FX will keep TV peaking in 2022 with several new star-studded shows

It’s a good day to be an FX fan. The cable network’s CEO John Landgraf provided an update on several upcoming projects during the Television Critics Association’s (TCA) 2022 winter press tour. FX is currently home to dramas like Snowfall, American Crime Story, and comedies like What We Do In The Shadows and Dave. It’s now ramping up its slate of new shows for 2022 and beyond to fully embrace the Peak TV era.

Part of the reason for the push is the fact that FX, FXX, and National Geographic, among other cable channels, bled into Disney’s portfolio when the House Of Mouse acquired 21st Century Fox in 2017. The deal included a stake in Hulu, and is why FX has set up a hub on the streaming platform as well. Some of its original programming, like Reservation Dogs and Mrs. America, debuted on FX on Hulu to boost that partnership.

Landgraf said during the TCA panel that most of FX’s upcoming shows will continue to stream in a similar manner with a few exceptions. “Roughly speaking, if you look across the next couple of years, we’re at par and sustaining the linear channel shows and output, and then we’re radically ramping up the number of new shows on streaming with FX on Hulu,” he said.

“Where there’s a lot of hunger for branded FX content is on Hulu. That’s great, that’s a new hungry mouth to feed,” Landgraf continued, adding that he hopes they can contribute to Disney’s growing global streamers like Disney+. With two of its shows confirmed to end this year—Better Things and Atlanta—Landgraf provided an update on new original programming at the TCA executive session.

First up is Under The Banner Of Heaven, based on Jon Krakauer’s book of the same. Led by Andrew Garfield and Daisy Edgar-Jones, it follows a Mormon detective whose faith by a murder investigation in which the church seems to be involved. The show will arrive this spring. Danny Boyle’s Pistol, which tells the story of British rock band Sex Pistols, will premiere in May. It stars Toby Wallace and Maisie Williams.

Atlanta EP and director Hiro Murai produces the upcoming The Bear, a half-hour comedy about a young chef who returns to his hometown of Chicago to run his family’s restaurant. It will premiere exclusively on Hulu this summer. Landgraf also announced that production has resumed on Jeff Bridges-led drama The Old Man, wherein he plays a man who disappeared from the CIA decades ago and has been living off-the-grid since. It will premiere on FX.

He also announced three new shows that are currently in production and will premiere later this year: The Patient, Class Of ’09, Fleishman Is In Trouble. The former marks Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields’ return to FX post-The Americans. The Patient is a taut psychological thriller starring Steve Carell and Domhnall Gleeson.

Meanwhile, the limited series Class Of ’09 is an FBI suspense thriller starring Brian Tyree Henry and Kate Mara. Finally, Fleishman Is In Trouble is an adaptation of Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s book of the same name. The cast is led by Jesse Eisenberg, Lizzy Caplan, and Claire Danes.

Weisberg and Fields, along with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Darren Aronofsky, are also producing an adaptation of Octavia Butler’s Kindred. This eight-episode sci-fi series centers on a young Black woman and aspiring writer who uproots her life of familial obligation and relocated to Los Angeles. Before she can settle into her new home, she finds herself being violently pulled back in time to a 19th-century plantation to which she and her family are surprisingly and intimately linked. It goes into production later this year.

Feeling overwhelmed already? Well, the cabler is also serving up the animated series Little Demon (starring Aubrey Plaza and Danny DeVito), as well as the docuseries Dear Mama and Welcome To Wrexham set for this year. Landgraf also touted 2023 programming, which includes a new season of Fargo, a Justified revival, Noah Hawley’s TV show set in the Alien movie franchise, a Shogun adaptation, Great Expectations (which stars Olivia Colman and more), and Brit Marling’s murder mystery series Retreat.