[6] In addition to the flagship U.S. network, the "FX" name is licensed to a number of related pay television channels in various countries around the world.

The channel centered on original programming, which was broadcast live every day from the "fX Apartment", and rebroadcasts of classic television shows from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, such as Batman, Wonder Woman, Eight Is Enough, Nanny and the Professor and The Green Hornet.

Breakfast Time and Personal fX would regularly feature the channel's "roving reporters" – which included Suzanne Whang, John Burke and Phil Keoghan – visiting unique places around the United States live via satellite.

By the time that all live programming (with the exception of Personal fX) was dropped, the channel focused entirely on its classic television shows until its relaunch in mid-1997.

The channel also added Major League Baseball games to its lineup at that time (at one point sharing rights with then-sister network Fox Family), and eventually expanded its sports programming to include NASCAR races in 2001.

In the summer of 1998, FX debuted three original series: Bobcat's Big Ass Show, Instant Comedy with the Groundlings and Penn & Teller's Sin City Spectacular.

[11] The channel also acquired the pay-TV syndication rights to reruns of series such as Ally McBeal, NYPD Blue and The Practice for then-record high prices then unseen in the pay-TV industry despite all three 20th Century Fox Television series being under common ownership; when these shows expensively fumbled in primetime, FX predominantly ran movies in its more high-profile time periods, though with the move of premiere film rights from free-to-air broadcast networks to basic cable channels, FX unexpectedly would end up a benefactor of this change.

Beginning in 2002, FX emerged as a major force in original pay-TV programming, gaining both acclaim and notoriety for edgy dramas.

This trend continued the following year with Nip/Tuck, a drama about two plastic surgeons, and the Denis Leary-helmed Rescue Me, about the lives of a crew of firemen from the New York City Fire Department post-9/11.

[12] Unlike many broadcast networks, FX has chosen to take risks with its programming and push the envelope of what can be shown on television; as a result, most (though not all) of the channel's original series are rated TV-MA, often for strong profanity, sexual content, and/or violence.

Capitalizing on the success of the hit documentary Super Size Me, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock launched a new series, 30 Days, which debuted on FX in June 2005.

The series place its subjects in situations uncomfortable to them for 30 days, such as making millionaires work for minimum wage, and having Christians live in a Muslim community.

Starved was derided by groups that sought to publicize eating disorders and was cancelled after its first season due to low ratings.

Conversely, Sunny quickly became a critical darling, consistently achieved high viewership, and was picked up for a second season within days of its first-season finale.

The second season added veteran actor Danny DeVito to the cast, and the show, still airing as of 2024, is the longest-running live-action sitcom in history.

The new branding included an advertising campaign featuring a post-game ad for FX during Fox's coverage of Super Bowl XLII.

[citation needed] On September 3, 2008, FX debuted Sons of Anarchy, a drama series created by Kurt Sutter (who previously served as executive producer of The Shield) about a fictional outlaw motorcycle club devoted to protecting their sheltered California town from corporate developers and drug dealers; its September premiere coincided with that of The Shield's final season.

[citation needed] In August 2008, FX relaunched its website, adding streaming of full episodes of its original shows.

In July 2009, FX ordered three new comedy pilots: Archer, an animated series featuring a spy agency, which premiered on January 14, 2010;[18] The League, with a group of friends who are part of a fantasy football league;[19] and Louie, a sitcom starring stand-up comedian and writer Louis C.K., which "blend[s] stand-up material with ... 'extended vignettes' depicting moments from [the comedian's] offstage experiences.

Marshal Raylan Givens – a tough, soft-spoken lawman with a rough side – and chronicles his cases and personal life, including unfinished business with an ex-wife and his aging father.

FX returned to the satellite provider's channel lineup on October 29, 2010, after Dish Network and News Corporation signed a long-term carriage agreement.

On November 1, 2010, following a similar dispute, FX and its sister channels were restored by New York City-based cable provider Cablevision through a separate carriage agreement.

[citation needed] On October 14, 2011, FX announced it picked up the rights to develop a series based on Scar Tissue and Lords of the Sunset Strip, the autobiographies of the Red Hot Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis and his father, Blackie Dammett.

[24] Dammett said in 2013 that the show has been "mothballed", and he hopes interest will resume on the project once the Red Hot Chili Peppers wrapped up their world tour that year.

As a result, the streaming service became a division of Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International with Comcast effectively becoming a silent partner.

Four series previously in development for the linear FX channel would now premiere on Hulu, including Devs, Mrs. America and A Teacher.

After obtaining the spring broadcast rights to NASCAR, Fox Sports announced that FX would serve as its cable partner for the 2001 inaugural season of race telecasts.

[47][48] However, due to low viewership, ESPN quietly discontinued the broadcasts on FX by early-March, and had rescheduled some of them to its own networks, this coverage did not return in 2024 due to a merger with the United States Football League to form the United Football League, in which rights were split between the main ESPN networks and ABC (FX was excluded from this contract) and Fox Sports.