Them Ancilliary Markets Will Break Your Heart
It’s no secret that one of America’s biggest exports is entertainment. Everybody thinks our cars suck, and our agriculture does okay but we’re so hungry that we eat most of it before it gets to the docks. However, the money we lavish on film and television, plus that indescribably American ‘tude, makes our shows big business overseas.
Even the crappy ones.
The Hollywood Reporter addresses this today with an anecdote about BLIND JUSTICE. Remember that? Crime drama on ABC a couple of years back, about a vision-impaired detective struggling to gain the respect of his peers? It ran 13 episodes and they shut it down. But Channel 6 in Ireland bought the show, and it took off. Even though they ran it in a late-night slot, it developed a following. And once the series was over, they started getting calls demanding more episodes. Tell us more, HR!
Clearly this was a drama that would have taken off in what is admittedly a fairly small market for the U.S. studios. But that same scenario seems to be repeated — albeit with minor plot changes — in TV markets throughout the world. The program bosses at Spain’s Telecinco, for example, say they would have had a hit with “LAX” had it not been canceled. CTV in Canada had a similar situation with “Studio 60″.
All these shows - popular in small markets, not enough revenue to keep them going. They say THE AVENGERS befell a similar fate. The last season without Miss Emma Peel was the most-watched in Europe, but because Americans weren’t watching, they had to cancel anyway. Americans were kicking in most of the production money.
The solution, and it does happen once in a while with popular science fiction shows, is for the fans to take over financing. If the Irish really want to, they can scrape up enough for another 13 episodes of BLIND JUSTICE. Maybe set it in Ballykissangel. Hey, how’s the blind detective gonna know? Aside from hearing sheep instead of traffic noise, it’s all the same to him.