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FX president John Landgraf touting the network's new strategy and development slate. 

You guys, I got up real early this morning to stream FX's first-ever Upfront* presentation, and I have to say it didn't disappoint. Network president John Landgraf and his team made some huge announcements, and many of them are very exciting! Some of them are also a bit weird/questionable, but the point is, we have a lot to talk about. I've organized my notes—and there are tons, so settle in—into bullet points below; take a gander, then let's hear what you think of FX's new strategy, shows, and more in the comments. 

* Does everybody know what an Upfront is? Apologies, I've lost track of the term's obscurity (or lack thereof). For the uninitiated, "the Upfronts" are a series of annual presentations that TV networks put on for advertisers. The major broadcast networks always host theirs in May, but many cable networks hold them throughout the spring. The basic idea, if you're a network executive, is to brag about your recent programming successes and tout all the cool stuff you have coming up, and the hope is that the advertisers you're bragging to will be impressed and want to purchase ad space "up front." From a TV fan's point of view, they essentially offer a first look at what's ahead. 

We knew something like this was coming, but now it's official: FX Networks is dividing and multiplying into a "suite" of three channels—FX, FXX, and FXM. Landgraf said the move is designed to "avoid the 'all things to all people' pitfall that plagues broadcast TV," and that the networks "will share DNA and similar sensibilities for viewers interested in smart, cutting-edge programming." Here's the breakdown:

– Each of the three networks will focus on a different demographic. Original Recipe FX will target the gold-standard 18-49 group, FXX will attempt to woo a younger 18-34 audience, and FXM will aim for a broader 25-50 span.

– Original Recipe FX will remain the flagship property of the "FX Networks" umbrella, and it will continue to air programming in its existing content categories of comedy, drama, and movies. However, it's going to focus more on drama, increasing its tally from three to seven, and dabble in "limited series" and miniseries as well. 

– FXX replaces Fox Soccer and will debut on September 2. At the outset, FXX will focus on comedy; the idea is to launch with four original comedies and one late-night show, then expand to six original comedies and a late-night show, then eventually add some drama. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The League, and Legit—which have all been renewed for additional seasons—will all relocate to FXX, as will with Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, which will expand to five nights a week.  Those four shows plus a to-be-announced comedy will form FXX's starting lineup. 

– FXM (which technically launched about a year ago and replaced Fox Movie Channel) will carry "prestige" movies and related short-form original programming. The goal is to eventually air one original "limited series" or miniseries (I don't quite understand the difference between the two, but I'm pretty sure it has to do with episode count) each quarter. 

– The overall plan is to offer 25 original scripted series across all three channels over the next three years: "We are embarking on an incredibly ambitious ramp-up of program development and production required to sustain these networks," Landgraf said. "I'm very confident that the pilots, projects, and talent we have deals with will allow us to double our already best-in-class roster of scripted original series."

This is the good part: There's some seriously exciting stuff coming up! Ahem:

– We got to see the first trailer for The Bridge (which isn't yet available online; I'll post it as soon as I can find it), and it looks gritty and promising. The series, from Homeland writer Meredith Stiehm, is set to debut this July and follows two detectives on opposite sides of the U.S.-Mexico border as they work together to stop a serial killer. Diane Kruger and Demián Bichir star.

– Speaking of Homeland and people who've worked on it, Tyrant comes from Homeland producers Howard Gordon and Gideon Raff (who also created the Israeli series Homeland is based on), and follows an American family that gets caught up in chaotic Middle Eastern politics when the dictator of an Arab nation dies and his American son becomes the head of the country. The show is currently still development—pilot production begins this summer—but there's already a full writing staff working on scripts for the first season in anticipation of an official series order. Oh, and did I mention that Ang Lee, who just won an Oscar for Life of Pi, has signed on to direct the pilot?

– The Strain is that vampire drama from Guillermo Del Toro that Tim first told you about back in September (Lost's Carlton Cuse is also involved). The show is based on Del Toro's trilogy of novels, and the logline promises "a world of vampires unlike any ever depicted in television or film." The the set-up is basically this: A plane lands at JFK and all the passengers on it are dead. The CDC is called in, and all of a sudden there's a vampire virus wreaking havoc in New York City. "These bloodsuckers are not the romanticized version of vampires that have become such a cliche, but a terrifyingly original new vision," says the official press release. "And so begins a pretty awesome-sounding thriller," says me. According to Landgraf, "We think Guillermo's gonna give American Horror Story a run for its money." Like Tyrant, The Strain is still in the development phase—pilot production begins in August—but there's already a full writing staff working on scripts for the first season in anticipation of an official series order.

– The Academy Award-winning film Fargo is being adapted for TV in FX's first "limited" (read: 10-episode) series; it will "follow an all-new 'true crime' story, with a new case and new characters." Writer Noah Hawley (Bones, the short-lived My Generation) penned the script and the Coen brothers (who wrote and directed the movie) will executive-produce. Production will begin in December for a spring 2014 debut on FXM.

– Because why stop at Fargo, here are FOUR more "limited series" events coming down the pike, all of them with big names attached: 

Mayflower is "an unflinching portrait of the Puritan settlers at Plymouth Colony and their uneasy alliance with the local Native Americans." Paul Giamatti (Sideways) is one of the executive producers.

Grand Hotel is set in an international luxury hotel in Paris that "turns into a hellish trap when it becomes the center of a terrorist attack." Sam Mendes (Skyfall, American Beauty) is one of the executive producers.

Mad Dogs is based on the British series of the same name and details "the reunion of four forty-something guys who head to Belize to visit their old school friend, when things take an unexpected and dark turn." TV.com favorite Shawn Ryan (Last Resort, Terriers, The Shield) is one of the executive producers.

Sutton, which is based the J.R. Moeringher novel of the same name, "begins on Christmas Eve 1969, when Willie “The Actor” Sutton—Irishman, lover, folk hero, and the most prolific bank robber in American history—stepped out of Attica Prison and boarded a plane for New York City, where he proceeded to take a reporter and photographer on a five-borough guided tour of his remarkable life and crimes." Alexander Payne (The Descendants, Sideways) is one of the executive producers. 

– Comedy pilots! Two were announced: The first is Chozen, an animated series from executive producer Danny McBride and the team behind Eastbound & Down. The show follows a white rapper who's recently out of prison, and the voice cast includes McBride, SNL's Bobby Moynihan, Hannibal Buress, Kathryn Hahn, Michael Pena, and Nick Swardson. The second is How & Why, from executive producer Charlie Kaufman (yes, THAT Charlie Kaufman). It's "the story of a man who can explain how and why a nuclear reactor works, but is clueless about life." 

RENEWALS AND VAGUE RETURN DATES!

Most of these are obvious/nothing new, but here they are anyway: 

– Justified is officially renewed for Season 5 and will return in January 2014 (the Season 4 finale airs Tuesday).

– It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The League—which haven't yet aired their upcoming seasons—are renewed for Seasons 10 and 6, respectively, meaning they'll be on the air through fall 2014. It's Always Sunny Season 9 and The League Season 5 will both premiere this fall. 

– Freshman comedy Legit is renewed for Season 2.

– Wilfred will be back this summer for Season 3.

– It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 9 and The League Season 5 will debut this fall; as I mentioned above, both shows will relocate to FXX. 

– American Horror Story will return for Season 3—subtitled Coven—in October, "just in time for Halloween."

– The Americans Season 2 will premiere in January 2014. 

– Louie will likely return for Season 4 in May 2014.

FX NOW
FX is (finally!) launching its own version of HBO GO called FXNOW! Here's how it'll work: 

– FXNOW will launch this fall as an app (presumably with support desktop, tablet, and mobile). It'll be a video-on-demand service, with new FX content becoming available the day after it airs. Users can expect access to the five most recent episodes of current shows.

– Similar to HBO GO, FXNOW will be an authentication-based service, which means it'll only be available to FX subscribers whose cable providers participate in the service. You'll have to sign in using your 

– FXNOW will include access to FXM's on-demand movie library, which the network boasts is largely unavailable on competing platforms like Netflix and Amazon Instant. 

– Fast-forwarding will be disabled on all platforms. 

– I'm still unclear on how much of FX's back catalog (i.e. The Shield, Terriers, and other not-currently-airing shows), if any, will be available. Based on the mention of "the five most recent episodes," I'm not sure I'd count on having access to older stuff. 

Phew. Got all that? Let's talk...

QUESTIONS

1. What do you think of think of FX's three-network strategy? And more importantly, what do you think of the names of the three new networks and the new tagline of "Fearless"? Please feel free to suggest edits in the comments.

2. Which of the new series sounds the most appealing to you so far? 

3. How excited are you about FX Now? How skeptical are you of the fact that it won't have a fast-forward option? How many of you are actual U.S.-based FX subscribers who will use it?

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This week, NBC's two big new comedies Go On and The New Normal premiered in their Tuesday timeslots. However, the episodes that aired were not the show's pilots but instead their second episodes. Of course, that's because NBC spent the last month trying to get everyone on the planet to watch the pilots for Go On and The New Normal—and Animal Practice as well—first airing Go On and Animal Practice during the Olympics, then putting both pilots online soon after. Later, the network posted The New Normal online, and then aired and re-aired The New Normal and Go On pilots, respectively, on Monday night after the Season 3 premiere of The Voice.

Although the post-Olympics and post-Voice move isn't new—putting an important pilot behind popular "event" programming is straight out of the broadcast network playbook—making the episodes available so early online is a much more recent phenomenon. And NBC, which also posted new J.J. Abrams drama Revolution, is not alone. Fox made the Ben and Kate and The Mindy Project pilots available soon after NBC pulled the trigger, and ABC made Last Resort available earlier this week. There are 21 new shows debuting on the broadcast nets this fall, and as of now, with some time to go before certain premieres, a third of those premiere episodes are already online.

Networks have been releasing chunks of episodes early for a while now (I vaguely remember watching a few minutes of a Lost premiere and ABC definitely released the opening 12-15 minutes of FlashForward online early) but the dissemination of full pilot episodes has really picked up over the last three years. In 2009, both Modern Family (Amazon) and Community (Facebook) were made available before their first television airing. Fox also released a director's cut of the Glee pilot that aired on the network at the end of the 2008–2009 season on Hulu before the proper season began. I've been told that Lone Star and No Ordinary Family were out there well before the 2010–2011 season began.

Last season, Fox made New Girl available literally everywhere before its premiere, NBC did similar things for Whitney (for some reason) and Grimm, while both Grimm, while both The Secret Circle and Hart of Dixie were up on iTunes a few weeks early. In the midseason, you couldn't escape the Smash pilot, and Awake's was available, too.

Surely, there are a number of episodes and shows I'm forgetting—we haven't even talked about cable—but that only serves to reinforce the point more: More and more, pilots are being made available before (and sometimes WAY before) their official television airdates. The biggest question with this trend is also the easiest one to ask: Why do it?

For the viewers, pilots being available early is nothing but a plus. Seeing things early is cool. Early releases give us time to watch a pilot we might otherwise skip because of the oppressive bombardment of new shows and episodes in late September and early October.

But I can't imagine that the networks and studios are giving us premiere episodes four weeks before the "real" premiere just to make us happy. That's silly. Yet, in an era when good Nielsen ratings are hard to come by and the competition is at a very high level, it does seem somewhat wild that the networks would be willing to chance losing a big first-episode number during the real TV season (when ad dollars are higher) just so that they maybe convince a few more people to sample a show they would have ignored otherwise.

Nevertheless, this move toward early access to episodes tells us something crucial about the changes within the television industry: Buzz is more important than ever before. Maybe not more important than ratings—which aren't going away despite just about everyone's frustration with them—but it's inching closer in importance.

While the networks still hold on to the Nielsen ratings to rake in the ad dollars, they are smarter than we give them credit for. They are very aware of how much people love to talk about television... and how they tend to do so in very public, shareable ways. Not everyone live-tweets The X Factor, but the social aspect of television has translated masterfully to social media. The networks have figured that out and in recent seasons, we've seen more promotions keyed into Facebook and watched the networks start pushing hashtags on-screen in hopes of trending on Twitter. We are talking about and interacting with shows on social media anyway, so it's smart for the networks to try to guide or supplement that discussion and interaction.

By releasing pilots or season premieres (or really any episodes) early, the networks are able to foster conversation early and during a theoretically less crowded time, allowing for fans and social media to do a big part of the opening promotional push for them. Instead of pushing the content onto the audience on television and with television promotion, the networks have learned to step back and let the very interested and active viewers pull it from them. You'll notice that Fox hasn't been running primetime promos telling viewers that they can watch The Mindy Project pilot online right now. Instead, it just put the episode up, sent out a press release, and let the online media machine—yes, including TV.com—and social media do the work. If you want it, you can go get it.

One curious side effect is that, in a way, this approach is creating two distinct groups of viewers. Networks have learned to use social media or put content online as a way to cultivate a certain discussion or fandom online, but they haven't stopped using traditional methods of promotion like quick clips during a sporting event, trailers, or what have you. And neither technique directly addresses the other. The networks know they're going to pull in some "traditional" viewers and some viewers who love social media, but both methods work to get more of each group. (However, a problem might arise in instances like NBC airing the second episodes of Go On or The New Normal in their supposed "series premiere" timeslots. It's possible that the viewers not keyed in to the online discussion or these sneak peaks might be confused when they are presented with the second episode first.)

In the best-case scenario, the networks hope that those of us who "go get it," so to speak, spread the word in some way—maybe we tell our friends at lunch, maybe we share the availability on Facebook, maybe we talk about how The New Normal is a mess on Twitter. It seems like the networks are willing to bet that the losses they might accrue in pilot ratings are worth the possibility of much larger gains in general interest, which could turn into full-time investment. They're taking a chance on sacrificing the short term to improve the long term. And it's even possible that the word-of-mouth works well enough that more people end up watching live that first night anyway, or that the buzz translates to higher ad rates later (so cha-ching).

In theory, then, what seems like a weird and stupid decision is actually kind of smart. And as we've seen already at the outset of the season, certain media outlets are already reporting on which shows have the most buzz. At the end of August, The Hollywood Reporter published a report on the shows that are dominating the social media chatter, and wouldn't you know it, many of the shows that top that list were made available online (or after the Olympics). And doing a story on what shows are the most-discussed only further stokes the fire of that discussion. It never stops.

Even though allowing the viewers to do some of the marketing heavy lifting is smart and perceptive, it's still tough—especially for us on the outside—to determine if this tactic actually works. Modern Family and New Girl debuted strong in 2009 and 2011 respectively and went on to anchor their nights for the whole season. Community's pilot is still its highest-rated episode, but that's mostly because it aired after a season premiere of The Office. Whitney and Grimm didn't light the world on fire for NBC last season, though their pilot ratings were decent. Lone Star was a dud, Awake didn't do that much better (sorry, Kyle Killen), and even Smash, a show that also had an annoyingly expansive promotional push on television, debuted to lower-than-expected ratings.

So, maybe it works. Maybe it doesn't. There's no way to prognosticate what would have happened to New Girl had it not been available early, even if common sense tells us that it was probably going to be a nice performer no matter what. Maybe Smash lost a million young viewers who watched the pilot early, or maybe it gained a million viewers who were convinced by other people to watch. The networks have some idea of who's watching these episodes online early, and they're certainly sharing those numbers with advertisers, but we will probably never know.

Yet, the fact that we're continuing to see pilots go up online early is probably the best proof we're going to get that this methodology works. Internally, if NBC, Fox, ABC or The CW* saw that the numbers or the money wasn't lining up, they'd stop. The additional wave of buzz—and ad money they make on places like Hulu, of course—that these early-debuting shows can ride must be enough for the networks to stick with it. Money still rules, but perhaps buzz is closing in.

* It's really curious to see that CBS hasn't done this yet, to my knowledge. That definitely says something about the network's audience—or at least who CBS thinks the audience is—and their habits. Also important to point out: CBS kills in the ratings. Maybe they are on to something?

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