FremantleMedia Announces DISCOP Roster

LONDON, June 19: FremantleMedia
Enterprises (FME) heads to DISCOP this year with new scripted series such as
the teen drama The Best Years, alongside factual programming like the documentary Superspy:
The Man Who Betrayed The West.

FME will bring Blueprint Entertainment’s 13×1-hour The
Best Years, which made its debut at both
MIPTV in April. The Best Years follows
a group of friends through the ups and downs of college life, and stars Charity
Shea as the orphan Samantha Best, who arrives with a scholarship for her
freshman year at the prestigious Charles University in Boston and must learn to
juggle academic pressures, the perils of the social scene, friction with
roommates and liaisons with lovers. The series was produced in association with
the U.S. broadcaster The N, the MTV Networks-owned night-time channel for
teens, and CanWest MediaWorks’ Global Television in Canada.

Another Blueprint Entertainment title also on FME’s DISCOP
slate is the 13×30-minute scripted series Love You to Death, starring Hairspray director John Waters in his television series debut as the “Groom Reaper” who tells the
twisted, real-life-inspired tales of spouses who have killed their loved, or
not-so-loved ones. The drama series Monarch Cove produced by FremantleMedia North America is also bound for
DISCOP. Available as a 120-minute pilot, plus a 12×1-hour series, Monarch
Cove tells the story of Bianca Foster, who returns to the
town of Monarch Cove after spending six years in jail for being wrongly
convicted of killing her father.

FME will also present buyers with three documentaries from
Atlantic Productions, including Superspy: The Man Who Betrayed The West, centered on the story of Robert Hanssen, the FBI
double agent responsible for selling secrets worth billions of dollars that
were passed on to Osama Bin Laden and used to facilitate the planning of the
9/11 attacks. Meanwhile, Apollo 11: The Untold Story and Apollo 13: The Inside Story reveal the remarkable untold stories of the two most
famous space missions.

FME will also highlight the entertainment series America’s
Got Talent, from Simon Cowell and the
producers of American Idol. The
series is a talent competition that searches for the hottest variety and
novelty acts from across the U.S. Contestants must perform before a live studio
audience and a celebrity panel for a huge cash prize.

Finally, FME will
bring the BAFTA award-nominated British sitcom The IT Crowd. The 12×1-hour sitcom, from Ash
Atalla, the producer of The Office, takes
a surreal look at the underclass of a company, as seen through the eyes of its
I.T. department.

David Ellender, the CEO of FremantleMedia Enterprises,
commented: “The Best Years and Love
You To Death both offer something unique
for buyers in Eastern Europe and with fresh new talent and the inimitable John
Waters introducing crimes of passion—or lack of it—we’re sure that
our programs will excite the market. FME’s Veronika Gracher will be at DISCOP
to introduce buyers to the best of our programming across drama, factual,
entertainment and comedy and we look forward to a successful market.”