'King of the Hill' negotiating with ABC update

What’s the latest with 'King of the Hill' possibly moving to ABC?

"King of the Hill" producers are still negotiating with ABC over the possibility of the network acquiring the canceled Fox series. But it's not going too well.

So what's the problem?

Originally I reported that the tricky part is that ABC plans to premiere "King" creator Mike Judge's new animated show "The Goode Family" in midseason and would like to pair "King" with "Goode." But the problem is that new episodes of "King" won't be ready until next fall due to the long production process. ABC has to choose between Option A (premiere "Goode" solo in midseason) and Option B (delay "Goode" until next fall and premiere both shows together).

Except ABC, being clever and rather ambitious, had a best-of-both-worlds Option C in mind that didn't occur to me: Convince Fox to give up its remaining final season "King" episodes so ABC can air "King" and "Goode" together in midseason.

Wow!

I know right?

But ... why would Fox agree to that?

Yeah. Well, that's the same thing Fox thought: Why would we agree to that? At press tour last summer, ABC entertainment president Steve McPherson said, rather movingly, that the broadcast economic downturn has him rooting for everybody to succeed. But that doesn't mean everybody is rooting for ABC to succeed.

The reason Fox might go for it is because ABC is supposedly making a fair offer. And Fox could premiere new animated comedy “Sit Down Shut Up” in midseason in the "King" slot. So giving up the remaining “King” episodes might not be so bad. But the move is still seen as doing ABC and Mike Judge a favor. And such a request for broadcast war parlay leaves Fox disinclined to acquiesce.

After 11 years airing “King,” why wouldn’t Fox do Judge a favor?

Judge took “Goode Family” to ABC and received a generous deal that could eventually buy the Austinite plenty of tickets to Schlitterbaun. Some contend Fox was annoyed. Others say that’s silly, a major broadcast network would never act like a jilted mafia godfather punishing a solider for going outside the family … would it?

So what now?

We wait, and don’t hold our breath.

So this entire post really has no news in it per se?

Um, no. But I thought the haggling details were interesting.