The Hollywood writers and actors strikes must be resolved by October 1 to have enough time to produce new, scripted TV shows for the 2023-24 season, says Fox Entertainment President Michael Thorn.

The Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists strikes will need to be resolved by the end of this month for that to happen, TVLine reports Thorn as saying.

“You’re going to get to a point in the fall, in the late fall, where it’s going to be very hard to launch [scripted shows] within the traditional TV viewing season,” Thorn said.

Hollywood insiders say it will take scripted television shows roughly eight weeks to gear up for production once the strikes are over.

If bargains between WGA, SAG-AFTRA and the studios are not met by October 1, TV stations may have to launch new programs in summer 2024 or even later, according to Thorn.

“If that means the [delayed scripted] show could work and succeed in the summer [of 2024]—great,” Thorn said. “If it’s better to wait for the fall and use football and sports” to promote/launch scripted seasons, “we’ll do that,” the TV executive said.

Currently, Fox’s fall TV schedule has only one night of scripted shows, on Sundays. The rest of the week will feature Gordon Ramsay cooking competitions, Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, Name That Tune, The Masked Singer, Friday Night SmackDown, David Spade’s new game show, Snake Oil, and 9-1-1: Lone Star reruns.

Once the strikes are settled, Fox looks forward to new episodes of Animal Control and to launching John Wells’ new show, Rescue: Hi-Surf.

“We’re going to return those shows with vigor,” Thorn said.

But in the meanwhile, television viewers are likely to be in a lurch this fall.

As TVLine put it: “9-1-1, what's your TV emergency?”