‘9-1-1’ Spinoff in the Works at ABC as Ryan Murphy Explains
Why ‘Lone Star’ Was Canceled With one “9-1-1” show coming to an end, another is on the horizon for Ryan Murphy.
“Tim Minear and I are working on a new spinoff show that we’re actually writing and we’re hoping to air next fall,” Murphy told Variety. “Sadly, we all love ‘Lone Star,’ but the financing just isn’t feasible. It’s a Disney property that was on Fox and it never took off. And we’ve had a long run with that show. So now we’re launching a new show in a new city that I can’t name, but it’s exciting. And ‘9-1-1’ has moved to ABC and suddenly it’s become, I think, the biggest show on Thursday night.” They obviously had interest in that show, so we’re going to give them another show that I really like.”
“9-1-1,” created by Murphy, Minear and Brad Falchuk, premiered on Fox in 2018. After Season 6, the series moved to ABC because it was produced by 20th Television, a division of Disney. “9-1-1 Lone Star,” for its part, premiered in 2020 on Fox, where it continues. The fifth season began on September 23, shortly after Fox announced that it would be its last, with 3 million viewers.
Adding streaming, it became Fox’s biggest scripted show in Live+3 since the final “Lone Star” season ended in 2023, not including post-NFL broadcasts. Meanwhile, “9-1-1,” along with Murphy’s “Doctor Odyssey,” have held the top two spots on Hulu’s Top 15 for the past three days.
Rob Lowe, showrunner of “9-1-1: Lone Star,” told Variety in August that he expected “Lone Star” to end, and that only made everyone work harder.
“We all went into it with the idea that this was going to be the last season, so that influenced everything we did,” he shared. “We really wanted to show people what could still happen in network television if people were interested in doing it. It feels like maybe this is the end of an era — well, it doesn’t feel like that. It’s the end of an era of a certain type of show that we had a chance to do, and I think they’re great.” We wanted to make our argument for the value of these shows, and I think we did a great job. The stories we were able to tell every week in terms of scope and scale — that’s probably what I’m most proud of. They really are like short films every week.”
