FX boss Jon Landgraf talks future seasons after “thrilling” Emmy nights and Disney's record-breaking nights for 'Shogun' and 'The Bear'

John Landgraf says there is still “magic” in the television business as evidenced by the choice of actors bear's Liza Colon-Jays beat out Carol Burnett and Meryl Streep to win her first Emmy. the shogun Win the main prize.

It was a fantastic night for both FX and The Walt Disney Company, breaking a range of records at this year's Emmys.

FX won 36 awards across the Primetime Emmys and Creative Arts Awards — the most ever — and Disney won 60, beating previous records set by CBS and Netflix.

the shogun won Outstanding Drama Series and stars Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada won Outstanding Drama Performance, while the bear Jeremy Allen White, Liza Colon-Zayas, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as well as Chris Storer to direct and of Fargo Lamarne Morris beat out the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Jonathan Bailey for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.

Chairman of FX Content and FX Productions spoke to Joy Deadline and also shared future updates the shogunwhich is currently gearing up for its second season, bear, The fourth season of which will be ready for next June, while some new projects are in the works.

Deadline: How are you feeling about last night's achievements?

John Landgraf: Just great, especially with the breadth and depth of the nominations and the wins in so many different crafts and so many different genres. I think we counted 297 people who were associated with 93 nominations. You think about those 300 people and the quality of their work and what recognition means to them. Then, for me, it's always exciting to see people win for the first time or win unexpectedly, like Hero Sanada winning or I wondered if Liza Colon-Jays had a chance to win that award against Carol Burnett and Meryl Streep or if Lamorne Morris would. The only one to win an Emmy Fargo Season 5. It's exciting when you see these things. It's really exciting because these are very talented people, and I love seeing them get their moment in the sun.

Deadline: Do you believe that these awards are important?

Landgraph: I've been doing this for 35 years and as far as I know, I have no control over who gets nominated or doesn't and who wins or doesn't. Our only influence here is who we work with, how we work with them, how well we support them, challenge them, resource them. Obviously we work very hard on marketing and promotion and whatever we have to do to distribute the show and show it and get the story of the show and the people who made it out there. But does the work itself really have any effect on you, right? Honestly, what do you spend your time on. You don't spend your time on award shows and collecting awards and polishing these things, you spend all your time thinking about creative people and working with creative people and trying to find the best way to support creative people. It's day-to-day work and it's very satisfying, although, when you see people being recognized for the quality of what they've done, that's the exciting part.

Deadline: You've already broken records going into the awards but we've spent the last 10 years toggling between HBO and Netflix so the number of awards must have been incredibly satisfying.

Landgraph: It was gratifying because FX has been working hard to promote excellence in television for 22 years. There are a lot of things that we've built or supported in that time that I feel, really, really proud of. For me, there's also the sense that the people who worked on this brand, at this studio, on these shows, go back to Michael Chiklis and Ryan Murphy. Nip/Tuck And It's always sunny in Philadelphia Guys, who made FX production the first thing, or rescue me With Peter Tolan and Dennis Leary. All of us in the company, have a stake in what it took.

It was extra sweet for me that it happened in the context of The Walt Disney Company absolutely breaking all-time records, right? In the 78 years of the Emmys, the all-time record, which was tied, was 44 and The Walt Disney Company won 60. Once a competitive event of any kind has been held for 78 years, generally, if you have an entity break the record, they won't break it by 35. If you think about what percentage of all the worthy programming CBS produced in 1974, I don't think it's that different than what Disney produced. That's debatable, but I think it's a fair comparison. From my perspective, I believe in the idea of ​​a company that has organized itself through brands that all contribute to a streaming service, in this case, Hulu and Disney+ that are increasingly merging. I mean Amazon has a comedy group and a movie group and a genre movie group and a drama group and Netflix has a prestige drama group, that's how they organize themselves. I personally like the way Disney has organized itself. It had to acquire several entities like FX and 20th Century Television and 20th Century Film and National Geographic to get there, but I like the way it's organized because I just think that human-scale brands or entities that have some level of Authority and autonomy over what it does, it's not that surprising to me that it gave this result because I think it's a good way to achieve the volume that streaming demands.

Deadline: Speaking of Disney, you can't make up the shogunA big-budget show that wasn't originally in English without them, so it must have been incredibly satisfying, right?

Landgraph: One thing I would say is complementary to Netflix is ​​that they've made the television business more global, and they've moved American programming into global markets, but they've moved global programming into American markets. the shogun An example of a show you wouldn't make for an American basic cable network. This is what you do as a global streaming service. Did we make it in part for FX? sure It's an FX program, but we made it for Hulu and Disney+, so we took the risk and that's why we spent the money and why we did it. The distribution partner it worked for was absolutely essential because we couldn't pay for it with basic cable network advertising and affiliate fees.

Deadline: What do you think wins for? the shogun Say something about where we are as a television industry? Richard Gadd makes the point that risk-taking pays off.

Landgraph: I really appreciate what Richard said. You know that I appreciate the truth Baby reindeer And the shogun Extremely different, different from any other show made this year in their category. Now, I don't want to suggest that Ripley isn't unique because it is or Fargo isn't unique because it is or Fallout, but you wouldn't call it that.

Deadline: What is the official status of season 2? the shogun? Has it been officially greenlit? I gather that the author's room is up and running. Where are you now with this?

Landgraph: We are moving forward. The script is coming, the outline is coming, trying to figure out where we're going to shoot, whether we're going to shoot in exactly the same manner and place or whether we're going to change something.

Deadline: Hiro mentioned that he hopes to shoot some of it in Japan.

Landgraph: I always want to shoot in Japan. We tried really hard to figure out how to shoot this show in Japan. This is complicated because the scale of the stage base and the scale of production capacity are slightly different. We had trouble matching the location and scale of what we were able to achieve there with the scale of the ambition of the show. Unfortunately, in medieval Japan, castles aren't in their former form, and frankly if they were, you wouldn't be able to shoot them anyway.

Deadline: Are you thinking of shooting season 2 and 3 together? Will you shoot them in the back?

Landgraph: No, these are separate narratives. They are all part of a continuous narrative, with continuous characters, but they are separate narratives. I don't know that we are certain that there will be three seasons, but really looking at the characters in history that are depicted here, albeit in a fictional way, it still seems to us that three is the correct number of seasons. Really do it justice.

Deadline: moving the bearThat show broke its own Emmys record. Many of us expected Jeremy Allen White to win, but how do you feel when someone like Liza Colon-Zayas, who was not the favorite, won?

Landgraph: This is the best. i love liza I just think he's awesome. I can simultaneously think that Carol Burnett is one of the greatest comedians in the history of media or Meryl Streep is the greatest actress of her generation and at the same time believe that there are absolutely brilliant artists who never got the chance to show. America, and television audiences do what they can, to be in a position where they can be seen and get their flowers. It's exciting to me. Liza has been around, she's been acting for a long time. I think one of my favorite things about this business is really people showing you what they can do in ways we didn't know, it's amazing. These are all actors the shogun Was amazing because I've never seen anyone other than Hero do anything even remotely comparable, and I've never seen Hero at the center of a huge, epic television show. The thing I love the most is that I think there is still magic in this business.

Deadline: Considering the number of wins, you can't be too disappointed the bear Didn't win the top comedy award, did it?

Landgraph: No. I think Emira is always unpredictable. They always have been, and they always will be. What would you say if you were out of that cast? Fargo – Jon Hamm, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Juno Temple, etc. – That only Lamarne Morris will win? That's what makes it interesting, you never know for sure.

Deadline: There is no suggestion that the conversation around the bear Can't really be prevented from winning comedy?

Landgraph: I don't know, I really don't know. I've been this long, and I can't tell you. I've never audited polls so I don't know what it does. I can come up with many different theories and still don't know which one.

Deadline: You shot some of Season 4 but didn't finish it, is that right? Will it be ready for release next year at the same time?

Landgraph: will be We've finished most of it. We haven't finished all of it, but we've finished most of it, and it will be ready at the same time next year.

Deadline: I'm guessing you don't know if this will be the final season, you've always said it depends on Chris Storer.

Landgraph: accurate

Deadline: The last time we spoke, in February, you said you were looking for “sweat bullets” for new projects. Are you feeling better now?

Landgraph: I do. I'm really happy with the many things we're already well underway, and I'm excited about the many projects that are in development. We haven't decided what pilots we're going to make next but I think we have some great candidates.

Deadline: You have made a decision Sensitive type From Starlin Harjo and The Peep Show Pilot?
Landgraph: We did not proceed The Peep Show.

Deadline: Have you thought about next year's Emmys? You will have another season the bear And there are shows like you Alien, American Sports Story And don't say anything

Landgraph: No, we just try to make the best television and you never know how the competition is going to be. Besides this, every other limited series involved some heavy hitter names baby reindeer, right? Jonah Nolan and Lisa Joy and Noah Hawley and Steve Zaillian would have predicted so. You just don't know.