Fox Network executives were in fear of a weeklong ratings disaster after the premier of Sleepy Hollow TV series. The start of the broadcast networks' fall season was supposedly a time of hope and cockiness. The network had spent millions on new shows and more millions to market them. The network would then inundate viewers with more than 60 hours of new episodes all in a few weeks interval. This approach had been popular move back before when digital video recorders and the Internet became intensely popular. However, with the year after year of declining ratings, this move was seen as suicide for network firms.

The premiere of Fox's Sleepy Hollow got its network's executives in fear after a disastrous 2012-2013 season. The network had lost as much as a quarter of their audience in just one year. According to popwatch.com said, "Sleepy Hollow isn't an adaptation of Washington Irving's 1820 short story; it just takes and extrapolates themes, names, motifs and places from it." Many critics were not enthusiastic about the TV series as compared to the 1999 Sleepy Hollow that received positive reviews from audience.

The 1999 Sleepy Hollow hit movie was directed by Tim Burton under Paramount Pictures. The budget for the movie was USD100 million with box office earning of more than USD200 million. Meanwhile, Fox TV is the parent channel airing the Sleepy Hollow TV series. Fox TV runs under the Fox Entertainment Group which had annual revenue of USD13.28 billion in 2004. In the same year, gained USD1.85 billion net income.