FX has canceled its latenight talk show “BrandX with Russell Brand,” though the cable channel intends to stay in business with the comedian by making a “Curb Your Enthusiasm”-style comedy about his life.
FX CEO John Landgraf explained at a press conference to discuss various business across the FX networks that “BrandX” wouldn’t be continuing. He said that in looking to populate both FX and new spin-off channel FXX, his executive team preferred to go with “Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell,” which will air nightly on FXX starting in the fall.
“Kamau and (producer) Chris (Rock) were more ready to convert to a daily show in terms of their production process,” he explained. “We saw more potential and more upside in the audience response… So essentially we’re moving forward with that and not with ‘BrandX,’ but we’re going to move forward with Russell on something else.”
The plan is for Brand to stay in the FX fold with “a live action show that is loosely about his life, in the same way ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ is loosely about Larry David’s life,” but there’s no writer attached yet.
In total, FX aired 26 episodes of “BrandX” over three different production cycles.