered it throughout five seasons. It's a great length of time for a single-camera comedy. Ultimately we felt like we didn't have the exact right place to schedule it this year. It performed best in our Sunday night lineup. We wanted to give Bob's Burgers an opportunity to have a plum time period and really grow. It really limited the opportunities to schedule Brooklyn. With Thursday Night Football, there were two fewer hours to program. We were trying to create a more cohesive program, and scheduling Brooklyn would prevent us from promoting something new. Ultimately we decided we just didn't have room for it and were trying we're really happy its found a new home."

Walden also addressed picking up ABC's canceled "Last Man Standing," sort of tying it to the success of "Roseanne" but also emphasizing that they were interested even before that revival:

"Obviously I think everyone took a good hard look at the performance of Roseanne. It did so well and it certainly did remind us that we have a huge iconic comedy star in our fox family in Tim Allen. We tried to move Last Man Standing over last year when ABC decided not to move forward. It's a really funny show. It had nothing to do with Roseanne that we were interested in the first place. We always felt like ABC didn't really prioritize Last Man Standing. We always wondered how it would do if it was given a better opportunity and prioritized more in terms of a network's agenda. We were emboldened by Roseanne."

During Fox's upfront press call on Monday, execs were also asked about canceling "Lucifer."

Fox chairman Gary Newman said that was "a ratings-based decision; we had very a successful late year with all four new dramas renewed. We felt like performance-wise, we needed to make that change."

So, in business-speak, it's great that passionate fans got #SaveLucifer trending, but there weren't enough of those fans to make the show competitive enough to stay on the schedule for a fourth season.

Here's the Fox fall schedule (times ET/PT):

MONDAY

8:00-9:00 PM THE RESIDENT

9:00-10:00 PM 9-1-1

TUESDAY

8:00-9:00 PM THE GIFTED

9:00-10:00 PM LETHAL WEAPON

WEDNESDAY

8:00-9:00 PM EMPIRE

9:00-10:00 PM STAR

THURSDAY

7:30-8:00 PM ET/ THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL PREGAME SHOW

4:30-5:00 PM PT

8:00 PM-CC ET/ NFL FOOTBALL

5:00 PM-CC PT

FRIDAY

8:00-8:30 PM LAST MAN STANDING (all-new episodes)

8:30-9:00 PM THE COOL KIDS (new series)

9:00-10:00 PM HELL'S KITCHEN

SATURDAY

7:00-10:30 PM FOX SPORTS SATURDAY: FOX COLLEGE FOOTBALL

SUNDAY

7:00-7:30 PM NFL ON FOX

7:30-8:00 PM THE OT / FOX ENCORES

8:00-8:30 PM THE SIMPSONS

8:30-9:00 PM BOB'S BURGERS

9:00-9:30 PM FAMILY GUY

9:30-10:00 PM REL (new series)

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