BBC Studios Los Angeles Productions’ Valerie Bruce

The BBC Studios Los Angeles Productions team has been leading the way in the U.S. for British-inspired content. The unit launched ten new series and secured orders from ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, National Geographic, Netflix and Peacock in the last 15 months, including Ghosts, Welcome to Flatch and Call Me Kat, which have all been renewed. In unscripted, hits include Murder Among the Mormons, Weakest Link, Dancing with the Stars and Life Below Zero: First Alaskans. Valerie Bruce, general manager of BBC Studios Los Angeles Productions, talks to World Screen  about how the unit achieved record growth during 2020-21, the secret sauce for adapting British hit shows in authentic ways that resonate with American audiences and the overall state of producing content for the multiplatform world.

WS: What drove the record growth for BBC Studios Los Angeles Productions in 2020-21?
BRUCE: I’m fortunate to lead an incredibly creative, committed and passionate team in Los Angeles, and together, we have driven unprecedented success across our business, in both unscripted and scripted production. In the past two and half years, we have developed, sold, produced and launched more new shows than ever before in the past 18 years since BBC Studios started production in Los Angeles.

Propelled by entrepreneurial drive, we have generated these results by harnessing our Los Angeles development team’s creative acumen and razor-sharp insight into what resonates with U.S. audiences to launch break-through original content, along with fresh adaptations of British hits, backed by our strong production expertise, our unrivaled access to the British creative community and one of the industry’s most prestigious catalogs.

WS: How has this momentum continued over the last 15 months, with new series and orders?
BRUCE: We launched new series with ABC, CBS, FOX, National Geographic, Netflix and Peacock during this time frame.

Marking a major milestone for our business, we now have a trio of broadcast comedies going strong. [Last] fall, we premiered Ghosts on CBS, which became the number one new hit broadcast comedy. Our latest freshman comedy, Welcome to Flatch, inspired by our BAFTA-winning format This Country, debuted on FOX in March and has already been renewed for a second season. Call Me Kat, based on our proven British hit Miranda, continues to be a fan favorite and is set to return for its third season on FOX in September.

Our growth trajectory has been accelerated across our unscripted business as well. On Memorial Day, we premiered Life Below Zero: First Alaskans, our fourth series in the Emmy-winning franchise we have built through our long-term production partnership with National Geographic.

The second season of our hit game show Weakest Link, hosted by Jane Lynch, is now airing on NBC after we brought it back to U.S. prime time for the first time in 18 years.

This spring, we secured a two-season pickup for Dancing with the Stars, in a strong vote of confidence for the powerhouse series, which is set to make its return this fall as the first live show on Disney+.

Kicking off the July 4th holiday weekend with our partners at MotorTrend, we premiered the second season of Top Gear America, our fresh take on the leading automotive entertainment show in the world.

WS: What are some of the keys to adapting hit British shows in authentic ways that resonate with American audiences?
BRUCE: We see the format as the inspiration, in the scripted arena. From there, our approach to developing British scripted hits for the U.S. market is akin to adapting a novel for the screen. We honor the original and bring together accomplished creatives who are drawn in by the source material. Then, we give them the freedom to truly make it their own and bring it to life by imbuing it with their own voice, vision and cultural experience.

Ghosts provides an ideal example of this approach in action: Our U.S. showrunners, Joe Port and Joe Wiseman, collaborated with the talented team of British creators to take the central concept behind Ghosts and adapt it with a distinctly American voice and sensibility that fans have embraced. Building on the core premise of the original format, a variety of brand-new storylines were written that speak directly to the American experience. Drawn from various eras of U.S. history, new characters, including the hippie Flower, the flapper diva Alberta and the witty and sarcastic Native Sasappis, join ghosts directly inspired by the British series updated with uniquely American twists, including Wall Street trader Trevor, Boy Scout leader Pete and Revolutionary War captain Isaac.

WS: How does this approach carry over to the unscripted side of the production business?
BRUCE: In our unscripted business, we generally follow the format more closely, maintaining its core concept and signature hallmarks, while at the same time infusing it with a distinctly American tone and tenor for our market.

Securing precisely the right U.S. talent who perfectly fit the format and who instantly resonate with American audiences is critical. When we rebooted Weakest Link, it was clear that Jane Lynch, with her signature wit, would be an impeccable match for the fast and fierce game-show format. She savors uttering the iconic send-off, “You are the weakest link. Goodbye.” We preserved the DNA of the format and strategically introduced fresh, modern twists, from the set design to the graphics, writing style and ramping up the pacing.

Take Dancing with the Stars: though we originally based it on our British series Strictly Come Dancing, a pivotal key to its success and longevity over the past 30 seasons in the U.S. has been that each season we bring it to life with a fresh, new celebrity cast who we draw directly from the latest in American pop culture. While the series remains true to the original format, Dancing with the Stars has become its own distinctly American series in the U.S., where it stands strong in its own right and is beloved by millions of fans who have never seen the British original.

WS: What’s your view on the overall state of producing content for the multiplatform world today?
BRUCE: I see tremendous opportunity in that we now have more distribution platforms than we have ever had before for production that spans a far broader and more diversified range of content.

With that, of course, comes intense competition. The bar is higher than ever to produce and deliver fresh, compelling, creative content that breaks through.

While international reach and resources are undeniably valuable, local expertise is priceless. It remains essential to have the right team on the ground who know the market from the inside out and who have the insight to tap into the cultural zeitgeist to develop and produce content that captures audiences across multiple platforms.