Fox Greenlights New Country Music Drama ‘Monarch’ for Series Order

A new country music drama is coming to Fox. The network announced on Friday (May 7) that it had placed a series order for a new show called Monarch — and one of Nashville's top music talent managers is involved.

According to a press release, Jason Owen will join Gail Berman and Hend Baghdady as executive producers on the project alongside series creator Melissa London Hilfers and showrunner Michael Rauch. Fox Entertainment retains one hundred percent ownership in Monarch, which joins Our Kind of People in becoming the first two shows in Fox history to bypass a pilot order. The project advanced directly to a writer's room commitment before the network ordered it to series.

Deadline reported that Fox Entertainment had opened a writer's room on the series in August of 2020, when it was still operating under the working title of Untitled Country Music Dynasty.

Monarch is slated to premiere on Fox for the 2021-2022 season. A news release describes the premise of the series as a "multigenerational musical drama about America's first family of country music. The Romans are fiercely talented, but while their name is synonymous with honesty, the very foundation of their success is a lie. When their reign as country royalty is put in jeopardy, Nicky Roman, the heir to the crown, already battling an industry stacked against her, will stop at nothing to protect her family's legacy."

No actors have been publicly associated with the project as yet.

Owen had a long career in television and film before moving to Nashville, where he launched his career in country music at Universal Music Group Nashville. He left to form Sandbox Entertainment in 2010. Shania Twain was his first client at the new management company, and in the years since, the company's innovative approach to in-house marketing, tour support, digital promo and more has helped shape the careers of a number of Music City's highest-profile artists, including Kacey Musgraves, Faith Hill, Dan + Shay, Little Big Town, Kelsea Ballerini, Midland and more.

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