Fox Executives “Really Happy” ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ Was Picked Up By NBC

Last week, we learned that Fox was canceling three of their serialized single-camera comedy series, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “The Last Man on Earth,” and “The Mick.” The fan outrage was immediate, particularly for the case of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” which had been on the air for 5 seasons. No reason was given for the moves, but many saw it as a sign of things to come for the network, moving away from serialized comedy.

Well, according to a new report from The Hollywood Reporter, the executives over at Fox are starting to give some reasons why they parted ways with the comedies, and the network doesn’t have any hard feelings with the fact that NBC quickly snatched up ‘Nine-Nine.’ In fact, Fox saw how multi-camera comedies were doing so well this year, with the “Roseanne” revival leading the way, and they just wanted to get in on the sitcom action.

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“Obviously everyone took a good hard look at the performance of [‘Roseanne’],” said Fox executive Dana Walden, who added: “It certainly did remind us that we have a huge comedy star in Tim Allen.”

The reason Tim Allen’s name was brought up is that the sitcom star’s canceled series “Last Man Standing,” was recently picked up by Fox for a revival. The series had previously aired over at ABC. Also, Tim Allen is linked to “Roseanne” in a roundabout way due to his political leanings being shared by that show’s star Roseanne Barr. Many see Tim Allen’s sitcom as the first of the post-“Roseanne” series focusing on more traditional sitcoms with an “anti-PC” slant.

Unfortunately, Fox’s new focus just meant that “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and the other series just didn’t have a place anymore on the network. But that doesn’t mean that Fox holds grudges or ill will towards the series. In fact, Walden said, “We’re really happy that [‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’] found a new home.”

But overall, Walden and CEO Gary Newman are keeping mum about much of their upcoming slate due to the network’s upfront presentation around the corner, where they’re expected to promote their recent acquisition of the NFL’s “Thursday Night Football.”