BBC and FX Expand Their Content Partnership

The BBC has entered a creative partnership with FX Networks, with the BBC securing the rights to all new scripted (comedy and drama) FX original series, it was announced today by Charlotte Moore, Director, BBC Content and Gina Brogi, President of Global Distribution, Twentieth Century FOX Television Distribution. The deal was negotiated with the BBC by Twentieth Century FOX Television Distribution on behalf of FX Networks.

This is the first time FX original series will have a primary home in the UK.

Through this agreement the BBC will gain rights to the UK produced Devs, from acclaimed UK writer and producer Alex Garland, and Ryan Murphy's groundbreaking new drama series Pose, which examines New York's transgender-Ball culture of the late 1980's and the LGBTQ community during the growing HIV crisis.

This partnership extends the relationship between the BBC and FX. The two parties currently co-produce Tom Hardy, Ridley Scott and Steven Knight's critically-acclaimed BBC One drama TABOO and, following on from The People vs O.J. Simpson, BBC Two has recently shown the latest installment of Ryan Murphy's Emmy, Bafta and Golden Globe award-winning AMERICAN CRIME STORY franchise, The Assassination of Gianni Versace. Emmy award winning and Bafta award-nominated drama series Feud, Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning comedy series Atlanta, the drama series TRUST from the Academy Award winning-team of Danny Boyle, Christian Colson and Simon Beaufoy, and the drama series Snowfall, starring rising British star Damson Idris, have also aired on the channel in the last two years.

Charlotte Moore, Director, BBC Content, says: "The BBC has a proud tradition of bringing audiences the very best shows from around the world, and this exciting new partnership with FX builds on our strong existing relationship."

"Their incredible range of first class drama and comedy series will be great for our channels and I'm delighted to be forging closer ties with FX and to formalize our relationship in this bold and exciting move."

Gina Brogi, President of Global Distribution, Twentieth Century FOX Television Distribution, says: "The BBC has been an incredible partner for us at FX Networks and TCFTVD and this new deal only strengthens our longstanding relationship as we look to bring quality programming to audiences in the UK."

Eric Schrier, President of Original Series, FX Networks and FX Productions, says: "We are thrilled to enter this partnership with BBC and their great team with whom we have had such a wonderful relationship. At FX, as with the BBC, we are dedicated to curating a portfolio of the best programs television has to offer and working with producers who tell stories that not only entertain, but illuminate the human condition. We are grateful to the BBC for their recognition of the quality of FX programs and to our colleagues at TCFTVD for their support."

Over the past five years, FX programs have received 244 Emmy award nominations, winning 52 Emmys. In 2017, FX won the most Golden Globes awards of any network, and this year FX won the most Television Critics Association awards of any brand, including Program of the Year for the second time in three years.?FX?also received 50 Emmy award nominations in each of the last four years, an achievement matched only by HBO and Netflix.

In addition to the current licensed series, upcoming new FX series - several which will be shot in the UK - coming to BBC include:

• Pose, the universally-acclaimed hit drama from Ryan Murphy, which is arguably one of the most groundbreaking series ever produced, examines New York's transgender-Ball culture of the late 1980's and the LGBTQ community during the growing HIV crisis. The series features the largest cast of transgender series regular actors as well as the highest numbers of LGBTQ recurring actors and crew for a scripted show in television history. POSE has already been ordered for a second season for 2019. The eight-episode first season is produced by FOX 21 Television Studios and FX Productions.
• Mayans M.C., Kurt Sutter's new acclaimed hit drama series is the follow-up series to his unforgettable hit drama Sons Of Anarchy, is the most-watched new cable series of 2018 in the United States, averaging 8.2 million viewers weekly. The series, which stars JD Pardo and Edward James Olmos and features one of the largest Latino ensemble casts on American television, has already been ordered for a second season. The 10-episode first season is produced by FOX 21 Television Studios and FX Productions.
• Untitled Fosse-Verdon project - FX's highly anticipated limited series on the story of legendary director, choreographer, and dancer Bob Fosse and his UNSUNG key collaborator and wife, the legendary Broadway actor, dancer and singer Gwen Verdon. The series stars Academy award-winner Sam Rockwell, four-time Academy award-nominee Michelle Williams, and is produced and directed by the Tony Award winning team of Hamilton, Thomas Kail and Lin-Manuel Miranda, and written by Steven Levenson, the Tony award-winner writer/producer of Dear Evan Hanson. The eight-part limited series is produced by FOX 21 Television Studios and FX Productions and is scheduled to debut next spring.
• Devs - An eight-episode, multi-dimensional tech thriller comes from the brilliant mind of British producer, writer and director Alex Garland, who wrote, produced and directed the acclaimed feature films Ex Machina and Annihilation. Garland wrote all eight episodes of the first season and directed the first two of the series, which series stars Sonoya Mizuno, Nick Offerman and Alison Pill. The show is being produced in London and Manchester, England with location work in Santa Cruz, California. The eight-episode drama is produced by FX Productions, DNA Television (UK) and Scott Rudin Productions and is scheduled to premiere in Autumn 2019.
• What We Do In The Shadows - From executive producers Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords), Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok) and Paul Simms (Atlanta) with Academy award-winner Scott Rudin, this comedy series set in New York City follows three vampires who have been roommates for hundreds and hundreds of years trying to cope in the modern world. The series stars Bafta winner Matt Berry, Kayvan Novak, Natasia Demetriou, Harvey Guillen and Mark Proksch. The 10-epsiode comedy is produced by FX Productions and Scott Rudin Productions and scheduled to debut next spring.
• Better Things - Created, written by and starring two-time Emmy nominee Pamela Adlon, BETTER THINGS - the comedy that Time Magazine named the best show of 2017 - centers on Sam FOX played by Adlon, a single, working actor with no filter raising her three daughters. She's a mum, dad, referee and the cops. Sam also watches out for her mother, Phil (Celia Imrie), an English expatriate who lives across the street. Sam is flawed, fierce and just trying to earn a living, navigate her daughters' lives, have fun with a friend or two and also - just maybe - squeeze in some private time once in a while. The series is produced by FX Productions.
• Mrs. America - Two-time Academy award and Golden Globe award-winning actor Cate Blanchett has signed on to star in Mrs. America, a new limited series ordered by FX and created and written by Emmy Award winning writer and Dahvi Waller (Mad Men) and Executive Produced by two-time Academy Award nominee Stacey Sher, Waller, Coco Francini and Blanchett. Mrs. America tells the true story of the movement to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), and the unexpected backlash led by a conservative woman named Phyllis Schlafly, played by Cate Blanchett. Through the eyes of the women of that era - both Schlafly and second wave feminists Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisholm, Bella Abzug and Jill Ruckelshaus - the series explores how one of the toughest battlegrounds in the culture wars of the 70s helped give RISE to the Moral Majority and forever shifted our political landscape. Production of the nine-episode limited series is scheduled for 2019 and it is produced by FX Productions with Waller serving as Showrunner.

In addition to aforementioned programs, FX will announce a number of new prestige projects in the coming months that will be included in this deal.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the BBC

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