Elizabeth Guider Reports: L.A. Screenings Buyer Feedback

PREMIUM: Mad Men is no more, so get ready for Mad Dogs—this latter show apparently has bite with international program buyers; further, it's emblematic of the changes sweeping the international TV biz.

Consider the complexities of pedigree: centered on four college chums who meet up two decades later at a fifth's palatial pad in Belize, it's based on an original British series from a company called Left Bank Pictures, which is majority owned by Sony Pictures Television. Given its off-the-charts rating online, the Americanized version got a 10-episode order from (and is set to air first on) Amazon. Sony Pictures Television handles international rights.

"It was my favorite show of the morning—drily funny but with an intriguing undercurrent of tension," said Sasha Breslau, the head of acquired series at ITV. Sony was her penultimate lot stop Thursday during the week-long L.A. Screenings marathon. (Her critical assessment is not an indication of a purchase: the British buyers are picky-picky.)

Another key buyer, Anette Romer from Denmark's TV2, also cited that series as among, well, best in show. "Mad Dogs was engaging. You lean forward when you watch. The characters felt authentic," she said Thursday.

What's interesting is how their comments reflect the changing landscape: the provenance of content matters less to international buyers, especially as so many overseas broadcasters now have niche channels of their own to fill.

Just as smart cable shows like Mad Men and Breaking Bad began to enthrall worldwide audiences ten years ago, so now does fare commissioned by online players like Netflix and Amazon.

"The gap between the quality—and the financial value—of shows for broadcast networks, or for cable, or for new SVOD services has narrowed enormously," said Keith Le Goy, the president of international distribution for Sony Pictures Television.

He pointed out that as the only true independent supplier among the Hollywood majors, his company's mantra is hardly new. (Sony produced and/or distributed early cable breakouts like The Shield and Damages as well as Breaking Bad and, more recently, Netflix's House of Cards.)

What's changed, he continued, is "a convergence of technology and good storytelling on a variety of platforms—and a greater receptiveness among global audiences of a wider range of styles and subject matter."

Le Goy doesn't have to make this argument because of a lack of Sony series picked up by the Big Five networks. Aside from Mad Dogs and several cable contenders, his division is licensing three broadcast network dramas, all for the Peacock, including newcomer The Player. (This will be slotted right behind the company's established hit, This Blacklist, on Thursdays.)

Despite the turn toward more in-house commissions from sibling studios at the Big Five, Le Goy pointed out that Sony was in the "fortunate position" of producing for a variety of platforms, and being receptive to formats from its own international production entities.

Le Goy and his counterpart at NBCUniversal, Belinda Menendez, concurred that there are now a lot more platforms and strategies for windowing abroad.

That's a good thing, since so many U.S. series have been nudged out of prime time on linear broadcasters overseas in favor of homegrown fare.

"Viewer behavior has changed," Cathrine Wiernik, the programming director for general TV at Sweden’s TV4 Group, pointed out. "Some 95 percent of our [linear] schedule, for example, is local."

"Authentic characters are what we want in a U.S. show, not contrived premises," TV2 Denmark's Romer added. "And no, where a show comes from isn't crucial. Our chief concern is quality—and flexibility of terms and rights when we do a deal [with whatever studio]."

Sellers naturally see these shifts from their own perspective.

"I don't think buyers are focused on how many slots we're having to fill at NBC in the fall but rather on how strong our new prospects are," Menendez, the president of NBCUniversal International Television Distribution and Universal Networks International, told World Screen Newsflash. "I would suggest each is a brand unto itself," she continued, pointing to new shows featuring talents like Dick Wolf, Jennifer Lopez, Eva Longoria or Rob Lowe.  

Overall, the 1,700-strong international contingent appeared relatively pleased with the array and diversity of what was screened over the past week, though no one would hazard an exceptional standout.

ITV's Breslau described the quality of shows on offer by the Hollywood suppliers as "decent"; Romer and Wiernik called the level "quite good," with one or two titles from each supplier termed "solidly entertaining."

Swiss buyer Stefano Semeria from SRF praised the "comic touches" that added dimension to some of the dramas, while Filipino Edel Pepito, VP of program acquisitions from Solar Entertainment, said the humor of The Grinder and the zaniness of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend should, in each case, "travel easily" in her country.    

Among other shows that got mentioned favorably by a variety of buyers at the end of the Screenings: The Catch and Quantico at Disney, Supergirl and Blindspot at Warner, Heartbreaker and Hot & Bothered at NBCU, The Frankenstein Code at Fox, Billions and Limitless at CBSSI, Carlton Cuse's alien drama Colony at Legendary and Mad Dogs and The Player at Sony.

Several projects represented only by clips also piqued interest, including Ryan Murphy's Scream Queens and Kurt Sutter's The Bastard Executioner, both from Fox.  

Still, when pressed, a number of buyers voiced concerns about trends they see at the American networks and their sibling studios.

Several were "disheartened" by so many shows based on comic book heroes or reliant so heavily on the supernatural or some form of heightened consciousness.   

"The networks appear to be emulating their summer movie slates but that doesn't always work," opined Dermot Horan, the director of production and acquisitions for Ireland's RTÉ. "Cinema audiences are young, male; TV viewers are older, more female."

Horan did say that a few of the super-characters in these upcoming shows were, to his mind, written to be more "family-friendly," but that a linear network like his own would still think twice about their relevance to its audience.

Horan was not alone in his assessment.

"From what I've seen, I'd wonder if certain studios aren't caught between their infatuation with their own movie operation and their desire to emulate those critical darlings on cable," said veteran buyer John Ranelagh, who is now director of business development at Vimond Media Solutions in Norway. "Neither is, to my mind, what general audiences want to see: neither pill-popping superheroes nor dark tortured souls."

Horan and several others also noted the renewed tendency, endemic in the TV biz, to clone what's already working. Latest example: Black-ish caught on, so now there's a black Uncle Buck. And so on.

Of course, if World Screen Newsflash had the opportunity, and energy, to query all 1,700 execs who spent the week in darkened rooms with notebooks in hand, there would likely be something said on behalf of (and in criticism of) almost every show.  

Take Baskets, toplining Zach Galifianakis, an FX comedy licensed by Fox. Several buyers waxed lyrical over its "brave, quasi-European sensibility," while others (insisting vehemently they remain anonymous) pronounced the piece "full of itself—and who wants to watch a sad clown anyway?!"

De gustibus non est disputandum.

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