Quite the bidding war went down before “Justified” landed at FX, as even HBO missed out on the rights to the legendary crime drama.
From 2010 to 2015, “Justified” aired six seasons on FX, adapting Elmore Leonard’s novels and short stories about Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant). HBO was among the finalists in the running to obtain the show, but series creator Graham Yost decided to award his pitch to FX instead. According to Yost, FX was able to gain the upper hand thanks to FX chairman John Landgraf’s strong passion for Leonard’s work.
“We went to nine places, I think,” Yost later told the Television Academy. “And six or seven of them wanted it. A couple didn’t. And it was between — I think it was between HBO and FX. And the reason we went with FX is we knew how much John Landgraf wanted to do a really good Elmore Leonard show. He had worked on ‘Karen Sisco’ when he was working at the time with [Danny] DeVito’s company, [Jersey Films]. He even co-wrote an episode. And he loved Elmore. Loved Elmore. And I think he liked or knew of [Yost’s 2002 crime series] ‘Boomtown.'”
Justified was a huge hit for FX
There were more connections between FX and the original pitch for “Justified”: Michael Dinner, who directed the pilot episode, as well as executive producers Sarah Timberman and Carl Beverly, all had links with the network.
“[Landgraf] also knew Michael, Sarah and Carl,” Yost shared. “So it was just like, ‘this is the good group.’ And they had enough trust in me for some reason. But when we pitched to [Landgraf] and his team, he had all these questions about the show, and he said all of these things. And I said, ‘Well, s***, John, if I’d known you were going to say all that, I would have used that in the pitch at all the other places.'”
“Justified” was a major critical hit for FX, with the show averaging a 97% Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite never quite reaching the mainstream, it consistently drew in more than 2 million viewers per season. The success of “Justified” on FX led to the 2023 sequel miniseries, “Justified: City Primeval” – and, per Olyphant, there could be more in the future. During a 2025 interview with GQ, he said that he’s absolutely up for a reunion with his “Justified” co-star Walton Goggins. “I’d love to be on a set with Walton Goggins, so fingers crossed,” he said. “I think we have a window of a few years. I don’t know what the cutoff is, but hopefully we’ll sneak it in before we’re all done.”