Inside Inside the LA Screenings
26 Oct 07
Every May a thousand of the world’s leading TV buyers fly to Hollywood, where the studios roll out the stardust treatment, no expense spared, as everyone involved hopes to find the Holy Grail in the shape of the next “Heroes,” “CSI” or “Desperate Housewives.”
During Screenings week a typical night out, courtesy of Disney or Warner Bros, involves exquisite food, serious wines, marquee-name entertainment and personal introductions to the stars and top line producers. If you’re lucky, you might even get to dance with Lionel Ritchie.
Sounds glamorous, huh?
Well, it is - except that before the sun goes down and party-time dawns your head aches from watching too much TV in preview theatres – and from that nagging feeling that a rival station will land the season’s hot new show at a knock down rate before the annual sales market wraps for another year.
“These guys here have really, really tough jobs. My job is easy. Here’s the nightmare scenario: they fly to LA, sit in a darkened room and they pass on a show that turns out to be a monster hit. The pressure on them is enormous.”
That was how Disney-ABC International’s European sales chief, Tom Toumazis, put it at Inside the LA Screenings, an RTS Futures event that provided an insider’s guide to this extraordinary ritual that not so long ago resulted in episodes of prime programming such as “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost” changing hands for almost $1 million an episode in the UK.
Actually, the studios’ job can be pretty nerve-wracking too – especially when hits are thin on the ground, and the odds are stacked hugely against a new show being picked by the US networks for a full series, let alone renewed for a second run.
As ITV’s director of acquisitions Jay Kandola pointed out during the event’s opening presentation, no British broadcaster would contemplate stumping up the kind of cash that ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox routinely ‘invest’ in the 40-or so new shows that are unveiled to international TV buyers at the LA Screenings and the development round that precedes the market.
“It is a totally insane system. Our executives would never ever do what they do in the States but somehow or other they make it work,” was Kandola’s verdict on the annual ritual of multi-million dollar profligacy that begins every autumn when the networks give their backing to 600-or so scripts.
By the winter two thirds of these would-be hits have been dumped. More dead wood is hacked back until mid-May when, pilots having been green lit, the number of new shows is drastically reduced to around 45 when the networks announce the fall schedules to advertisers in the so-called ‘up-fronts.’
Any budding David Crane thinking he is home and dry and can now dial his attorney to make that down payment on a Bel Air mansion had better think again; out of these 45 pilots on average only between three and five will be re-commissioned for a second series, Kandola explained.
It is not unusual for buyers to purchase a show unveiled at the LA Screenings that will then be axed if audiences give it the thumbs down in the fall schedules. “It is a very risky business,” said the chief ITV buyer. “Shows like Desperate Housewives and Lost come up every five years.”
Her hot tip for any budding buyer requiring a deeper insight into the Alice In Wonderland antics of the American network commissioning process? “Read Desperate Networks by Bill Carter.”
If forecasting a hit is akin to playing the lottery, the competitive pressures are such that British buyers and their local Hollywood scouts do everything in their power to monitor the progress of what may just turn out to be the next Friends.
Sky’s LA-based Rebecca Segal, who used to do a similar job for the BBC, is a veteran of keeping tabs on this gigantic crapshoot.
“We have absolutely no idea where the next terrific idea is going to come from,” she emphasised. “Even if a producer has form you don’t know about the four or five pilots they did that never got picked up.”
But you can do your preparation. This involves familiarising yourself with the changing tastes of each network and reading a fistful of scripts in the months leading up to the Screenings.
“I might read 170 scripts out of which 120 might look hopeful,” she said. “You start to develop a sense of what a particular network’s strategy is and whether their needs match yours.”
A good bullshit detector is de rigueur, Segal informed the audience: “Nine times out of ten it is all about perception and spin…After a few years of doing this you start to read between the lines and know when the networks are really bullshitting.”
In fact, the after-hours parties are far from social occasions. It is then, as Sky’s head of acquisitions David Smyth said, that the writers and producers who have made the shows can be quizzed to see if a title genuinely has legs: “You can use these conversations to work out if something is right for you.”
From the sellers’ perspective these informal meetings are an opportunity to try and persuade buyers that the shows’ storylines and characters have enough substance to endure for several series.
“We’ve got to paint the future not just for that season but have to try and present the idea for a show over three or four seasons,”
explained Disney-ABC International’s Toumazis.
Lost was a case in point. Buyers loved the pilot – at $13 million the most expensive in TV history – but were sceptical that Lost could last the course.
As Toumazis stressed, hit shows not only do not grow on trees, they also require a lot of nurturing if they are to remain popular with audiences.
He said: “When you get a hit you’ve really got to look after it. Our role is to try and roll as many of these shows out to the right partner in the right market.”
The Disney distributor praised Channel 4 for their marketing campaigns created to persuade viewers to watch Lost and Desperate Houseswives, but couldn’t resist a dig at the hand that feeds him describing UK acquisitions people as “somewhat snotty.”
“Britain is one of the only countries in the world that insist on a private screening,” Toumazis said. “The Germans and the Italians don’t mind sharing viewing rooms…so we have to serve our British market with respect. We still insist they watch as much of our shows as possible.”
So, asked moderator Heather Jones, director of TV at MTV Networks, would the very best of US TV continue to command top dollar?
Not surprisingly, Toumazis answered in the affirmative. He said: “You mustn’t forget these show are going into prime time globally. As the cost of local production continued to escalate, shows like Lost and Desperate Housewives have raised the bar in terms of the talent behind the camera and with their movie star casts.
“It’s a safer bet to buy acquired. In Germany and France this year there hasn’t been one locally produced hit. In shows like Desperate Housewives, Lost and Ugly Betty broadcasters are getting 22 episodes across three to five years.”
But are the LA Screenings the best forum for presenting them?
The consensus from the buyers was that there was more in it for the studios than there is for them.
As Kandola suggested, a more exacting test for how a US series will perform back home is to view it in the distinctly less glamorous setting of ITV’s HQ in London’s Grey’s Inn Road.
“In LA you’re watching too much TV,” she complained. “And watching it in an unnatural setting. Buying shows here in London would be less glamorous but more sensible.”
She did concede, however, that she would miss the parties.
Inside The LA Screenings was an RTS Futures event held in London on October
- The sponsors were Channel 4 and Sky Creative with BBC and ITV. The producers were Emma Bell and Hayley Glass
