Elizabeth Guider Reports: Buyers Applaud Stability of CBSSI Slate

LOS ANGELES: The buzz at CBS Studios Tuesday morning didn't settle on any single series; rather, the good vibe centered on much less sexy a thing but a thing nonetheless crucial to international program buyers: stability.

To be sure, it wasn't hard to buttonhole disparate buyers from Asia and Europe and have them comment positively on the five shows screened on the Paramount lot by CBS Studios: three series that will air on the Eye, a comedy bound for The CW and a drama produced for Showtime.

But the most important thing is that the networks on which these hopefuls will air have arguably the best records in town for massaging their shows into solid, sometimes stellar, performers.

The CBS network can boast the most solid, broad-based, and, by some measures, loyal audience in the biz, and that means its shows are likely to last—season after season.  

"We've got four out of the five top series this season and our studio is returning 16 shows to the schedule," said Armando Nuñez, the president and CEO of CBS Global Distribution Group, in his opening remarks to international clients. Not to mention, he hardly needed to add, NCIS's status as the most-watched series in the world.

And despite those who think that television as a medium is doomed, CBS attracts more viewers now than it did ten years ago, he added.

Such a record is not lost on international programmers, whose willingness to fork out for American series is greater when they are convinced that the show(s) they're committing to will likely be around for a while.  

Take the new drama Limitless: "It's got a Tuesday night berth after NCIS. It's likely to go for six or seven years," Nuñez suggested to World Screen Newsflash.

As for what was screened by the 400 buyers on the lot Tuesday, more thumbs went up than down for each of the new fall contenders distributed by Nuñez's division.

At this point in the annual weeklong L.A. Screenings marathon, favorable opinions among the 1,700 execs who are traipsing around town begin to coalesce around a handful of series reckoned the standouts from the studio suppliers.

Personal preferences tend to be subordinated to hard-nosed assessments about what might work back home on whatever type of outlet the buyer is programming for. And, of course, what this or that show might cost them.

In short, CBS's upcoming fare each year doesn't necessarily excite buyers; it reassures them.

This article continues here.

Check out World Screen's guide to the network fall season here.