L.A.’s Finest will air on Fox this fall, with many other scripted shows delayed until 2021. Back in January of this year, the long-awaited third entry in the Bad Boys franchise did well enough at the box office to make it the year’s highest grossing film. Of course, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hollywood studios have ceased and/or paused production on films, and the closure of movie theaters in so many countries around the world has left the 2020 film release schedule in a state of limbo.
Nonetheless, the Bad Boys franchise has been a successful one for producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and the clear (yet truncated) triumph of Bad Boys 4 is now officially in the works. While fans wait to see what will become of that production, they can enjoy the franchise's first TV series. L.A.'s Finest premiered on Spectrum almost exactly a year ago, in May 2019. Soon after, it was renewed for a second season, set to debut next month. However, L.A.'s Finest hasn't yet been shown on network TV.
Now, thanks to FOX, fans now know they'll be able to revisit the series or maybe check it out for the first time. News of the series’ arrival comes at a time when networks everywhere are struggling to organize their programming schedules in the wake of COVID disruptions. Though FOX has revealed they'll have plenty to offer viewers this fall 9-1-1 and its spinoff 9-1-1: Lone Star. Said Charlie Collier, CEO of FOX Entertainment:
The effects of this global health crisis leave no business unaffected. As a media company that prides itself on an entrepreneurial spirit and the focus that comes with doing fewer things better, we mobilized, swiftly creating an entirely new, original-programming lineup for the fall to share with our partners this upfront...Our primary goal is to help them back to business, so in turn, the message we’ve shared is one of relative stability on FOX, combining the best of primetime sports and entertainment with which to help our partners and their customers back to market.
As for LA’s Finest, the series focuses on Gabrielle Union’s character Syd Burnett, who Bad Boys fans will from 2003’s Bad Boys II. Burnett is the sister of Detective Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence), who took a liking to Detective Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) in the film while working as an undercover DEA operative. No longer a DEA operative, Burnett spends her days working for the LAPD alongside partner Nancy McKenna (Jessica Alba). L.A.’s Finest looks to make the same advances with the Burnett and McKenna characters as the film series has done with its characters.
For fans of Bad Boys who haven't yet checked out the series, it’s hard to imagine L.A.’s Finest packing the same degree of action and carnage the films have consistently managed to offer. However, the TV police drama genre has been so utterly over-saturated throughout the years, it's impressive the series managed to find two different networks to air it. Given the success the film series has had, there’s no telling just how devoted Bad Boys fans will be to what is now a Bad Boys shared universe. Perhaps L.A.’s Finest will manage to capture more fans who appreciate the film series with its move to FOX.
Source: FOX