Yahoo News Brad Schwartz Says ‘FBoy Island’ A Good Fit For CW Because Of Built-In Audience, “Big Loud Title”
With a light-hearted, feel-good lineup of programming that includes The Spencer Sisters and Sullivan’s Crossing on the schedule for fall, the addition of dating show FBoy Island to the CW’s 2023-2024 schedule feels more than just a little incongruous.
But CW programming chief Brad Schwartz told reporters Thursday that it would have been silly not to pick up HBO Max’s castoff because of its “big loud title” and built-in audience. New episodes of the show plus reruns of the dating show will air on CW Thursdays this fall.
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“When they [HBO Max] canceled their entire unscripted slate, there was the biggest show just sitting there,” Schwartz told reporters. “It had two seasons of audience that just love the show. It was opportunistic. It’s such a broadcast show. The show is The Bachelor. The show is Love Island. It’s a little bolder, we know there is an audience there for it. It was an easy decision.”
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“We have to be scrappy in how we do things,” Schwartz continued, adding that he decided to shoot two seasons back-to-back to help amortize the “big financial commitment.”
Schwartz did acknowledge that CW has some “marketing challenges” waiting for them in the fall. But the whole point is to bring new people to the network with adult dramas and yes, edgy dating shows, he said.
“A big, bold unscripted show like Fboy could really bust through,” he said.
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Both FBoy and FGirl Island, which was already in the works at HBO Max before the franchise was cut, will go into production back-to-back this summer from STXtelevision. Both series were created by Elan Gale who is executive producing for TheYearOfElan Productions alongside Jason Goldberg for STXtelevision, Nikki Glaser, Noah Fogelson and Bob Simonds.
FGirl Island will bow midseason.
FBoy Island was set in the Cayman Islands and followed three women who are joined by 24 men – 12 self-proclaimed “Nice Guys” looking for love and 12 self-proclaimed “FBoys,” there to compete for cold, hard cash. The women navigate the dating pool together with the hope of finding a lasting love connection. By the finale, all is revealed – who is a Nice Guy, who is an FBoy and who the women ultimately choose. Fboy Island is a social experiment that asks the age-old question: Can FBoys truly reform, or do Nice Guys always finish last?
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