Adults grows with effects. I can exclusively announce that the Disney-owned network has renewed its comedy Gen Z for a supersized 16-episode third season in 2027 and signed its married creators, Ben Kronengold And Rebecca Shawto a global agreement.
The renewal is more than a vote of confidence in a series whose viewership for its second season jumped more than 60 percent. It is also a case study in how John Landgraflongtime chairman of FX, built one of Hollywood’s most successful television brands by doing something that seems almost heretical in today’s entertainment business: embracing inefficiency.
As studios and streamers cut budgets, shrink their development pipelines and increasingly rely on data to guide their creative decisions, Landgraf continues to make the opposite bet. Good television, he says, requires time, risk and a willingness to let creators figure things out, even when the process doesn’t make commercial sense on paper.
“Efficiency is the enemy of insane levels of quality,” Landgraf tells me. “Insane levels of quality require risk, chaos and inefficiency. »
He has the experience to make that argument. For more than two decades, FX canceled just 20 percent of its scripted originals after one season, while building a portfolio of acclaimed series including The bear, Shogun And Fargo. “I’ll put 15 shows (from FX) against 25 for anyone else,” Landgraf says.
But his philosophy faces a test with potentially serious consequences. As Disney endures another round of layoffs and prepares to reorganize its television business, Landgraf is determined to preserve the creative independence — and quality — that has made FX successful.
In an hour-long conversation, Landgraf explains the new rules for series renewal, the “extremely inefficient process” his team follows to develop a new drama from a Succession alum, and why he thinks consumers already have way more TV than they need.
So can Hollywood’s most ineffective hitmaker continue to do things his way amid an increasingly cost-conscious Disney and a TV organization on the verge of exploding? Landgraf says he’s not worried, even as his longtime colleagues leave and the company undergoes drastic changes. What does the TV mayor know that the rest of Hollywood doesn’t?
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