1. Tear it apart.
The network, whose entertainment head, Gail Berman, quit unexpectedly last week, is notoriously bipolar: Quick-buck trash like Who’s Your Daddy? airs alongside groundbreakers like Arrested Development. It’s time to split the baby, Solomon-style.
2. Become a development company.
Fox has scheduling nightmares but a crackerjack eye for talent. Radical times call for radical solutions: Release the affiliates. Then package reality junk for NBC (which needs the buzz) and plant the hothouse darlings on pay cable, where shows like AD (and The Tick and Firefly) can flourish. Donate American Idol to the government, which could use the revenues.
3. Invest in DVDs—and the Internet.
Fox is already on the forefront of on-demand programming, and serial shows like 24 are DVD cash cows. So why not take the plunge and become the iTunes of TV? Offer downloadable shows for sale. Next step: iFox.