Fox‘s Baywatch reboot won’t be ready (won’t be ready!) for fall, but never you fear (never you fear!) — it will arrive in midseason.
The new Baywatch will premiere in “late” January 2027, Fox’s head of scheduling Dan Harrison said on a Sunday conference call with the media. Michael Thorn, the president of the Fox broadcast channel, added that it is “an honor” to bring back the IP.
“There’s only one Baywatch,” Thorn said. “It’s one of the most iconic, popular television franchises in TV history.”
As for the timing, Thorn said, “We have a rich history and of launching series midseason. We just did it most recently with Best Medicine and Memory of a Killer and Doc before that. It goes all the way back to 24 and Empire and the 9-1-1s and The Resident. Obviously, Baywatch is a huge, huge priority for us, and we think we have a great opportunity to set the show up for success [in midseason].”
He did not directly comment on what the launch plans, but it’d be a good bet to assume the timing means Baywatch will debut following a big NFL Playoffs game, either the divisional round (Jan. 24) or, more likely, the NFC Conference Championship on January 31.
Baywatch and its red swimsuits are already making Fox some green. The network already has Toyota has the show’s exclusive automobile partner, and Katrina Cukaj, Fox executive vp ad sales, said they will soon announce its beer partner. Fox’s upfront event, when platforms pitch advertisers on their coming slate of shows, takes place this afternoon, which was the reason for the Sunday evening call. The exclusive beer partner will likely be announced then.
Thorn acknowledged that his version of Baywatch has “big shoes to fill,” using a terrible idiom for a show with basically zero shoes. “There’s a lot of pressure on us to try to make it great,” he said, but “there’s no way you don’t take that shot.”
The new Baywatch has a very buzzy cast, including Stephen Amell, Noah Beck, Shay Mitchell, Livvy Dunne and Brooks Nader. Two cast members from the original series, Erika Eleniak and David Chokachi, return to their roles.
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