‘9-1-1’ Crossover With ‘Lone Star’ Spinoff ‘Unlikely’ After ABC Move

Now that 9-1-1 is moving to ABC, fans of both 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lone Star are better off not getting their hopes up about a crossover between the shows now. Earlier in the month, it was reported that 9-1-1 had been canceled at Fox, but the series was picked up straight away by ABC for its seventh season, while its sister series 9-1-1: Lone Star would continue at Fox for its fifth season.

“As far as crossovers go, crossovers has always been really hard on the 9-1-1 franchise because they’re they’re such an ambitious schedule,” said Michael Thorn, president of scripted programming for Fox Entertainment told the press ahead of the network’s upfront presentation to advertisers in New York, per Variety. “They weren’t able to do it every year when when both shows were on our network anyways, so I’d say it’s extremely unlikely.”

Fox Entertainment’s CEO discussed the decision to cancel 9-1-1 and its subsequent move to ABC at the conference call presser.

“We look at shows in two different ways,” said Rob Wade, CEO of Fox Entertainment, the outlet reported. “First and foremost from a creative lens and how much we like the creative. And the second thing is really the economics of that. I think we felt moving forward into what is really a new era of television, the economics weren’t going to pan out on this show for us. The decision was made there that the business model wasn’t right for us and that 20th TV would take the show back.”

Moreover, Wade said that the decision was made “a year ago” and that he discovered it when he assumed the CEO role in October. When Fox and 20th Television were part of the same company, Fox originally acquired the show. Despite being one of Fox’s most popular programs, Fox had less of a financial stake in the show since Disney acquired 20th Television in 2019. One person familiar with the production told Variety that each episode of 9-1-1 costs more than $9 million, which has increased over time.

According to Wade, Fox is looking at a new business model where it owns or co-owns its content, giving it more creative freedom. “As we all know, the industry as an inflection point, but Fox looks at the game differently: we are daring in everything we do, adaptable to the market, and disciplined in our approach,” Wade explained. “We’ve adopted new business models for production and talent deals. We’re out of the pilot business and have implemented-year round development. We’ve led the way in broadcast-direct deals for creators, and we’ve bolstered our production facilities and efficiencies. And, importantly, Fox is owning or co-owning our content, giving us even greater creative freedom. That means when deciding what stories to tell, there are two factors, we have to love the creative, and we have to love the business model.”

9-1-1, one of Fox’s top-rated series, officially concluded its run with 4.1 million viewers and a 0.5 rating, according to TVLine, but it wasn’t enough to sustain the show. ABC has not yet confirmed when 9-1-1’s seventh season will premiere, as the network’s fall schedule is filled with unscripted series due to the writers’ strike. All six seasons are currently streaming on Hulu.