Cuppa Coffee Eyes U.S. Market for Life’s a Zoo

TORONTO, January 10: Following a deal with Canadian
broadcaster TELETOON for its new stop-motion animated reality series Life’s
a Zoo, Cuppa Coffee Studios is now looking
to secure a prime-time slot for the show in the U.S.

TELETOON has ordered a first-season run of 20 half-hours of Life’s
a Zoo, for debut in Canada this fall. Aimed
at teens and older, the series sees a group of unscrupulous animals plotting
and scheming in a desperate bid to become “top of the food chain.”

Cuppa Coffee’s president and executive producer, Adam
Shaheen, who is spearheading U.S. sales for the property, said that he is in
discussions with several U.S. broadcasters. He noted: “TELETOON originally
ordered 13 episodes and liked the show so much that they ordered 7 more before
we’d finished penning the first bunch—it showed their belief in the brand
and has undoubtedly helped raise the show’s profile in the U.S.”

Continued Shaheen: “With the current state of affairs in
Hollywood, U.S. channels are looking at this as a viable replacement show. The
fact that the strike has created a resurgence of reality television and that Life’s
a Zoo is a send-up of the reality TV genre,
is just the icing on the cake.”

—By Irene Lew