Fox 21 Television Studios, Inc. (stylized as fox21 television studios. is an American television production company that is a subsidiary of Disney Media Networks' Walt Disney Television owned by The Walt Disney Company. It was founded in 2014 from the merger of Fox Television Studios and Fox 21.
Predecessors
Fox Television Studios
Fox Television Studios was formed in 1997 alongside its existing fellow corporate units, Twentieth Century Fox Television and Twentieth Television under executive David Grant. The studio was designed to house smaller production units, starting with the Greenblatt-Janollari Studio. Greenblatt-Janollari started producing shows in the 1998-1999 season with 3 comedy series for ABC and CBS. While funded by Fox, G-JS was presented as an "independent mini-studio". With Fox Entertainment Group holding a 20% stake in New Regency Production's parent corporation, Fox Studios formed a joint venture, Regency Television, by 2000, managed by Gail Berman. Another production unit formed was Fox Television Studios Productions under Lisa Berger. Early output by the individual units, or "pods" were FTSP's Son of the Beach for FX, The Hughleys by G-JS and Regency had Malcolm in the Middle. The pod model faded into five divisions: alternative, scripted, international, Fox World and Regency TV. The alternative division was responsible for Talkshow with Spike Feresten and The Wanda Sykes Show, along with E!'s The Girls Next Door franchise. The scripted division produced The Shield, along with a number of television films and miniseries. Fox World division had acquired rights to "The Coach" in early 2002 from France’s TF1 and its Quai Sud production entity. In mid-2002, Fox Alternative Productions was formed by Fox TV Studios and headed by David Martin with its first show to be "The Coach". After a while, the only division operating was the scripted unit. Next FTVS attempted international co-productions of direct-to-series broadcast series. The company had a hit with Burn Notice on USA Network. In August 2010, Dave Madden was appointed to head the unit, where he evenly increased its production slates until he was appointed as president of entertainment for Fox Broadcasting in August 2014.
Fox 21
Fox 21 was formed in 2004 by 20th Century Fox Television executives Dana Walden and Gary Newman to develop and back smaller-budgeted but unique and daring shows. Fox 21's first executive was Jane Leisner. The unit's early hits were the FX series Sons of Anarchy and The CW reality series Beauty and the Geek. The studio also co-produced The Muppets' Wizard of Oz with Touchstone Television, The Jim Henson Company and The Muppets Studio. After originally being passed over for programming the new network, MyNetworkTV, Fox 21 was in consideration along with Twentieth Television and independent producers as of December 2006 in a potential reprogramming from telenovela to low-cost reality and game shows. Bert Salke, who moved from his Brancato/Salke production company based at ABC Studios, took charge of the unit in 2010 and led an increase in show productions starting with the Showtime series Homeland. In early 2015, Mythology Entertainment signed a first look deal with the company and its sister studio 20th Century Fox Television while announcing the head of its TV division. The company produces or had produced the USA Network series Rush, the FX series Terriers, Tyrant and The Bastard Executioner, the A&E action series Breakout Kings, the ComedyCentral seriesBrickleberry, the WGN America series Salem, the TNT series Legends and the Lifetime series Witches of East End.
History
It was announced in December 2014 that Fox 21 and Fox Television Studios would merge into Fox 21 Television Studios. This situation came as a result of FTVS' president David Madden being promoted to Fox Broadcasting Company and the fact that both units were focusing on the same market, cable TV. The combined operation is headed by Fox 21 president Bert Salke. Fox 21 signed Okay Goodnight production company to multi-year first-look agreement in January 2020 starting with The Dreamers novel adaptation together with The Littlefield Company. In early February 2020, the company agreed to a first deal with the Gotham Group.
