The Hollywood Reporter Admits 'Back to You' Would Still Be On the Air If On CBS

[Brian Damage]

In 2007, Fox aired the Steve Levitan comedy Back to You, starring Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton. But that’s when Fox decided to go against its brand and become CBS Lite, and the series never had a pulse. If Back to You had been on CBS, it would still be running.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/tv-brands-brand-47791

[catlover79]

I believe it!! I just wish they'd picked up the show once FOX dumped it.

[TV Knowledge Fan]

...CBS, and none of the other broadcast networks, wanted the series when 20th Television offered it to them in early 2007. I remember reading an "article", planted by 20th Television in the NEW YORK POST (also owned by News Corporation) in January 2007, mentioning the fact the series was being prepared for the following season, under the working title "ACTION NEWS" [until the studio discovered that title was already registered and used by real local news programs], complete with a "media expert" who declared that sophisticated sitcoms were making a comeback on TV. You know what happened? When Fox tried to peddle the show, the other networks told them, in effect, "Thanks, but we already have our own in-house comedies that we can produce for less than the licensing fee you're asking for, good day". That's when 20th Television realized that unless they wanted the entire project dead and buried (and avoid paying Steve Levitan a hefty fee for creating "nothing"), they HAD to place the show on the Fox network. But it was too "sophisticated" for the audience Fox was trying to attract {and no one remembered that Levitan's previous Fox comedy, "STACKED", with Pamela Anderson, and Christopher Lloyd, had tanked, as well as Kelsey Grammer's weekly attempt at sketch comedy on the same network ["THE SKETCH SHOW"], several years before}.

I knew "BACK TO YOU" wan't going to last on Fox for more than one season...and I was right!

:tv: