
Television
Ryan Murphy signs five-year $300 million deal with Netflix
The creator of American Crime Story, Glee, Scream Queens and more, will be leaving FX when his contract ends in July and jumping over to Netflix. It is one of the largest overall deals for a show runner to date.
There are few details around his first two Netflix projects beyond their names, The Politician and Ratched. Ryan still has one new show to launch on FX before he departs — Pose, a musical drama set in 1986 New York.
In January Ryan mused about remaining at FX (and parent 20th Century Fox) after the studio was acquired by Disney, since his bold and shocking shows don’t fit with the Disney brand. Disney CEO Bob Iger reportedly courted Ryan personally knowing how valuable he is to the studio as a hit maker.
Netflix’s chief content officer Ted Sarandos made the announcement and praised Ryan’s previous word. “Ryan Murphy’s series have influenced the global cultural zeitgeist, reinvented genres and changed the course of television history. His unfaltering dedication to excellence and to give voice to the underrepresented, to showcase a unique perspective or just to shock the hell out of us, permeates his genre-shattering work,” he said in a statement.
Ryan said in the joint statement , “I am awash in genuine appreciation for Ted Sarandos, Reed Hastings, and Cindy Holland at Netflix for believing in me and the future of my company, which will continue to champion women, minorities, and LGBTQ heroes and heroines, and I am honored and grateful to continue my partnership with my friends and peers at Fox on our existing shows.”
Netflix has been licensing FX content for years including many of Ryan’s shows like Nip/Tuck, so it’s little surprise the streaming service saw the value in his work. The platform is famous for ordering shows based on their viewing data, creating hit after hit thanks as well to solid writing.
Ryan has also been directing both for his small screen projects and full movies including Running with Scissors, Eat Pray Love and the New Normal. One 2008 Ryan pilot FX did not pick up was Pretty/Handsome, the story of a married man with two sons who tells his family he is transsexual — a story similar to Amazon’s Transparent.