Friday September 5 8:09 AM EDT 

           Fox Stops Production Of 'Roar' 

           By Jenny Hontz 

           HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Fox Broadcasting Co. has declined an option to 
           continue production on the period drama 'Roar,' the linchpin of the 
           network's summer slate of original programming. 

           Production on the 13-episode order has been completed, and eight 
           episodes have aired. A Fox spokesman says the five remaining episodes 
           will air at some point mid-season. 

           'Roar' was a risky endeavor for summer given license fees exceeding $1 
           million and low summer viewing levels. While Fox was happy with the 
           show creatively, it never made a huge dent in the 
           ratings on Monday nights, making it tough to justify the cost. 

           Even so, Roar helped improve its time period from last summer by 10%, 
           and Fox is the only network among the Big 4 that showed overall 
           year-to-year summer increases. 

           For both Fox and other networks, though, cheaper reality programming 
           and newsmags appeared to be the brightest spots this summer. 

           A Fox spokesman said the network still has an option to bring the 
           Universal TV drama back into production later this season. 

           Reuters/Variety