Seeing and Believing

May 2008

We’ve all heard the saying “Seeing is believing.” It refers to our need to see something before we can believe it exists. Transposed to the television industry, this adage can apply to the L.A. Screenings: buyers need to see a pilot—even with all its limitations—before knowing what the show is like and coming to the belief that it will work for their domestic audiences.

This year, the screening process will be a bit more challenging than in past years. As a result of the writers’ strike in the U.S., there will be considerably fewer pilots and a lot more presentations. That means there will be more verbal explanations rather than visual demonstrations of the new dramas and comedies that will make up the backbone of the networks’ prime-time schedules.

Across the Atlantic, there is a show that has been creating quite a sensation, and it, too, touches on the whole “seeing is believing” theme, but it gives it an entirely different twist. It’s a talent show that originated on the Israeli broadcaster Keshet, called The Successor. It features Uri Geller (more about him in a minute) judging the acts of a number of illusionists, or “mentalists,” as they are called nowadays, in search of his protégé. The Successor was the most successful program in Israeli television history.

SevenOne International sensed the potential of this show and picked up the international rights to the format. It has been sold to seven countries and was a huge success on ProSieben in Germany, and that pattern is continuing in Hungary and the Netherlands. Even NBC in the U.S. bought the format and aired it during the fall as Phenomenon, starring Uri Geller and Criss Angel.

Speaking of Geller, I saw him on U.S. television in the ’70s bending spoons and exhibiting other paranormal skills. I also recall that he was a somewhat controversial figure. I recently met him in person. And that encounter was a real-life example of “seeing is believing,” or maybe “believing is seeing.” He asked me to get a spoon, then held the long part between his thumb and his forefinger, rubbed it a few times and then placed the spoon on a table where it bent on its own, untouched, to a 90-degree angle and continued to about a 45-degree angle. I am a trusting person, but years of being a reporter have soured me into a cynic. And my cynical mind was spewing out a slew of questions throughout all of this, but they just didn’t make it to my mouth.

Then he told me to draw a simple figure on my reporter’s notebook and cover it with my hands so he couldn’t see it. He turned completely away from me. I drew a heart. He asked if I was done and if I had covered it. I answered yes and he turned back around toward me. He asked me to intently visualize what I had drawn and to transmit that image to him by looking straight in his eyes. I did, and he proceeded not only to draw the heart just as I had, but also at the exact same size.

Finally he asked me for a picture of my daughter. I showed him one. He studied it and told me to support her acting and singing aspirations and urged me to sign her up for lessons because she was talented. OK, he could have guessed the acting and singing part, lots of girls want to be pop stars, but how on earth did he know I was about to enroll her in voice lessons? At this point I was a bit numb. Whether what he had displayed was magic, a trick or some other sort of talent, he had made an impact on me. As our encounter continued, I realized he is warm and caring and involved in a number of charities.

In the same way that he captured my attention, his show is captivating audiences in several countries. It is creating shared experiences for a vast number of viewers. Now isn’t that the goal of any producer? Engage an audience and evoke an emotional response from them?

The studios screening new shows in Los Angeles this month are hoping their series will capture audiences. In this issue, we look at how the development and pilot process is evolving. TV Latina examines the advertising market in Latin America. And we have interviews with Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Amy Pascal, Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution’s Mark Kaner and Televisa’s José Antonio Bastón; three companies quite adept at engaging large audiences.

I, for one, am very anxious to see the new shows. I felt so cheated by the writers’ strike, all those great shows that I had become attached to and whose characters I cared about—gone. I want to see again and believe again and get caught up again in the power of great television.