FX to launch 26 February
Fox International Channels Australia is to launch channel FX on Sunday 26 February with shows Call Me Fitz starring Jason Priestley, Justified with Timothy Olyphant as well as The Walking Dead and Hell on Wheels.
The announcement:
January 17, 2011 – Fox International Channels today confirmed its new high definition Australian general entertainment channel, FX, will launch Sunday February 26 at 8.30pm AEDT, on subscription television channel 123.
Joining the channel’s line-up of high quality shows are Jason Priestley in the award-winning adult comedy series Call Me Fitz and Timothy Olyphant in the critically acclaimed drama series Justified.
The Australian premiere series add their weight to a strong launch line-up featuring smash hit zombie series “The Walking Dead”, which has been voted the “International TV show we need to see on Aussie TV”¹ for the second year in a row, and epic western revenge tale “Hell On Wheels”.
Karin Simoncini, Managing Director of FOX International Channels Australia said, “We are 100 percent committed to delivering premium quality entertainment to Australian viewers on FX. The star caliber and award winning values in all our shows are impeccable, especially with the addition of Jason Priestley and Timothy Olyphant to our line-up.”
“We’re very excited to be unveiling a line-up of new series that have enjoyed huge ratings success around the world and much-deserved critical accolades. Australian viewers will really be able to immerse themselves in the characters and stories across FX’ entire programming slate,” Ms Simoncini added.
Jason Priestley stars as Richard “Fitz” Fitzpatrick In “Call Me Fitz”. Fitz is a handsome, morally bankrupt used-car salesman whose consequence-free life is complicated by the arrival of do-gooder Larry (Ernie Grunwald), another salesman who claims he is Fitz’s conscience. “Call Me Fitz” is a twisted family dramedy that poses the question: can a man change? More importantly, when he’s having this much fun, do we really want him to? This is Jason Priestley as you’ve never seen him before.
In “Justified”, Timothy Olyphant stars in the lead role of US Marshal Raylan Givens. Givens is a modern day 19th century-style lawman, enforcing his brand of justice in a way that puts a target on his back with criminals and places him at odds with his bosses in the Marshal service. When his superiors question if a killing in Miami was justified, he is sent back to his hillbilly hometown of Harlan, Kentucky. Here, he must not only face the demons of his past but also distrustful superiors and hostile locals as he attempts to hand out justice though the barrel of a gun.
Based on the graphic novels of the same name, “The Walking Dead” is an epic, survival adventure series from the director of The Shawshank Redemption and the producer of The Terminator and Aliens. After waking from a coma in an abandoned hospital, police officer Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) finds the world he knew gone – ravaged by a zombie epidemic of apocalyptic proportions. Nearby, on the outskirts of Atlanta, a small encampment struggles to survive as ‘the dead’ stalk them at every turn. Can Rick and the others hold onto their humanity as they fight to live in this terrifying new world? Amidst dire conditions and personal rivalries, will they ultimately survive one another?
Set against the backdrop of post-Civil War America, “Hell On Wheels” stars Anson Mount as Cullen Bohannon, a former Confederate soldier bent on exacting revenge on the corrupt Union soldiers who raped and killed his wife. His journey takes him west to Hell on Wheels, a dangerous, raucous, lawless melting pot of a town that travels with and services the construction of the first transcontinental railroad, an engineering feat unprecedented for its time.
The first two seasons of “Call Me Fitz”, at 13 episodes each, will air every Wednesday at 9:30pm AEDT premiering February 29.
Similarly, the first two seasons of “Justified”, at 13 episodes each, will air from February 27 every Monday at 8:30pm AEDT, preparing Australian viewers for the premiere of the third season around the same time it debuts in the US.
Seasons one and two of “The Walking Dead” will premiere back-to-back with double, ad-free episodes every Tuesday 8:30pm AEDT with a sneak peek of the feature length pilot airing on Sunday February 26 at 8:30pm AEDT to launch the channel.
“Hell On Wheels” premieres Sunday February 26 at 10:00pm AEDT, with new episodes every Monday at 9:30pm AEDT from February 27. The series has been renewed for a second season and is currently in pre-production.
Source: Fox International Channels press release
