World Screen Podcast

Currently in its tenth season, NCIS ranks as TV’s most-watched drama series, with an average audience of 21.48 million viewers. It was announced last month that CBS has renewed the show for its 11th season, with Mark Harmon again signed on to lead the cast as Special Agent Jethro Gibbs. Starring alongside Harmon is Michael Weatherly, whose role as Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo started on the series JAG in 2003 and carried over to NCIS. Showrunner and executive producer Gary Glasberg joined the series in season seven.

Glasberg and Weatherly recently sat down with World Screen’s Anna Carugati to discuss the show. In this video interview, Weatherly shares his secrets for preparing a scene, while Glasberg discusses his approach to working within a procedural format.

Since the 1980s, Tom Fontana has been changing television. The medical drama St. Elsewhere, one of the first ensemble series, demystified the concept that doctors are infallible. Oz, with its gritty depiction of prison life and its flawed characters, was HBO’s first original series. Borgia and Copper, Fontana’s current shows, represent new models of international co-production.

In this video interview, Fontana talks about his experiences with working on Oz and Borgia. He also discusses the benefits and challenges of working with international partners.

Last year, when Gaumont, the world’s oldest film company, decided to extend its venerable brand name to the production and distribution of television content, it enlisted former NBC executive Katie O’Connell to lead those efforts.

As the CEO of Gaumont International Television (GIT) in Los Angeles, O’Connell oversees a portfolio of highly anticipated projects, among them the NBC midseason replacement Hannibal. The upcoming series, starring Mads Mikkelsen as Dr. Hannibal Lecter and Hugh Dancy as FBI profiler Will Graham, was developed for television by Bryan Fuller, just one of several top-notch creatives that GIT has partnered with: Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, writers of Skyfall, have been tapped to pen the new series Barbarella, which is being co-produced with Canal+. And Eli Roth is behind the GIT-produced Hemlock Grove, which is slated to make its debut on Netflix this April.

Producing brand-defining content with universal themes is a key mandate at GIT, says O’Connell, who recently spoke with World Screen about the company’s approach to developing scripted projects for the global market.

The success of the Israeli drama Prisoners of War has helped solidify Keshet International’s place in the global spotlight. Its U.S. adaptation, Homeland on Showtime, has won numerous awards as well as much audience and critical acclaim, and the format and finished version have sold widely the world over. Keshet International has also been prosperous in selling non-scripted formats, including the dating show Girlfri3nds.

The company, which has a central headquarters in Tel Aviv, has set its sights on expanding its global presence. A few months back it announced the establishment of a U.K. office, coming alongside enhanced efforts to drive productions in the U.S.

Alon Shtruzman, the managing director of Keshet International, sat down with World Screen to discuss the company’s growth as well as its prowess in the scripted-formats space. Shtruzman also tells us about what factors have gone into making Israel a hotbed of creativity.

Discovery Networks has quite an active business across Latin America as well as in the U.S. Hispanic market. Among the entertainment networks operating under the Discovery umbrella in Latin America are the flagship Discovery Channel, Discovery Home & Health, Animal Planet and TLC and TLC HD. Meanwhile, Discovery en Español and Discovery Familia have established a strong presence in the U.S. Hispanic market.

Leading the efforts in these two key arenas is Henry Martínez, the president and managing director of Discovery Networks Latin America/U.S. Hispanic. In this video interview, Martínez talks to World Screen about the strength of the U.S. Hispanic market and the company’s many successes in Brazil, among other topics.

ZDF and ZDF Enterprises regularly work together on factual co-productions with some of the most distinguished documentary broadcasters and producers in the world. ZDF Enterprises has been particularly successful with projects relating to contemporary history, in which turning points of the 20th century are depicted in dramatic fashion. Military history has certainly been a bright spot, but the company also regularly engages in co-productions touching on ancient history and archaeology, science and technology, and wildlife and nature.

Kristina Hollstein, the director of documentary co-productions and development at ZDF Enterprises, recently sat down with World Screen to discuss the current crop of projects that are in the works. She also tells us about some of the greatest challenges in putting together a co-production nowadays and about what ZDF Enterprises can offer as a partner that is unique.

The highly anticipated spy drama The Americans makes its debut tomorrow night on FX at 10 p.m. The Cold War series focuses on a pair of KGB spies living as a married couple in Washington D.C. during the early 1980s. The 12x1-hour show, from creator and executive producer Joe Weisberg (Falling Skies, Damages), is co-produced by Fox Television Studios and FX Productions. It is being sold worldwide by Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution, which just scored a slot for the series in the U.K., where it will launch on ITV.

In this video interview, The Americans’ co-stars Matthew Rhys (Brothers & Sisters) and Golden Globe-winner Keri Russell (Felicity) sit down with World Screen's Anna Carugati to discuss what appealed to them about the show. They also talk about their characters’ complex relationship with one another, and how it affects their undercover mission.

After building up a cult following in the U.K. and around the world, the ITV series Primeval has received a North American spinoff, courtesy of original producers Impossible Pictures and Canadian outfit Omni Film Productions. Commissioned by Bell Media-owned SPACE and represented worldwide by Entertainment One Television International, Primeval: New World has notched up slots with broadcasters across the globe, including in the U.S. with Syfy and the U.K. with Watch.

With a cast that includes Eureka alum Niall Matter as software engineer Evan Cross and British actor Danny Rahim as firearms expert Mac Rendell, the series promises a darker, edgier take on the original, chronicling a team that investigates creatures, and people, that make their way into present day through so-called “anomalies,” which act as portals through time.

Matter and Rahim tell World Screen about their characters, the challenges of working with green-screen technology in the special-effects-heavy series, and share their thoughts on how both old and new fans will respond to the world of Primeval.

As the president of AMC/Sundance Channel Global, Bruce Tuchman has been overseeing the international expansion of the Sundance Channel and WE tv brands. Sundance Channel—which bears the tagline "What’s Next, Now"—is currently distributed in Europe, Canada and Asia. Building on the channel’s European presence, recent carriage deals were confirmed with Digiturk in Turkey and Cyfrowy Polsat and Toya in Poland. WE tv, which features shows with a female-skew, is on air in Asia. Late last year the company established a new headquarters in Asia to bolster its regional efforts, increasing local staff and operations.

In this video interview, Tuchman sits down with World Screen’s Anna Carugati to talk about what cable and satellite platforms around the world are looking for nowadays. He also discusses the unique offerings that the AMC/Sundance Channel Global brands have as a proposition for the international market.

One of the biggest breakout hits of the U.S. fall season this year was, undoubtedly, Nashville. The series, produced by Lionsgate Television, ABC Studios and Gaylord Entertainment, has even earned stars Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere Golden Globe nominations. Even before the show launched in the U.S. on ABC, Lionsgate had sold it to Channel 4 in the U.K. for its More4 channel. Jim Packer, the president of worldwide television and digital distribution at Lionsgate, talks about the series and its international appeal in this video interview.

When Packer sat down with World Screen’s Anna Carugati, he also discussed the success of the Charlie Sheen comedy Anger Management. Additionally, Packer elaborates on why edgier shows such as Weeds and Nurse Jackie are appealing to VOD platforms as well as the specialty ad-supported channels.