If FX chief John Landgraf thought we’d hit “Peak TV”—a term he personally coined at the Television Critics Press Tour in 2015—before his network was absorbed by Disney in 2019, there was only one word strong enough to describe the unknown landscape that lay ahead in 2020.
“It’s just bananas,” Landgraf said at the TCA Winter Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif. Thursday of the impending volume of U.S. scripted original series, which is now set to top 2019’s total of 532. “Given that the streaming wars are now at hand, that total will increase substantially this year.”
Landgraf bears some of the responsibility of “too much TV” (another oft-use phrase credited to the executive) as FX rolls out its own impressive, star-studded lineup of comedies, dramas, and limited series in 2020, including: Noah Hawley’s Chris Rock-led fourth installment of Fargo, on April 19; the Cate Blanchett-starring feminist-history limited series Mrs. America, on April 15; Ex-Machina writer/director Alex Garland’s much-anticipated Devs on March 5; and season four of Pamela Adlon’s Emmy-nominated comedy Better Things, also set for March 5, among others.
But per an announcement in November, some of FX’s hottest new properties, Devs and Mrs. America, for two, will only be available by streaming via its corporate-sibling Hulu, commensurate with how Disney+ is now using Marvel and Star Wars content. This so-called “FX on Hulu” arrangement will debut with Devs and Mrs. America, with others to be scheduled. (In addition to new series, much of FX’s library, including Better Things and the just-renewed-for-three-more-seasons American Horror Story, will also be on Hulu.)
Landgraf also gave eagerly awaited updates on premiere dates for two FX crown jewels: American Crime Story: Impeachment, about the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal starring Clive Owen and Beanie Feldstein, will not begin shooting until March 21 due to super-producer Ryan Murphy’s Netflix movie The Prom; and Donald Glover’s 10-episode, third season of his Emmy-winning comedy Atlanta won’t bow until January 2021.
But there’s plenty of FX content set to air in the meantime, and the network had dozens of talent on hand.
Adlon appeared with her onscreen daughters to preview a consummately Better Things clip wherein she exchanges seemingly endless “C-word” barbs with actress Mikey Madison; What We Do in the Shadows creator Jemaine Clemente broke the news that Star Wars icon Mark Hamill will appear in season 2 of the hit vampire comedy; Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett appeared alongside her (enormous) A-list cast to plug Mrs. America; comedian Kevin Hart promoted his producing effort Dave about real-life (white) rapper Lil Dicky; and Fargo’s new leading man Rock closed out the day’s events still wondering how he landed at the center of Hawley’s latest iteration of the Coen Brothers mythology, which sees the comedian starring as the leader of crime syndicate of black Americans escaping the Jim Crow south in 1950 Kansas City.
Joked Rock: “I thought Noah wanted me to host a charity event when he called me.”
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