Fox Executive Says 911 & Lone Star Crossovers Are “Extremely Unlikely”

A Fox executive gives a discouraging update on the chances of crossover episodes for the 9-1-1 shows.

The first responder franchise had a big change recently when Fox canceled the original 9-1-1 series and it moved to another network. ABC will air the seventh season of 9-1-1.

The spinoff 9-1-1: Lone Star got a fifth season renewal and will stay on Fox. The moves, which happened because of complex and expensive licensing fees, made it uncertain if the two popular dramas will ever work together again.

Deadline reported that the successful franchise was a topic of Fox’s pre-upfront press call on May 15. Fox Entertainment President Michael Thorn said that it would be “extremely unlikely” for any future crossovers between 9-1-1 and Lone Star to happen. 

Thorn explained the challenges of coordinating the two shows and admitted that crossovers were scarce even before the ABC move. Here is his statement:

“Right now we’re really focused on our own schedule and how we look forward with our own series. We’re really proud of the 9-1-1 franchise and excited to announce another season of Lone Star. It’s really a standout series… and rest assured, we’re going to relaunch that show. It’s an important show to our audience, and we’re very excited to have it back. As far as crossovers go, crossovers have always been really hard on the 9-1-1 franchise because they’re such ambitious shows. We weren’t able to do it every year when they ran on the network.”

The cancellation is due to a matter of ownership and cost. Both 9-1-1 and its Lone Star spinoff belong to Disney’s 20th Television. This influenced Fox’s decision to cancel 9-1-1.

The network used to have ownership of the series before selling its television studio. Since then, it has been trying to reduce its costs. Fox has to pay a licensing fee to broadcast both the original 9-1-1 and the spinoff.

Sources say that Fox decided to let go of 9-1-1 and kept the spinoff as broadcast ratings were dropping overall. Even though 9-1-1 is the top broadcast drama among the 18-49 demographic that advertisers target, Fox paid more than $9 million per episode to show it.

Naturally, Lone Star costs much less. Sources say that the spinoff’s price is $6-$7 million per episode. Network CEO Rob Wade mentioned the economics of it during the press call, saying in part, “The decision was made there that the business model wasn’t right for us, and that 20th would take the show back.”

The 9-1-1 universe had only a few crossovers. One was in Lone Star’s second installment, which was a big disaster-focused event. Another was in Lone Star season 3, with Angela Bassett’s character showing up. For now, it seems like any more collaborations are on hold.

About 9-1-1: Lone Star

9-1-1: Lone Star is an American procedural drama television series focusing on the fire, police, and ambulance departments of the fictional company 126, located in Austin, Texas. The use of “Lone Star” in the name associates it with Texas, the “Lone Star State”.

It was created for Fox by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Tim Minear. The series is a spin-off of the television series 9-1-1, and was ordered by Fox in May 2019. It premiered on January 19, 2020.

In April 2020, Fox renewed the series for a second season which premiered on January 18, 2021. In May 2021, the series was renewed for a third season which premiered on January 3, 2022. In May 2022, the series was renewed for a fourth season which premiered on January 24, 2023.