FX’s John Landgraf on FX’s Streaming Future, the Fate of ‘FEUD’, and How Disney Will Change the Network

Disney’s upcoming acquisition of 21st Century Fox has raised countless daunting questions industry-wide, but FX CEO John Landgraf seems to have the answer to at least one of them: even with Mickey Mouse as its new corporate mascot, FX is going to continue to be as fearless and experimental as it’s always been.

At the Television Critics Association’s 2019 winter tour Decider sat down with Landgraf, the man who once coined the phrase “peak TV.” In a wide-ranging interview the FX head discussed why Hulu may possibly be the network’s streaming home, what exactly is going on with Ryan Murphy’s ode to bad blood FEUD, and why during an time when network competitors are endlessly green-lighting and premiering new shows FX is sticking to a select roster.

Decider: I had a couple questions about FX’s streaming service. Has there been any talk about making FX+ more of a standalone streaming service, like HBO’s HBO Now?

John Landgraf: Yeah, I mean, right now [FX+] is only available to an authenticated cable consumer, meaning you couldn’t buy it if you weren’t in subscription to one of the major cable bundles. So that’s somewhat limiting, ‘cause there’s obviously a lot of people — and a lot of young people — we’d like to get to who are not cable subscribers.

The other thing that we’ve come to feel is that it’s just a challenge for a standalone brand. If you think about the relative footprint of CBS vs. FX and if you think about the fact that they have the NFL, they have the Super Bowl, they have professional sports, they have news, they morning shows. They have a really broad slate of scripted programming, of reality programming, and they’ve done really well. They’ve been able to get to about 3 and a half million subscribers. That’s a far different kettle of fish than the 25 million and growing of Hulu or the 90 million Amazon Prime customers, or the 56 million Netflix subscribers, or the fact that AT&T has 100 million+ in cellular relationships. So, I think it’s gonna be really hard for a standalone brand. There’s gonna be half-a-dozen platforms and I think for a brand that doesn’t have a sister relationship with one of those platforms, it’s gonna be tough sledding.

Speaking of sister relationships, you have that close relationship with Hulu, a lot of FX shows end up coming to Hulu. Do you see that continuing to happen after the merger?

All I can tell you is that, publicly, we are part of the streaming plans. Clearly, we’re not gonna be on ESPN+ or Disney+. Therefore, by process of elimination, we’re going to be a part of whatever they plan to do with Hulu once it’s a consolidated and owned asset.

I know that Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson are producing Y. Are there any other producers in the Ryan Murphy team who you think will be producing more exclusive stuff for you guys? [Note: Jacobson and Simpson have worked on such FX projects as American Crime Story and Pose]

Nina and Brad started FXP before they got involved in American Crime Story. In fact, they put O.J. into development before it was conceived as an American Crime Story, before Ryan got involved. So we’ve always had an overall deal with them at our studio. But then, essentially, they’ve become so close to Ryan on a variety of different fronts that in essence they’ve become deeper in his business. We’ve, I guess, loaned them out, because they’re involved in Pose as well as American Crime Story. But it was always contemplated that they would do a lot of their own stuff and they’ve been putting stuff into development all along. I think they’re gonna be incredibly prolific producers outside of the stuff they do with Ryan.

You mentioned in your executive session that there are no plans for Feud Season 2. Does that mean the [Charles and Princess] Diana season is officially dead?

It’s not moving forward at the moment. Ryan [Murphy] is a man of extraordinary passions and obsessions. When he gets obsessed with something, he manifests it. It just simply leaps into the world. So, to be honest with you, the way it is to work with Ryan is, you’re sitting there, you get a call from Ryan Murphy and he says “I [have] become obsessed with this and I’m going to make a television series, season about it” and you say “Great.” Right? If Ryan calls me tomorrow and says “I’m obsessed with this feud” then he’s gonna make it. And if he decides he has a way of re-approaching Diana and that’s what he wants to do, then that’s what we’ll do. Right now, he’s not obsessed with it, I don’t think he’s working on it at the moment. But frankly, a lot of times I don’t know what Ryan’s working on until it’s ready to explode out of his head into the world.

There are a number of FX’s shows that have had delayed seasons. I’m thinking of Atlanta and Fargo, in particular. What’s been the mindset behind letting creatives take their time like this, and how do you think that has affected the product?

I think letting creatives take their time has made the shows better. I think fundamentally the way we’re oriented is that, these shows — even though we may be the owner of record and the distributor — they’re really owned by the people that created them. I mean that emotionally and creatively and as much financially as possible. Therefore, we can’t really do anything without them. They are the locomotive that drives the train, it is their passion, their availability, their drive that actually drives the whole thing forward. So it would be trying to run a train without a locomotive to try and make a season of anything without the incepting, creative person. Fortunately for them and for us, there have been so many extraordinary successes, that’s created mass of opportunities.

By the way, I don’t wanna take credit for Donald Glover’s music career because obviously Childish Gambino existed before Atlanta. But the guy is just exploding. Imagine what somebody’s emotional relationship would be to a television show they created if that television show became a defacto prison that was keeping them from pursuing all of the many creative opportunities that had come their way because their career is in a phase of growth. So, it’s a negotiation.

We don’t say “Hey, we don’t care if we don’t get another episode for another five years.” But we don’t want our work with creatives or their relationship with us to turn into a prison. We want it to be one of their homes that they come back to. So, we make the sacrifice. It’s very painful when you don’t have Atlanta in your Emmy-cycle, or Baskets, but that’s what you get when you’re working with people that are that talented.

With the Disney merger on the horizon do you foresee that negotiation continuing or do you think that with the increase in content that you might end up in a more annual cycle?

I don’t think we can end up in a more annual cycle and maintain the level of quality that we do. Everything I’ve seen in what Disney’s done is that they’d rather bat a thousand. They’d rather do less and do better than do more and do worse. So I just have every expectation that they’ll understand. We work as fast as we possibly can, we don’t dally, everybody works at maximum pace.

But the reality is, we’re just so, so talent-driven that the talent really has a lot to say about when they’re available. Ask yourself this question: I don’t really have an idea, or I have an idea that I’m kinda unenthusiastic about. So, I could do that (second idea) and have it ready in time, or I could wait until I have another great idea. You’re really faced with a choice: Do I want it now or do I want it good? I’ll take good over now 100 times out of 100.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.