''Next'' (stylized as ''neXt'') is a 2020 American

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combin ...

television series created by Manny Coto for the

Fox Broadcasting Company The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an Television in the United States, American Commercial broadcasting, commercial terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by Fox C ...

. Set to debut as a mid-season entry during the 2019–20 United States television season, it was delayed to the fall schedule of the 2020–21 television season due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

and premiered on October 6, 2020. The series was cancelled in October 2020, after two episodes had aired, but the remaining episodes were aired during the series's normal

time slot Broadcast programming is the practice of organizing or ordering (scheduling) of broadcast media shows, typically radio and television, in a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or season-long schedule. Modern broadcasters use broadcast automation ...

Premise

The series centers on the efforts of a

homeland A homeland is a place where a cultural, national, or racial identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethn ...

cybersecurity Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, t ...

team to counter "a rogue AI with the ability to constantly improve itself".

Cast

Main

John Slattery John M. Slattery Jr. (born August 13, 1962) is an American actor and director widely known for his role as Roger Sterling Jr. in the AMC drama series ''Mad Men'' (2007–15), for which he was nominated four times for the Primetime Emmy Award fo ...

as Paul LeBlanc, the former CEO of tech giant Zava and a prominent voice against society's growing dependence on technology and AI. He is secretly suffering from a degenerative brain disease known as

fatal familial insomnia Fatal insomnia is an extremely rare genetic (and even more rarely, sporadic) disorder that results in trouble sleeping as its hallmark symptom. The problems with sleeping typically start out gradually and worsen over time. Eventually, the patien ...

and has only a few months left to live. *

Fernanda Andrade Fernanda Andrade (born 8 March 1984) is a Brazilian-born American actress, model and singer. She is best known for starring in the 2012 horror film, '' The Devil Inside'' as Isabella Rossi, Special Agent Salazar in the 2020 sci-fi action thrille ...

as Shea Salazar, an FBI special agent recruited by LeBlanc to help him investigate Next * Michael Mosley as CM, a convicted former hacker working with the FBI as a condition of his sentence * Gerardo Celasco as Ty Salazar, Shea's husband and a talented mechanic * Eve Harlow as Gina, a member of Shea's support team at the FBI who dislikes CM *Aaron Moten as Ben, one of Shea's investigators *Evan Whitten as Ethan Salazar, Shea and Ty's young son * Elizabeth Cappuccino as Abby, Paul's estranged daughter *

Jason Butler Harner Jason Thomas Butler Harner (born October 9, 1970) is an American actor. Life and career Harner was born in Elmira, New York and grew up in suburban Northern Virginia, where he saw a handful of plays at Washington, D.C.’s Arena Stage. His mid ...

as Ted LeBlanc, Paul's younger brother who co-founded Zava and took over as CEO when Paul was fired. Against his brother's wishes, he restarted the Next program.

Recurring

* Ali Ahn as Sarina, the lead engineer at Zava involved in the Next program * John Cassini as Ron Mathis, Shea's supervisor at the FBI * Dann Fink as NeXt (voice) * Chaon Cross as Deborah, Ted's wife

Guest star

David Zayas David Zayas (born August 15, 1962) is a Puerto Rican actor. He is best known for his roles as Angel Batista on Showtime's series ''Dexter'' and Enrique Morales on the HBO prison drama series '' Oz''. Early life Zayas was born in Ponce, Puer ...

as Nacio, a caretaker at the cabin that Ty and Ethan retreat to and who may have ulterior motives (in "File #4", "File #5" and "File #6")

Production

Development

On February 5, 2019, it was announced that Fox had given the production a pilot order. The pilot was written by Manny Coto, and codirected by John Requa and Glenn Ficarra, with all three serving as executive producers. Production companies involved with the pilot include Zaftig Films,

Fox Entertainment Fox Entertainment is an American production company owned by Fox Corporation. The company was formed in 2019 after The Walt Disney Company's acquisition of 21st Century Fox. The programming is created for the Fox Broadcasting Company, MyNetwork ...

, and the Disney-owned

20th Century Fox Television 20th Television (formerly 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century-Fox Television, and TCF Television Productions, Inc.) is an American television production company that is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of The Walt Disney Co ...

. On May 9, 2019, it was announced that Fox had ordered the pilot to series. A few days later, it was announced the series would premiere as a

mid-season replacement In American network television scheduling, a mid-season replacement is a television show that premieres in the second half of the traditional television season, usually between December and May. Mid-season replacements usually take place after a ...

in the second quarter of 2020. However, it was subsequently moved to the fall schedule for the 2020–21 U.S. television season because of the

and premiered on October 6, 2020. On October 30, 2020, Fox cancelled the series after two episodes had aired. The remaining episodes continued to air during the series's normal time slot, with the final two episodes airing on December 22, 2020.

Casting

In February 2019, it was announced that Eve Harlow had been cast in the pilot. It was then announced in March 2019 that

and Aaron Moten had joined the cast. Alongside the pilot's order announcement in March 2019, it was reported that Michael Mosley,

and Elizabeth Cappuccino had joined the cast.

Episodes

Release

Marketing

On May 13, 2019, Fox released the first official trailer for the series.

Broadcast

The series premiered on October 6, 2020 on Fox. ''Next'' aired in Canada on

Global Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to: Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 1989 * ''Global'' (Todd Rundgren album), 2015 * Bruno ...

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simulta ...

with Fox in the United States. In selected international territories, the series premiered on

Disney+ Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned and operated by the Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. The service primarily distributes films and television se ...

under the dedicated streaming hub Star as an

original series Original programming (also called originals or original programs, and subcategorized as "original series", "original movies", "original documentaries" and "original specials") is a term used for in-house television, film or web series productions ...

, on March 12, 2021.

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the series holds an approval rating of 64% based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 6.33/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "John Slattery is convincing as a charismatic genius, but ''neXt'' procedural formula could have used more of the intelligence possessed by the series' rogue AI." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, it has a weighted average score of 58 out of 100 based on 15 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Ratings

Notes

References

External links

* * {{Portalbar, Television, Speculative fiction 2020 American television series debuts 2020 American television series endings 2020s American crime drama television series 2020s American science fiction television series Fox Broadcasting Company original programming Television series by 20th Century Fox Television Television series by Fox Entertainment Television series about artificial intelligence Television productions postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Television shows set in Oregon