Exclusive: Fox First Run To End ‘Dish Nation,’ ‘Person, Place or Thing’ & ‘Pictionary’

Much of the rest of station group’s first-run lineup is on the bubble.

Fox First Run is not renewing three of its first-run shows — Dish Nation, Person, Place or Thing and Pictionary — after this season, a spokeswoman confirmed on Tuesday. Fox First Run is the first-run development arm of Fox, working in conjunction with the Fox Television Stations.

The decision comes in a year where daytime ratings have dipped below a sustainable financial level for many syndicated shows, forcing station groups to make some hard choices.

Fox has many other first-run shows on its stations — including Warner Bros.’ Jennifer Hudson, Extra and True Crime News; Fox’s TMZ and TMZ Live; Debmar-Mercury’s Sherri and Trifecta’s Crime Expose with Nancy O’Dell. While Sherri, TMZ and TMZ Live look safe, everything else on that list is considered to be on the bubble. Fox’s decisions have ramifications for stations all across the nation because it is the group that clears shows through the country’s three largest markets: New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

Canceling those three shows — and potentially more — means there will definitely be shelf space available in daytime, and station groups and producers are looking at ways to creatively fill those holes. Going forward when programming daytime, stations are expected to move almost exclusively to shows that can generate revenue streams across multiple platforms and/or be run multiple times a day.

Thus far, only two new first-run strips have been announced for next fall and both are games: CBS Media Ventures’ Perfect Line, hosted by Deborah Norville, and Scrambled Up!, which comes from Keller/Noll, Playing Field Entertainment and Crazy Legs Productions.

While two of the three shows on Fox’s cancellation pile are games, they remain a favored genre in syndication. Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune, produced by Sony Pictures Entertainment and distributed by CMV, remain two of television’s highest-rated shows.

Debmar-Mercury’s Family Feud is right up there with them, typically leading among younger demographics. Games also are relatively cheap to produce — they are often shot over six or so weeks in the summer in a location with good tax incentives, like Atlanta — and they are easy to multiplatform, with shows like CMV’s Flip Side co-produced and airing on GSN as well as on CBS-owned stations.

Fox First Run’s Dish Nation has aired on Fox Television Stations since 2012, giving it a 13-season run by the time it goes off the air. The show initially featured radio deejays from accross the country, but it has evolved into a talk/entertainment hybrid hosted by Tamar Braxton, Headkrack, Gary with da Tea, Da Brat, Tanner Thomason and Jessie Woo.

Pictionary, hosted by Jerry O’Connell, premiered in 2022. It started off as a co-production between Fox First Run and CBS Media Ventures in partnership with Mattel but Fox eventually took over its production. Person, Place or Thing debuted in 2023 and is hosted by actress Melissa Peterman. It is produced by Dino Bones Productions.