‘Fantasy Island’ & ‘Lego Masters’ Move From Summer To In-Season At Fox; Will Arnett-Hosted Series Gets Celebrity Special

Peter White
·4 min read
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Fantasy Island and Lego Masters are moving from Fox’s summer schedule to in-season.

The low-cost drama and the Will Arnett-hosted unscripted series were previously set to launch on May 31. However, this morning with the reveal of Fox’s latest slate, the two shows are being pushed to later in the season.

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“There’s some great moments where you start to see what you’ve got in the can and they came in so good,” Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier said, speaking on its pre-upfront call. “We’re so blessed to have such a hefty returning slate and great choices to make.”

Michael Thorn, President of Entertainment at Fox, added, “Fantasy Island is really a stand out for us and we’ve lined up some incredible guest stars for this season. It’s really fun and escapist and we can’t wait to have that back on our air.”

Separately, Lego Masters is getting its own celebrity spinoff – Celebrity Lego Masters: Holiday Bricktacular is being launched as a “multiple-night event” on the network.

The move is more surprising for Fantasy Island.

The series, which was created by Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain and comes from Sony Pictures Television, Gemstone Studios and Fox Entertainment, launched its first season in August 2021 and was seen as a low cost opportunity for scripted in the summer.

The reboot of the classic series, which ran between 1977 and 1984, was renewed in November following strong ratings.

It stars Roselyn Sanchez and Kiara Barnes and takes place at a luxury resort, where literally any fantasy requested by guests is fulfilled, although they rarely turn out as expected. Delving into the “what if” questions — both big and small — that keep us awake at night, each episode will tell emotional, provocative stories about people who arrive with dreams and desires.

Sanchez plays Elena Roarke, a descendant of the iconic Mr. Roarke, who set aside her own ambitions, and the love of her life, to uphold her family’s legacy. Barnes plays Ruby Akuda, a young woman with an old soul who arrived on Fantasy Island with a terminal illness and was given a new lease on life as Roarke’s right hand.

The series also aired a two-hour holiday special – Welcome to the Snow Globe – in December.

In season two, the transformations continue when two former high school losers come to the Island hoping to make their onetime classmates envious of their new lives. Also, three friends attempt to find out what happened to a fourth companion, who mysteriously vanished decades ago; and an empty-nester couple arrives to determine whether or not to divorce.

Last year, Fox Entertainment President Michael Thorn told Deadline Fantasy Island was its “first real, recent attempt at a cost effective” drama series and said the network was “really high on it”.

The move of Lego Masters, which was renewed for a third season in December, is slightly less surprising given that the Arnett-hosted series has moved around the schedule. The first season aired in February 2020 and the second season premiered in June 2021.

The show sees pairs of Lego enthusiasts facing off in brick-building challenges.

Based on the hit British reality-competition series of the same name, Lego Masters is produced by Endemol Shine North America, Tuesday’s Child and Brad Pitt’s Plan B.

The network said that the second season was summer 2021’s joint number entertainment series among teens and was the number one most co-viewed broadcast unscripted series of the summer, averaging 4.2M total multiplatform viewers.

Executive producers include Arnett, Pip Wells, Endemol Shine North America’s Sharon Levy, DJ Nurre and Michael Heyerman, Tuesday’s Child’s Karen Smith and Steph Harris, Plan B’s Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, and Jeremy Kleiner and Jill Wilfert and Robert May from the Lego Group.

Fox has a number of other non-scripted series that are still planned for the summer including the return of So You Think You Can Dance, which launches May 18, Don’t Forget The Lyrics! and Beat Shazam on May 23, and MasterChef on May 25.

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