Cable networks continue to order up original drama series to compete head to head with broadcast nets. FX announced that it has placed series orders for two new dramas – 13 episodes each.
FX President and General Manager John Landgraf says “Terriers” is tentatively slated to premiere next summer and “Lights Out” in late 2010.
Terriers, from Creator/Executive Producer Ted Griffin and Executive Producer Shawn Ryan, is a comedic drama starring Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James. It centers on “Hank Dolworth” (Logue), an ex-cop who partners with his best friend “Britt Pollack” (Raymond-James) to launch an unlicensed private investigation business. The duo, both struggling with maturity issues, solve crimes while avoiding danger and responsibility. Craig Brewer directed the pilot episode. Terriers is produced by Fox 21.
Lights Out, from Executive Producer/Showrunner Warren Leight and Creator/Executive Producer Justin Zackham, stars Holt McCallany as an aging former heavyweight boxing champion who struggles to find his identity and support his wife and three daughters after retiring from the ring. Financial problems leave him at a perilous crossroads battling the urge to return to boxing or reluctantly accepting a job as a brutal and intimidating debt collector. Clark Johnson directed the pilot episode. Phillip Noyce and Ross Fineman are also Executive Producers. Lights Out is produced by Fox Television Studios and FX Productions.
“The series orders for Terriers and Lights Out cap off an unprecedented year of program development for FX,” said Landgraf. “It’s great to be back in business with Shawn Ryan, who ignited the network’s successful run of original programming seven years ago with the launch of The Shield. With Terriers, Ted Griffin and Shawn have come up with a very entertaining comedic drama that’s a bit of a departure in tone of an FX series, but lives up to the quality of the network. In Lights Out, Warren Leight and Justin Zackham have delivered a very compelling character in Patrick ‘Lights’ Leary, and we were just blown away by the performance of Holt McCallany in the lead role,” he said.
With the pick-ups of Terriers and Lights Out, FX will be airing seven dramas and four comedies as original scripted programming. In 2009, FX said it went six-for-six on pilot-to-series orders, picking up three dramas and three comedies.
