Before Justified landed on FX, there was a bidding war, and even HBO couldn't get their hands on the legendary crime series.
From 2010 to 2015, FX aired six seasons of Justified, an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novels and short stories about Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant). HBO was among the finalists to acquire the series, but creator Graham Yost decided to give his project to FX. According to Yost, FX was able to secure the deal thanks to FX chairman John Landgraf's strong passion for Leonard's work.
«We approached, I think, nine places,« Yost later told the Television Academy. »And six or seven of them wanted to take the show. A few passed. It was between—I think it was between HBO and FX. The reason we chose FX was because we knew how much John Landgraf wanted to make a really good Elmore Leonard show. He’d worked on Karen Sisco when he was with [Danny] DeVito’s company [Jersey Films] at the time. He even co-wrote one of the episodes. And he loved Elmore.”. Adored Elmore. And he seemed to like or know about [Yost's 2002 crime series] "Boomtown.".
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The series "Justified" was a huge success on the FX channel.
Boyd Crowder points a gun in Justified (2010) - FX
There were more connections between FX and the original concept for Justified: Michael Dinner, the pilot's director, and executive producers Sarah Timberman and Carl Beverly all had relationships with the network.
«"[Landgraf] also knew Michael, Sarah, and Carl," Jost shared. "So everyone realized, 'This is a good team.' And for some reason, they trusted me enough. But when we pitched the project to [Landgraf] and his team, he had a lot of questions about the show, and he said all sorts of things. And I said, 'Damn it, John, if I'd known you were going to say all that, I would have used it in all the other parts of the pitch.'".
Justified was a huge critical success for FX, averaging a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. While it never achieved mainstream popularity, it consistently attracted over 2 million viewers per season. The success of Justified on FX led to a sequel miniseries, Justified: City Primeval, airing in 2023, and Olyphant has indicated that more could be in the future. In a 2025 interview with GQ, he said he would absolutely love to reunite with his Justified co-star Walton Goggins. "I would absolutely love to work on set with Walton Goggins, so hopefully," he said. "I think we have a few years. I don't know what the deadline is, but hopefully we can get it done before this is all over.".
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