Elizabeth Guider Reports: NBCUniversal and SPT Screenings

LOS ANGELES: Wrapping up her L.A. Screenings coverage, Elizabeth Guider reports on the NBCUniversal and Sony Pictures Television presentations and surveys a number of buyers on their overall impression of the new shows presented this week.

Voodoo tribalism was the theme of Warner Bros. big bash for foreign program buyers Wednesday night on the studio’s Burbank back lot, but it also aptly echoed the arcane rituals and relationships that define the L.A. Screenings.

The week-long viewing marathon brought at last count some 1,400 overseas execs to town to sift through the three dozen new network prime-time offerings from the six major studios as well as alternative or indie fare from the likes of Lionsgate (the Charlie Sheen syndie sitcom Anger Management), HBO (a new Aaron Sorkin series called Newsroom) and DreamWorks (its latest movie package).

The most oft heard comment from an unscientific survey of 60-odd buyers from Europe, Latin America, the Mideast and Asia over six days: "The quality of new shows is higher than last year, but the networks’ returning series are still far superior to any of the newcomers."

Still, that was a sentiment which pervaded the year NCIS was offered and the year CSI was launched (buyers basically shrugged at the time.) But once those dramas caught on Stateside, they became mainstays on global schedules.

The most oft heard sentiment among sellers: "Buyers are always looking for a magic bullet, but often don’t realize it when they’ve found it."

There was enthusiasm among buyers, however, with the majority of thumbs-up this week going to a trio of dramas from as many suppliers: CBS’s Elementary, Warner Bros.’ The Following and Sony’s Last Resort. The aforementioned Newsroom was the personal favorite of at least a dozen buyers interviewed.

On the Universal lot Thursday morning, buyers from India, Turkey, Switzerland and cable channels in the U.K. and Malaysia also found the latest Dick Wolf series, Chicago Fire, "gripping" or at least "promising."

"We know he can deliver a strong show. Our concern is more about the strength of NBC as a network. We’ll give it some time before we decide if it’s worth acquiring," said one buyer from the Middle East.

Such responses—sometimes coy, coded or cautious—are now a regular part of the ritual of program sales.

Buyers are increasingly reluctant to fork out until they have a clearer idea of whether a particular U.S. show will survive the competition Stateside. Sellers are increasingly under pressure to close as many deals for as much money as possible so that dollars can be poured back into production.

"Comcast [NBC’s owner] knows that it’s night by night, time period by time period that the network has to take back to climb out of fourth place," said Belinda Menendez, the president of NBCUniversal International Television Distribution and Universal Networks International. "I think this time around we are fortunate to have really broad, loud, welcoming series contenders, which should appeal to mainstream clients abroad."

In addition to the latest effort from Wolf, Menendez’s team is fielding a medical drama called Do No Harm and a sudsy procedural called Infamous.

And one European buyer made a point of telling World Screen Newsflash how much she "appreciated" a Peacock laffer called Animal Practice: "It was easy, funny and not taxing. Broadcasters still need those too," she said.

Over on the Sony lot Thursday, the mood was also upbeat in that for the second year in a row the distributor is fielding multiple dramas for network prime time, demonstrating that it’s back competing in the most lucrative part of the international business.

"People came to us last year and said ‘you’re back in the game but can you do it again?’ Well, we did it again," Keith LeGoy, the president of international distribution at Sony Pictures Television, emphasized. He added that the company was making efforts to save both Unforgettable and Pan Am, his frosh contenders this past season. "Demand for them to come back is really strong internationally," he explained.

As for buyer reaction to LeGoy’s most talked about pilot, Last Resort, several said it had "the right balance of suspense and character development." Among those who will in any case through their output deals take it home along with Sony’s Made in Jersey and Mob Doctor are TF1, ProSiebenSat.1 and Sky Italia.

LeGoy also placed those three hours with Canadian buyers earlier in the week.

As for "the HBO factor," it wasn’t surprising to hear niche players from Europe gush over Sorkin’s latest effort as they’re the traditional clients for such fare, but even a few more commercial broadcasters suggested they would "consider it." (Up until now most HBO fare has been destined to air on similarly upmarket narrowly targeted channels abroad.)

"This one [Newsroom] might just be broader in appeal," Charles Schreger, the president of programming sales at HBO, told World Screen Newsflash. "We have one big offer (from such a station) in a major territory."

"OK, the show is wordy, and naysayers will probably say it’s preaching to the converted, but I didn’t hear one objection to it last Sunday," he added. (Newsroom screened to buyers that day, and Schreger showed them not only episode one but also episode four, to demonstrate that it doesn’t fizzle after the opening.)

Were HBO to place the show on a few mainstream stations abroad, it would be another indication of just how much the lines are apparently blurring between what is reckoned broad in appeal and what is niche. (In the U.K. the series is already earmarked for Sky via an output deal.)

Several other trends caught the attention of buyers during the Screenings:

1) More suds than thuds: In the post-CSI: Miami era, every procedural now has to have a new sexy twist—and almost every show on offer, procedural or not, is infused with soapy elements. "Revenge and Scandal may have started it, but half of what’s on offer this May looks like it’s designed for The CW," one buyer quipped.

2) The niche is the fix: Many of the new series consciously or not seem to be targeting discrete, narrower audience segments. "It’s as though they’re all channeling Mad Men and HBO and don’t think being broad and populist is cool anymore," suggested another buyer.

3) F/X are not just an add-on: Many of the new series are now expertly laced with special effects and digital innovations—but seamlessly so: Think Last Resort, Revolution, even Beauty and the Beast. "Technology is bringing a whole new dimension to television, especially to dramas, and at the same time technology is becoming an integral part of the plot, and the enjoyment, of not a few shows. A great step forward," yet another buyer argued.

4) Everybody wants something: Finally, more obviously than at any previous Screenings, there are buyers repping so many diverse outlets, with so many different needs and target audiences, that almost everything among the new series got mentioned by someone as being on their shopping list.

In the end, it’ll all be about the price.