'Filthy Rich' and 'Next' Canceled by Fox After One Season

Fox canceled Next and Filthy Rich after just one season of each show. The network initially scheduled the hour-long dramas to air earlier this year but held them back for the fall to fill up time slots left empty due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now, the pandemic is reportedly one of the major concerns for both shows getting the ax, as production costs climbed, reports Variety.

Filthy Rich and Next also failed to attract wide audiences. Filthy Rich averaged just 3.5 million viewers and a 0.5 rating among adults 18-49, even with seven days of delayed viewing included. Next averaged only 2.8 million viewers and a 0.5 rating with delayed viewing taken into account. Only five Filthy Rich episodes have aired, while just two episodes of Next have reached audiences so far. Fox plans to air the rest of the produced episodes for both shows.

Filthy Rich was inspired by the New Zealand series of the same name created by Gavin Strawhan and Rachel Lang. The American take was developed by filmmaker Tate Taylor (The Help) and included Brian Grazer as an executive producer. The series centered on a wealthy Southern family with a powerful Christian television network shaken after its founder apparently dies in a plane crash. Former Sex and the City star Kim Cattrall played the station's co-founder. The rest of the main cast included Melia Kreiling, Steve Harris, Aubrey Dollar, Corey Cott, Benjamin Levy Aguilar, Mark L. Young, Olivia Macklin, Aaron Lazar, and Gerald McRaney.

Next is a science fiction drama created by Manny Coto (24, Dexter) and centered on a paranoid former tech CEO who joins a Homeland Cybersecurity Agent and her team as they try to solve the first artificial intelligence crisis. There is a rogue AI with the ability to better itself, and the team has to stop it. The main cast featured Mad Men actor John Slattery as the former CEO and Fernanda Andrade as the FBI agent working with him. Michael Mosely, Gerardo Celaso, Eve Harlow, Aaron Moten, Evan Whitten, Elizabeth Cappuccino and Jason Butler Harner round out the cast.

Fox's decision to cancel the series came after the network picked up This Country for the 2020-2021 television season. The show is a single-camera mockumentary created by Jenny Bicks (Sex and the City) and Paul Feig (A Simple Favor), reports The Hollywood Reporter. It is about two cousins, played by Chelsea Holmes and Sam Straley, filmed by a documentary crew. Fox put in a pilot order in January, but production on the show was delayed due to the pandemic.