Elizabeth Guider Reports: CBS Studios International’s Screenings Slate

LOS ANGELES: "Consistency and stability" of product are what makes overseas buyers feel confident in doing deals with CBS Studios International, Armando Nuñez, president and CEO of the CBS Global Distribution Group, told World Screen Newsflash as the studio unveiled its new slate.

It’s one of the oddities of the global TV biz: the fewer shows a program supplier tied to a network has to sell, the more reassuring to buyers that those series will be there for the long run. For CBS, its global distribution arm is in the seemingly embarrassing yet actually enviable position of having relatively few new broadcast contenders to pitch to foreign customers this week: of new dramas, there’s a summer suspenser called Under the Dome and a midseason legal series called Reckless. That’s because its sister network, the top-rated Eye, can boast a record 20 returning shows for this fall and hence had few slots open to fill. In fact, the network airs nine of the top ten dramas on broadcast TV, the chief genre that appeals to foreign program buyers. "It’s hard just to get on the CBS schedule," Nuñez told the Newsflash.

As a general rule too, Nuñez added, a show has to work in the U.S. to have a future abroad. "Just being a high concept show that’s over and out in seven episodes doesn’t cut it [at our shop]," he said. Thirty years from now, Nuñez mused, "folks here will still have a revenue line for reruns of our CSI and NCIS franchises from outlets and platforms abroad."

Given that reality, the focus at CBS’s L.A. Screenings sessions this week has been widened to include offerings produced for The CW, Showtime, and cablers such as TNT as well as the two upcoming hour dramas for CBS. Under the Dome is based on a Stephen King novella and exec produced by Steven Spielberg, among others; the Eye’s midseason entry Reckless is a sexy procedural set in South Carolina from the producing team of Ian Sander and Kim Moses.

Several buyers the Newsflash spoke to gave good marks to both the CBS Studios International dramas, though they stressed their reaction was personal, and not an indication of what they might buy for their stations. (Neither exec has an output deal with the studio and hence will not be the recipient of those shows. Rather, they’ll have to worry about how they perform on some rival outlet in their respective territories.)

Two sitcom pilots for CBS also got greenlights and are being screened by the distribution division on the Paramount lot all this week: We Are Men, a male-targeted comedy about four guys who can’t make it with women, and The Millers, about divorcing parents who move back in with their adult children, who are also divorced. "Any show that can pull off a Dirty Dancing parody, and make it more funny than creepy, gets a thumbs up from me," is how one buyer, from southern Europe, described his reaction to The Millers during the lunch break Wednesday on the lot. (About the other laffer, he shrugged: "too staccato, not fleshed out enough.")

However, it was the other fare Nuñez’s team handles—two shows for The CW, which it jointly owns with Warner Bros., and another for its paybox sibling Showtime—that had buyers talking.

Regarding Reign, one northern European buyer had this to say: "OK, the intrigue at the French court is portrayed like high school but it’s done with such verve that historical accuracy just doesn’t matter." A period drama about Mary Stuart’s travails in the court of her betrothed, Francis I, Reign‘s take on history reminded another buyer of how Sofia Coppola dealt with Marie Antoinette in her feature film about the French queen. "I applaud them for going out on a limb and contemporizing this story. It may be a mockery of the historic facts—Francis I was short and he limped, not at all like the hunk that plays him—but who cares? The pilot was highly watchable, beautiful to look at."

Several other buyers were overheard chatting animatedly about the series’ pros and cons over lunch.

Similarly unhampered by actual historical facts but described by several buyers as "fun on the surface but also serious at times" was the other drama for The CW, Star-Crossed, which combines sci-fi, social issues and Shakespeare in a steamy concoction with several plot lines.

In fact, both of these series seem in keeping with what Nuñez said was the recent shift by The CW netlet to widen its appeal and deepen its brand. (Reign will air at 9 p.m. after The Vampire Diaries on Thursdays this fall; Star-Crossed has not yet been scheduled.)

It was left to the final entry of the afternoon, a Showtime drama, to close out the afternoon session on a high note. "A little talky but nonetheless riveting," was how one buyer, a Scandinavian, described Ray Donovan, a complex drama about a Hollywood fixer, his clients and his highly dysfunctional family. Starring Liev Schreiber and exec produced by Ann Biderman and Mark Gordon, the series would seem to be this year’s single most talked about show, certainly among those who focus on pay cable fare. (Last year, HBO’s Newsroom enjoyed the buzz among the cognoscenti.) Internationally, such shows usually end up on upscale niche channels, at least in major territories.

"Showtime? We love selling their shows and have for the last five or six years, starting with Dexter and Californication. The market responds really well to their output," Nuñez said.

Screenings at CBS Studios International and other studios continue through Friday.