Elizabeth Guider Reports: Warner Bros. Comedies, Drama Strike Chord with Buyers

LOS ANGELES: Some 450 foreign program buyers laughed in all the right places during a viewing of Warner Bros.-produced 2 Broke Girls during a Monday screening marathon of the studio’s upcoming series for prime time, notes Elizabeth Guider in her latest recap from the L.A. Screenings.

Despite the traditional preference of overseas broadcasters for U.S. dramas, sitcoms—of which there is a plethora this go-round—are getting thumbs-up from international buyers here during the ten-day L.A. Screenings.

Other shows which the attendees at Warner’s first mass screening session seemed to respond to enthusiastically included the two J.J. Abrams’ hours—Alcatraz and Person of Interest—as well as the young female-skewing The Secret Circle, which is destined for the The CW Stateside.

As for the sassy CBS laffer 2 Broke Girls, toplining Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs and directed by veteran James Burrows, several buyers said over lunch that "its jokes are funny and fresh, and its stars are well-matched." And scuttlebutt on the lot had it that executive producer Michael Patrick King (of Sex and the City pedigree) intends to "run the show," meaning he’ll be directly involved throughout 2 Broke Girls‘ season on the Eye.

Although laffers generally don’t sell for nearly as lucrative license fees abroad as dramas, Warner Bros. Television Group’s president, Bruce Rosenblum, told World Screen Newsflash that prices internationally for half-hours are now surprisingly healthy, at least for the sought-after ones.

"We’re not talking $80,000 an episode anymore (from abroad)," he said.

Moreover, the fact that there are fewer dramas on offer from all the Hollywood studios this year means the best ones—and so far buyers keep mentioning Disney’s The River, Fox’s Homeland, Universal’s Grimm as well as the two Abrams’ offerings from Warner Bros.—could command above-average prices abroad on the open market.

Certainly on the Warner Bros. lot Monday there was a general consensus that the studio had delivered, as one European buyer put it, "the usual high quality. Not everything will work of course, but they did have a convincing morning."

In opening remarks to the assembled, Rosenblum argued that despite a year of political uprisings and natural disasters, "creatively TV has never been better." While some of its competitors have cut back on spending, he said, Warner Bros. has remained committed to high quality production. "We continue to spend the money to get the best talent," he told the buyers.

And, in taking the buyers through the numbers, Warner Bros International TV’s president, Jeffrey Schlesinger, ticked off the milestones: 11 new and 14 returning network series, with new contenders placed on all five broadcast webs.

"We’re the only studio to have shows on every network—and for us to get on and stay on, we have to be better than our affiliated competitors," Schlesinger said.  It was left to the company’s production head Peter Roth to introduce the new shows, and in doing so he re-emphasized the strength of the studio’s roster of producers and the advantages of being "an independent supplier." Roth also mentioned that a newly invigorated—and "Sheen-less" Two and a Half Men would be back stronger than ever.

During the lunch break a dozen or so foreign buyers expressed their views as to the studio’s new fare. Among those who currently have output deals with Warner Bros., among them Mexico’s Televisa, there was general satisfaction with the overall slate.  Of those countries where deals are more fluid, one Swedish buyer said he thought 2 Broke Girls would play well in his territory—"we share the sensibility," he said; a Portuguese buyer thought Alcatraz was gripping; and a female buyer from Colombia thought The Secret Circle would play well with women, young and not so young as well.

None was ready to say what they might bid for at the Screenings as there are several more days of day-long viewing sessions at other studios to sit through.  Rogers-owned CityTV in Canada did, though, snap up the two Abrams’ dramas and 2 Broke Girls from Warner (among pickups from other suppliers) before flying back home during the weekend.