FX Boss John Landgraf Credits Disney for Helping the Network Break an Emmys ‘Glass Ceiling’

The last time a company set a record for winning the most Emmys in a single year happened in 2021. That was when Netflix won 44 awards, an achievement that hadn’t been matched since CBS secured 44 wins in 1974. On Sunday, The Walt Disney Company beat both networks with 60 Emmy wins, 36 of which came from FX alone.

“The Emmys have been around for 78 years. Typically, if you have a well-established threshold of record in anything — whether it’s the 100-meter dash, the mile or, frankly, records in baseball — for 78 years, you don’t tend to see those records absolutely shattered,” FX networks chairman John Landgraf told TheWrap Monday. “But 60? That’s 35% higher than the highest number any company has ever achieved in 78 years of the Emmys. And so I’m thrilled.”

The TV executive noted that FX alone would have put Disney in the lead among individual networks or streamers. “But don’t miss the forest for the trees,” Landgraf warned. “What has been assembled here by Bob [Iger], under Disney’s Aegis, has just broken a glass ceiling that’s existed for eight decades, basically.”

It’s taken “time” for Disney to figure out this particular ecosystem, Landgraf said. Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox took place in March of 2019. Since then the company, under CEO Bob Iger’s leadership, has been trying to figure out how to unify all of its diverse programming into a singular brand. There were also the technical woes to consider, namely figuring out how to put all FX content onto one streaming hub.

“We’re pretty darn close to that, but it took a while to do it,” Landgraf said.

Figuring out this streaming structure is a move that’s worked for the cable network. Landgraf estimated that around 2013 or 2014, the MVPD system reached its peak at “about 100 million subscribers.”

“We had very substantial ratings with a show like ‘Sons of Anarchy,’ for example. But we have many, many shows now that have rated higher than ‘Sons of Anarchy’ ever did only on linear television,” Landgraf said. “I bet if you looked at our highest-rated shows of all time in our 22-year history, the 10 highest-rated shows of all time, I bet seven of them would come from the last four years.”

Landgraf credited that boost to the impact of Hulu and Disney+ pulling in younger and more global audiences. Partnering with Disney has also allowed the network to be even bolder in its content. “You wouldn’t make ‘Shōgun’ for a basic cable network. You just wouldn’t,” Landgraf said. “You’d only make it for a basic cable network if it also happened to go on a global streaming platform at the same time, which is what ‘Shōgun’ does.”

FX’s popularity, especially at the 2024 Emmys did lead to some complications, specifically when it came to similar shows in the same categories. A good example of this happened in Outstanding Comedy Series, which pitted FX’s “The Bear,” “Reservation Dogs” and “What We Do in the Shadows” against ABC’s “Abbott Elementary” and Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building.” Though Landgraf noted there may be some “showbiz families” that pick out one show to highlight as their star during awards season, that wasn’t Disney or FX’s approach.

“We didn’t back one, and Disney didn’t back one versus the other,” Landgraf said. “The truth is, that level of success at the nominating level probably does make it more challenging for one of your kids to ride to the top, metaphorically. But again, I don’t know what drives these systems. Why did Liza Colón-Zayas win a Best Supporting Actress Emmy in a category that had Hannah Einbinder, Meryl Streep and Carol Burnett in it? I don’t know. I’m thrilled she did. So you have to take the bounces that delight you and surprise you with the bounces that go the other way.”

For years now, Landgraf has been half-jokingly dubbed the “mayor of television.” Reflecting on the 2024 Emmys, this awards season showed him that the current TV landscape is “still unformed.”

“We can start to see doubt that Netflix is going anywhere. I don’t think just because HBO had a slightly dead year, they’re going anywhere. I easily could find them back on top in any given year. But you can see Disney’s now a powerhouse in the aftermath of the Fox transaction, the transition to streaming and everything that’s been done to re-conceptualize what Disney is in television,” Landgraf said.

Though this shift has taken place on the prestige TV and awards stage, Landgraf noted that Disney’s other TV assets are not “a slouch,” highlighting ABC, ABC News, Disney branded television and National Geographic.

“I think there was a little skepticism, maybe in the aftermath of that transition, because it took us a while. It’s complicated, getting all these different elements rowing in the same direction. And so much of this really has to do with the technology and with the products themselves,” Landgraf said. “I give everybody credit for having pulled this all together because it’s been five and a half years since that transaction closed. It’s a great year for FX, but it’s a collective success for Disney.”

Looking ahead to the 2025 Emmys season, FX will be losing its awards juggernaut, “Shōgun.” Though Season 2 is currently deep in the writing process, it won’t be ready in time for the Emmys, which means FX won’t count on the show that was responsible for 26 nominations this year. There’s also the constant battle for people’s attention that all of television has to face, particularly when it comes to user-generated content on platforms like YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.

“You cannot compete with the quantity of user-generated content and, frankly, these giant companies with their giant streaming platforms can put out,” Landgraf said. “What we’re trying to provide for creative people is a home that can take their passions and their ideas from inception through everything and provide personal and very curated experience for them.”

The FX head likened his network to a studio “like HBO is a studio.” That means deals, development, production, post-production, marketing, publicity and Emmys advertising all happens in-house, with a distribution system owned by the network’s parent company.

“Honestly, did I believe it was possible that we could basically field the 15 shows — whatever that we fielded last year — against competitors that are feeling 40, 50, 80, 150 [shows] and have this result? I thought it was possible, but it was very validating, frankly, for importance of creativity and importance of a highly protective and curated and collaborative creative process,” Landgraf said. “Do I think that’s going to carry the day every year? No. But I think the fact that it can compete at the highest possible level and that Disney can basically break all time records using this methodology … is going to really stand us in good stead for the long haul.”

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