Elizabeth Guider Reports Ahead of the L.A. Screenings: CBS’s Armando Nuñez

PREMIUM: Armando Nuñez, the president of CBS Studios International, tells Elizabeth Guider that in the distribution business, having series with consistent longevity is far more important than premiering a show that has a strong wow factor at the Screenings but lasts only six episodes.

More important, he contends, is having what he calls “a formidable studio production operation” and “a highly successful network” for which most of that studio’s pickups are earmarked.

Nuñez’s portfolio has been the slow-burn success story of the decade in that both the CSI franchise [CSI, CSI: Miami and CSI: NY] and the NCIS duo [NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles] have done more to solidify the American drama presence in prime time abroad than any other two shows, at least since the Disney-distributed combo of Desperate Housewives and Lost a decade ago.

“The thing about NCIS,” Nuñez adds, “is that it faced considerable skepticism initially among foreign buyers.” As a spinoff of the respectable but hardly breakout JAG (judged too military-oriented and too courtroom-centric by the European clientele), the show, starring Mark Harmon, was slotted only grudgingly by CBS at first. Its delicate balance of serious drama and whimsy, Nuñez says, helped it find its audience, turning the show into a hit in many major territories.

With a slate that includes three other CBS shows, Blue Bloods, Hawaii Five-0 and The Good Wife, CBS Studios International in 2011 surpassed the traditional top supplier to Europe, Warner Bros., with more hours aired in prime time (4,861) across 119 channels in 21 countries than its nearest rival. Warner Bros. was second with 3,891 hours, according to a recent report out of London entitled Imported Drama Series in Europe.