Fox’s “Baywatch” reboot will premiere in January. The network announced this midseason premiere month on Monday ahead of its upfront presentation in New York City. The network also announced a new drama titled “The Interrogator” and its new unscripted series, “Marriage Market.”
The move to air the highly-anticipated drama in January is an attempt to emulate the success the network saw earlier this year with the launches of “Best Medicine,” which saw 15.4 million viewers for its debut, and “Memory of a Killer,” which reached 18.4 million viewers during its debut. “Going Dutch,” which also premiered in January, has since been canceled. On the unscripted side, midseason was also kind to “Fear Factor: House of Fear,” which reached 16.6 million viewers on its debut.
“We’ll use midseason and all the levers that we have at Fox with sports and our our marketing strategy,” Michael Thorn, president of Fox Television Network and Fox Entertainment, said on a conference call with press on Sunday night that included TheWrap. “We hope to repeat what we did last season with our new shows.”
“Baywatch” has already been a strong performer for Fox when it comes to advertiser interest. The series locked in Toyota as its exclusive automotive partner, and Fox is close to locking in a beer partner for the show, Katrina Cukaj, executive vice president of entertainment advertising sales for Fox Corporation, said during the call.
During its initial 11-season run, “Baywatch” was the most-watched show in the world, airing in more than 200 countries and reaching more than a billion viewers weekly. Fox’s new take on this TV classic promises to have all the adrenaline-fueled rescues, complicated relationships and charged chemistry of the original NBC drama. This take on the series will follow Hobie Buchannon (Stephen Amell), a Baywatch Captain following in the footsteps of his father, Mitch. But when his daughter Charlie Vale (Jessica Belkin) shows up on his doorstep, his world is turned upside down.
In addition to Amell and Belkin, this take on “Baywatch” stars Shay Mitchell, Hassie Harrison, Thaddeus LaGrone, Noah Beck and Brooks Nader as well as Livvy Dunne and original castmember David Chokachi in recurring roles. “Baywatch” is co-produced by Fox Entertainment and Fremantle with Matt Nix (“Burn Notice”) serving as showrunner and executive producer. McG, Michael Berk, Greg Bonann, Doug Schwartz, Dante Di Loreto and Mike Horowitz also serve as executive producers.
On Monday, Fox also announced “The Interrogator,” an upcoming espionage thriller written and executive-produced by actor and comedian Stephen Fry. The series will be coming to the network during the 2026-2027 season, is set in Washington D.C. and follows a former MI6 agent named Conrad Henry (Fry) and his handpicked team of brilliant outsiders. Henry has to use his charm, wit and mind-bending behavioral maneuvers when conventional interrogation methods fail.
Alongside Fry, the series stars Jenna Elfman, Jessica Sula, Michael Beach, Luke
Kleintank, Maria Zhang. The drama is co-produced by Lionsgate Television and Fox Entertainment. Dan Dworkin and Jay Beattie serve as the series’ executive producers and showrunners. Fry executive produces alongside William Harper, Paul McGuigan, Likely Story’s Anthony Bregman and Miriam Mintz,
Matt Pyken, Neil Burger and Anonymous Content.
The network’s final announcement on the scripted side is that Peter Gallagher, known for his work on “The O.C.” and “Grace and Frankie,” has joined the cast of “Murder in a Small Town” Season 3. He will play Rod Finlayson, a charismatic and uber-independent person whose arrival lead to a series of upheavals for Karl Alberg (Rossif Sutherland) and Cassandra (Kristin Kreuk).
Fox’s returning slate of scripted series include “Doc” Season 3, “Memory of a Killer” Season 2, “Murder in a Small Town” Season 3, “Animal Control” Season 5, “Best Medicine” Season 2, “American Dad!” Season 21, “Bob’s Burgers” Season 17, “Family Guy” Season 25, “Grimsburg” Season 3, “Krapopolis” Season 4, “Universal Basic Guys” Season 3 and “The Simpsons” Season 38.
On the unscripted side, Fox announced “Marriage Market,” a new dating show where singles who are ready to get married surrender control of their love lives to their closest family members. The show will be hosted by actress and comedian Whitney Cummings and is an original Fox-owned unscripted series that is slated to premiere in 2027. It’s produced by Fox Entertainment Studios and will be distributed worldwide by Fox Entertainment Global. Its executive producers include Alycia Rossiter, who will also serve as the series’ showrunner, and John Carr.
But at the moment, the network has no plans to order another season of unscripted staple “So You Think You Can Dance.” “We’ve had conversations about it but nothing formal,” Thorn said.
Fox’s has renewed several unscripted shows for the 2026-2027 season, including “Beat Shazam” Season 8, “Celebrity Name That Tune” Season 6, “Celebrity Weakest Link” Season 2, “Crime Scene Kitchen” Season 4, “Don’t Forget the Lyrics” Season 4, “Extracted” Season 3, “Fear Factor: House of Fear” Season 2, “The Floor” Seasons 6 and 7, “Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service” Season 2, “Hell’s Kitchen” Seasons 25 and 26, “Kitchen Nightmares” Season 3, “LEGO Maters” Season 6, “The Masked Singer” Season 15, “Next Level Baker” Seasons 2 and 3, “Next Level Chef” Season 6, “99 to Beat” Season 2 and “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test” Season 5. Additional series renewals will be announced at a later date.
Though all of these unscripted series have been renewed, they won’t necessarily all premiere throughout the 2026-2027 season.
“We do buy more [unscripted] shows than we need for the season because, ever since COVID and the writers’ strike — thankfully, it feels like the discussions between the unions have gone well — but there was a time in March before that [following] January and February where we were on short,” Rob Wade, CEO of Fox Entertainment, said during the call. “We could have been looking at another strike action for this year, and who knows what’s going to happen? So we buy shows in the eventuality that there’s a crisis or we need them.”
One thing missing from the schedule are new comedies. Thorn highlighted the network’s investment in its Sunday night Animation Domination comedy block as well as its renewals of “Animal Control” and “Best Medicine.”
“As far as live-action comedy goes, one of the things that Rob and I have spent a lot of time on is taking a look at how do you do the best creative in the best model that’s built for linear today? Candidly, we’ve spent a lot of time on both drama and unscripted,” Thorn said. “We’ve really evolved those production models forward in a way that sets us up for success. Now we’re taking a step back, and we’re doing the same thing on live-action comedy. We believe in the genre. You’ll see more from us in the future.”
