US networks look for more foreign drama
Could there be a possible upside to the impact of COVID-19 for Australian productions?
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under Coronavirus, News
If there is a possible upside to the impact of COVID-19 on the production sector it may be the appetite for foreign drama being picked up in the USA.
International sales execs are seeing unprecedented demand for English-language shows that could help plug gaps caused by the production shutdown.
The CW pick up British comedy series Dead Pixels and Canadian procedural The Coroner and NBC has bought Canadian medical drama Transplant.
Deadline even notes, “Australian production has boomed over the last few years, helped by the increasing number of antipodean actors taking over Hollywood. Netflix recently took worldwide rights to Cate Blanchett’s Stateless, Sundance bought Bad Mothers, while Hulu airs crime procedural Harrow*. The latter is produced in association with ABC Studios, whose international distribution division has the rights to crime drama The Gloaming. The series, which has echoes of Starz’ The Dublin Murders, is the story of unorthodox and troubled policewoman, Molly McGee, who leads an investigation into the murder of an unidentified woman and stars Emma Booth, who featured in season seven of ABC’s Once Upon A Time. ”
* Harrow was already co-produced by ABC (US).
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- Tagged with Bad Mothers, Dead Pixels, Harrow, Stateless, The Coroner, The Gloaming, Transplant
5 Responses
Plenty of love on discussion forums for “Wentworth” from American Netflix viewers with some rating it higher than “Orange is the New Black”. “A Place To Call Home”, airing on PBS stations, is also popular.
I put my friends from the US onto Wentworth and they all love it. They can’t wait for the next season, so I won’t give them any spoliers
I think the Aussie slang and twang made it a challenge for US audiences. So it might already air in a cable channel (I think they call them)
Maybe Neighbours & Home and Away can fill a void for soaps seeing they are all on hiatus in the US.
There are other Australian shows that will be suited to the US audience that Home and Away and Neighbours …They certainly not be showing either of these on any major network at prime time …