Mar 29, 2024
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U.S. looks toward Canadian shows

The ongoing screenwriters strike in the United States has had an undeniable impact in Canada – American shows filming here are shutting down due to a lack of scripts, throwing hundreds out of work amid fears that a prolonged strike could damage the entire North American film and TV industry.

But there’s been one bright spot on an otherwise bleak horizon: American broadcasters are eagerly eyeing Canadian shows as diverse as Little Mosque on the Prairie, Durham County and The Border, a new CBC drama that premieres in January.

"We’ve actually had inquiries from the U.S. networks about shows that we’ve either produced or are going into production on, so it’s been interesting – they’re looking for alternatives," Kirstine Layfield, head of network programming for CBC, said Monday.

"The U.S. is the hardest nut to crack. They are the most parochial of markets in the world – they buy no British, no Canadian, no anything. Because they’re so obviously self-reliant, when this happens they all of a sudden have to look outside themselves, and that’s what’s happening right now."

Except for The Border, Layfield didn’t want to name the CBC shows piquing the interest of American broadcasters due to ongoing negotiations. But Mary Darling, head of Westwind Productions, says Little Mosque is getting some attention.

She disputed a recent assertion by the president of the Writers Guild of Canada that Canadian producers are "dreaming in Technicolor" and entertaining some "weird pipe dream" if they think American networks are going to buy their shows.

"It’s not a pipe dream," Darling said, adding that the longer the strike drags on, the more it could benefit Canadian producers eager to crack the massive and lucrative American market.

"In fact, the possibility does exist. There are two different networks looking at Little Mosque right now. We’ve heard from people I never expected to hear from directly … there’s been a definite increase in interest since the strike."

CTV programming president Susanne Boyce said American broadcasters have long been interested in Corner Gas, and says negotiations are continuing throughout the strike.

Where does that leave the writers for some of those Canadian shows? The Writers Guild of Canada and the Writers Guild of America share 265 dual members – mostly Canadian writers in the U.S. who are now on strike. Hundreds of other WGC members in Canada are standing in solidarity with their American counterparts.

In Vancouver, the Writers Guild of America is striking against television shows being shot there, including Bionic Woman, Battlestar Galactica – both of which have ceased production – and Smallville. Those shut-downs have put about 200 people out of work.

Denis McGrath, a longtime Canadian television writer who also pens the TV blog Dead Things on Sticks (www.heywriterboy.blogspot.com), says no Canadian-based writers should feel like scabs if the shows they worked on find homes in the U.S. because of the strike.

"If you’re a Canadian writer and you’re a Writers Guild of Canada writer, you’ve got to think about it; you’ve got to find your way through," said McGrath, who writes for The Border, the drama about immigration police premiering Jan. 7 on CBC.

"But if you worked for a show – you wrote it, you got paid, it got produced and it sells abroad – I mean you can’t be against capitalism. American shows are regularly sold into our markets on Canadian networks, and because our Canadian networks are saturated with U.S. programming there is less opportunity for Canadian writers, so I don’t think any WGC member needs to be upset if a show they worked on gets sold."

The trouble arises if a show is suddenly green-lit by a Canadian network simply to take advantage of the strike.

"The dirty little secret of private Canadian broadcasters is they have tons of shows in development because they have money for that and they can spend that money and point to that on their balance sheet and say: ‘Look, we’re trying to develop Canadian shows,’ and then they just never green-light any of them," McGrath said.

"But if one of those shows gets green-lit because it makes a U.S. sale it would not have otherwise made – if I was that writer, I would feel really, really skeevy. That’s where it gets complicated."

McGrath said he also doubts whether U.S. networks will make any major Canadian purchases, and adds that Canadian producers might suffer long-term consequences if their shows are seen by American audiences simply because of the strike.

"From a producers’ standpoint, I don’t think it’s the boon they think it’s going to be – you can’t overestimate the insularity of Americans," he said.

"And if you sell a couple of shows to American broadcasters, they are going to be seen as ‘strike shows.’ In the long run, the producers of these shows – if they want to make more shows and have long-term relationships in the United States – may find that it’s not a good thing to have aired during the strike."

Boyce agrees that Canadian producers should be wary of having their shows associated with the strike.

"You don’t want to ever do anything off the backs of these fantastic writers," she said. "We just hope this ends for everyone soon."

If the strike endures, McGrath said, the biggest silver lining will be how it might encourage Canadians to take in homemade television in January, when many Canadian shows premiere.

"There will be no new U.S. programming on the air, and that’s a tremendous opportunity for us – not in the U.S., but here in Canada."

<font size=1>Source: Canadian Press</font>

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Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Headline, Industry News

U.S. looks toward Canadian shows

The ongoing screenwriters strike in the United States has had an undeniable impact in Canada – American shows filming here are shutting down due to a lack of scripts, throwing hundreds out of work amid fears that a prolonged strike could damage the entire North American film and TV industry.

But there’s been one bright spot on an otherwise bleak horizon: American broadcasters are eagerly eyeing Canadian shows as diverse as Little Mosque on the Prairie, Durham County and The Border, a new CBC drama that premieres in January.

"We’ve actually had inquiries from the U.S. networks about shows that we’ve either produced or are going into production on, so it’s been interesting – they’re looking for alternatives," Kirstine Layfield, head of network programming for CBC, said Monday.

"The U.S. is the hardest nut to crack. They are the most parochial of markets in the world – they buy no British, no Canadian, no anything. Because they’re so obviously self-reliant, when this happens they all of a sudden have to look outside themselves, and that’s what’s happening right now."

Except for The Border, Layfield didn’t want to name the CBC shows piquing the interest of American broadcasters due to ongoing negotiations. But Mary Darling, head of Westwind Productions, says Little Mosque is getting some attention.

She disputed a recent assertion by the president of the Writers Guild of Canada that Canadian producers are "dreaming in Technicolor" and entertaining some "weird pipe dream" if they think American networks are going to buy their shows.

"It’s not a pipe dream," Darling said, adding that the longer the strike drags on, the more it could benefit Canadian producers eager to crack the massive and lucrative American market.

"In fact, the possibility does exist. There are two different networks looking at Little Mosque right now. We’ve heard from people I never expected to hear from directly … there’s been a definite increase in interest since the strike."

CTV programming president Susanne Boyce said American broadcasters have long been interested in Corner Gas, and says negotiations are continuing throughout the strike.

Where does that leave the writers for some of those Canadian shows? The Writers Guild of Canada and the Writers Guild of America share 265 dual members – mostly Canadian writers in the U.S. who are now on strike. Hundreds of other WGC members in Canada are standing in solidarity with their American counterparts.

In Vancouver, the Writers Guild of America is striking against television shows being shot there, including Bionic Woman, Battlestar Galactica – both of which have ceased production – and Smallville. Those shut-downs have put about 200 people out of work.

Denis McGrath, a longtime Canadian television writer who also pens the TV blog Dead Things on Sticks (www.heywriterboy.blogspot.com), says no Canadian-based writers should feel like scabs if the shows they worked on find homes in the U.S. because of the strike.

"If you’re a Canadian writer and you’re a Writers Guild of Canada writer, you’ve got to think about it; you’ve got to find your way through," said McGrath, who writes for The Border, the drama about immigration police premiering Jan. 7 on CBC.

"But if you worked for a show – you wrote it, you got paid, it got produced and it sells abroad – I mean you can’t be against capitalism. American shows are regularly sold into our markets on Canadian networks, and because our Canadian networks are saturated with U.S. programming there is less opportunity for Canadian writers, so I don’t think any WGC member needs to be upset if a show they worked on gets sold."

The trouble arises if a show is suddenly green-lit by a Canadian network simply to take advantage of the strike.

"The dirty little secret of private Canadian broadcasters is they have tons of shows in development because they have money for that and they can spend that money and point to that on their balance sheet and say: ‘Look, we’re trying to develop Canadian shows,’ and then they just never green-light any of them," McGrath said.

"But if one of those shows gets green-lit because it makes a U.S. sale it would not have otherwise made – if I was that writer, I would feel really, really skeevy. That’s where it gets complicated."

McGrath said he also doubts whether U.S. networks will make any major Canadian purchases, and adds that Canadian producers might suffer long-term consequences if their shows are seen by American audiences simply because of the strike.

"From a producers’ standpoint, I don’t think it’s the boon they think it’s going to be – you can’t overestimate the insularity of Americans," he said.

"And if you sell a couple of shows to American broadcasters, they are going to be seen as ‘strike shows.’ In the long run, the producers of these shows – if they want to make more shows and have long-term relationships in the United States – may find that it’s not a good thing to have aired during the strike."

Boyce agrees that Canadian producers should be wary of having their shows associated with the strike.

"You don’t want to ever do anything off the backs of these fantastic writers," she said. "We just hope this ends for everyone soon."

If the strike endures, McGrath said, the biggest silver lining will be how it might encourage Canadians to take in homemade television in January, when many Canadian shows premiere.

"There will be no new U.S. programming on the air, and that’s a tremendous opportunity for us – not in the U.S., but here in Canada."

<font size=1>Source: Canadian Press</font>

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Headline, Industry News

U.S. looks toward Canadian shows

The ongoing screenwriters strike in the United States has had an undeniable impact in Canada – American shows filming here are shutting down due to a lack of scripts, throwing hundreds out of work amid fears that a prolonged strike could damage the entire North American film and TV industry.

But there’s been one bright spot on an otherwise bleak horizon: American broadcasters are eagerly eyeing Canadian shows as diverse as Little Mosque on the Prairie, Durham County and The Border, a new CBC drama that premieres in January.

"We’ve actually had inquiries from the U.S. networks about shows that we’ve either produced or are going into production on, so it’s been interesting – they’re looking for alternatives," Kirstine Layfield, head of network programming for CBC, said Monday.

"The U.S. is the hardest nut to crack. They are the most parochial of markets in the world – they buy no British, no Canadian, no anything. Because they’re so obviously self-reliant, when this happens they all of a sudden have to look outside themselves, and that’s what’s happening right now."

Except for The Border, Layfield didn’t want to name the CBC shows piquing the interest of American broadcasters due to ongoing negotiations. But Mary Darling, head of Westwind Productions, says Little Mosque is getting some attention.

She disputed a recent assertion by the president of the Writers Guild of Canada that Canadian producers are "dreaming in Technicolor" and entertaining some "weird pipe dream" if they think American networks are going to buy their shows.

"It’s not a pipe dream," Darling said, adding that the longer the strike drags on, the more it could benefit Canadian producers eager to crack the massive and lucrative American market.

"In fact, the possibility does exist. There are two different networks looking at Little Mosque right now. We’ve heard from people I never expected to hear from directly … there’s been a definite increase in interest since the strike."

CTV programming president Susanne Boyce said American broadcasters have long been interested in Corner Gas, and says negotiations are continuing throughout the strike.

Where does that leave the writers for some of those Canadian shows? The Writers Guild of Canada and the Writers Guild of America share 265 dual members – mostly Canadian writers in the U.S. who are now on strike. Hundreds of other WGC members in Canada are standing in solidarity with their American counterparts.

In Vancouver, the Writers Guild of America is striking against television shows being shot there, including Bionic Woman, Battlestar Galactica – both of which have ceased production – and Smallville. Those shut-downs have put about 200 people out of work.

Denis McGrath, a longtime Canadian television writer who also pens the TV blog Dead Things on Sticks (www.heywriterboy.blogspot.com), says no Canadian-based writers should feel like scabs if the shows they worked on find homes in the U.S. because of the strike.

"If you’re a Canadian writer and you’re a Writers Guild of Canada writer, you’ve got to think about it; you’ve got to find your way through," said McGrath, who writes for The Border, the drama about immigration police premiering Jan. 7 on CBC.

"But if you worked for a show – you wrote it, you got paid, it got produced and it sells abroad – I mean you can’t be against capitalism. American shows are regularly sold into our markets on Canadian networks, and because our Canadian networks are saturated with U.S. programming there is less opportunity for Canadian writers, so I don’t think any WGC member needs to be upset if a show they worked on gets sold."

The trouble arises if a show is suddenly green-lit by a Canadian network simply to take advantage of the strike.

"The dirty little secret of private Canadian broadcasters is they have tons of shows in development because they have money for that and they can spend that money and point to that on their balance sheet and say: ‘Look, we’re trying to develop Canadian shows,’ and then they just never green-light any of them," McGrath said.

"But if one of those shows gets green-lit because it makes a U.S. sale it would not have otherwise made – if I was that writer, I would feel really, really skeevy. That’s where it gets complicated."

McGrath said he also doubts whether U.S. networks will make any major Canadian purchases, and adds that Canadian producers might suffer long-term consequences if their shows are seen by American audiences simply because of the strike.

"From a producers’ standpoint, I don’t think it’s the boon they think it’s going to be – you can’t overestimate the insularity of Americans," he said.

"And if you sell a couple of shows to American broadcasters, they are going to be seen as ‘strike shows.’ In the long run, the producers of these shows – if they want to make more shows and have long-term relationships in the United States – may find that it’s not a good thing to have aired during the strike."

Boyce agrees that Canadian producers should be wary of having their shows associated with the strike.

"You don’t want to ever do anything off the backs of these fantastic writers," she said. "We just hope this ends for everyone soon."

If the strike endures, McGrath said, the biggest silver lining will be how it might encourage Canadians to take in homemade television in January, when many Canadian shows premiere.

"There will be no new U.S. programming on the air, and that’s a tremendous opportunity for us – not in the U.S., but here in Canada."

<font size=1>Source: Canadian Press</font>

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Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

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