Coming off a year that saw his network's viewership rise 21 percent, FX president John Landgraf talked to TheWrap about Russell Brand's stripped down and raw talk show, whether or not working with Charlie Sheen on the upcoming sitcom "Anger Management" is a risky move and the sport he's programming on FX Friday nights.
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Did you pause at all when you heard Ryan Murphy's idea for "American Horror Story"? Were you concerned that viewers might not stick with it for a whole season, take the time to find out what it was really about?
No, I really didn't. For whatever reason, with "American Horror Story," I just felt really confident from the beginning that it was going to be very successful. Notwithstanding the fact that I knew it would be polarizing, and some people would get it, and some people won't. Some people would like it, some people wouldn't like it. I just really genuinely believed that an audience would really dig that show.
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You have "Anger Management" with Charlie Sheen coming up next summer. "Two and a Half Men" does really well on FX, but just given his personal history in the last year, how much of a risk is it to do this new series with him?
Well, I guess I know what little I know, which is that I've had a couple conversations with Charlie, and conversations with the producers, with Joe Roth and with the folks at Lionsgate, and I think Charlie really, really wants to make a good show.
I think he really, really wants to get back up and prove that he is what he is, which is a really big TV star. We're only licensing the show, so the production challenges of the show, in all aspects, really lie with Lionsgate. But all I can say is I like the show. I really think it's a terrific pitch. Bruce Helford, from what I've seen, I think he and the writers are doing a terrific job on it. And Charlie's a really good actor. I'm quite optimistic that there will be something very entertaining in that show and very good.
You also have a limited series, a late night show, coming up with Russell Brand. It's been described as a talk show, but is it going to be a traditional, late-night talk show?
No, it isn't. I think part of what we've been thinking about in terms of late‑night is, OK, so you have these traditional talk shows, and you have some very good ones, and you have these enormously experienced hosts in Conan and Jay and David Letterman, but the format is a format that's been around now for 50 years. And then you have these topical shows, Colbert and Stewart, that are more topical and more politically oriented.
