World Screen NATPE 2011 by World Screen

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THE MAGAZINE OF INTERNATIONAL MEDIA • JANUARY 2011

www.worldscreen.com

NATPE Edition

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JANUARY 2011/NATPE EDITION

Publisher Ricardo Seguin Guise

departments WORLD VIEW

Editor Anna Carugati

A note from the editor. VIEWPOINT

Executive Editor Mansha Daswani

By Mansha Daswani. UPFRONT

New shows on the market. CREATOR’S CORNER

Greg Berlanti. MILESTONES

Special Projects Editor Jay Stuart Editor, Spanish-Language Publications Elizabeth Bowen-Tombari

spotlight

The man behindThe Shawshank Redemption and other acclaimed feature films turned the zombie comic The Walking Dead into one of 2010’s biggest cable hits.

Univision’s César Conde. GLOBAL NETS

Managing Editor Kristin Brzoznowski

NBC Universal’s Roma Khanna.

DIRECTOR FRANK DARABONT

—Anna Carugati

LATIN BEAT

Telemundo’s Don Browne.

special report

NETWORK SCORECARD 239

The top 50 shows in the U.S. WORLD’S END

In the stars.

242

Production and Design Director Matthew Rippetoe Online Director Simon Weaver Art Director Phyllis Q. Busell

ARRESTING TELEVISION

Sales and Marketing Manager Cesar Suero

Basic-cable channels in the U.S. continue to be breeding grounds for costeffective, original, high-quality scripted fare. —Bill Dunlap

Business Affairs Manager Erica Antoine-Cole Sales and Marketing Assistant Alyssa Menard Senior Editors Bill Dunlap Kate Norris

one-on-one

Executive Editor, Spanish-Language Publications Rafael Blanco

A&E TELEVISION NETWORKS’ ABBE RAVEN

Abbe Raven, president and CEO, discusses how channels like A&E, HISTORY and Lifetime are drawing viewers, and advertisers, with top-notch original content.

Contributing Writers Dieter Brockmeyer Bob Jenkins David del Valle David Wood

—Anna Carugati

Ricardo Seguin Guise, President Anna Carugati, Executive VP and Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani,VP of Strategic Development

WORLD SCREEN is a registered trademark of WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, Suite 1207 New York, NY 10010, U.S.A. Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.worldscreen.com ©2011 WSN INC. Printed by Fry Communications No part of this publication can be used, reprinted, copied or stored in any medium without the publisher’s authorization.

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JANUARY 2011/NATPE EDITION

These targeted magazines appear both inside World Screen and as separate publications. SHOPPING ODYSSEY Acquisitions budgets look as if they’re set to increase this year 58… INTERVIEW Nickelodeon’s Cyma Zarghami 62

15 YEARS OF TV LATINA Excerpts from our top interviews 115…FREE TV Survey of terrestrial broadcasters 118…MILESTONES: 50 YEARS OF VENEVISIÓN Adriana and Gustavo Cisneros 142…MILESTONES: 50 YEARS OF UNIVISION César Conde 189…INTERVIEWS Sony’s Howard Stringer 158…Saban Capital Group’s Haim Saban 164…Telefe’s Luis Velo 168…Telemundo’s Don Browne 172…Simon Cowell 200

LAUGHING IT UP Comedy is a key element in many popular kids’

shows

182…INTERVIEW

Sesame

Workshop’s

Gary Knell 186

STATE OF FORMATS The consolidation trend continues 212…INTERVIEWS FremantleMedia’s Tony Cohen 216…Mark Burnett 218

World Screen Distributors Guide 2011 Don’t miss out on being included in the most comprehensive guide on the top distributors in the entertainment industry. Bonus distribution at MIPTV. Space Reservations . . . . . . February 25 Ad Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . March 3 For more information, please contact Ricardo Guise (rguise@worldscreen.com)

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world view

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR ANNA CARUGATI

The Pros and Cons of Choice 2011 marks another milestone for baby boomers—the generation born between 1946 and 1964, which arguably influenced society more than any other before it.This year the first group of the 79 million boomers turns 65, and it is fairly certain that they will redefine the concept of aging and retiring in the same self-absorbed way they have affected pop culture, marketing, media and even the economy. I am a boomer and like so many of my contemporaries, whose parents lived through and fought in World War II, I was coddled and nurtured in unprecedented ways. Our mothers and fathers, members of “the Greatest Generation,” were riding high on postwar optimism and growing prosperity and wanted to make sure that our lives would be better than theirs. Consequently we were given much, much more than our parents ever had.The values of sacrifice and duty they were forced to accept—values born of circumstances that robbed them of their youth—were swept off the table and replaced with Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care, which introduced the then revolutionary concept that children should be treated as individuals; parents were encouraged to be flexible and affectionate rather than strict disciplinarians. Much has been written about baby boomers history will ultimately judge us: we defied TO HELP US and authority and convention.We overturned fashion dicta. Ours was the Me Generation. We NAVIGATE ENDLESS were the worthy by-products of the American Century, and our tastes, habits and lifestyles influenced pop culture around the world. CHOICE, WE LOOK TO And we were surrounded by choice: shelves upon shelves of breakfast cereals, snacks, soft NAMES AND BRANDS drinks, shampoo and clothes created just for us. In fact, because boomers were the first generation to grow up under the very strong influence WE TRUST. of television, advertisers went to town marketing directly to us. We got accustomed to living with endless choice, and our generation produced managers and CEOs that created business models based on the premise of choice—the more the better. And while many of the boomers’ predilections have been surpassed or replaced by the tastes and habits of Gen X and the Millennials, the concept of choice prevails. Cable TV brought dozens, then hundreds of channels into the home. We used to listen to music one record or CD at a time. Now iPods allow us to select from hundreds or thousands of songs digitally stashed in devices that fit in the palm of our hand. iPads and various types of tablets allow us to store hours of entertainment content and surf the web in search of more choice. 10

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But how are we reacting to all this choice? Studies indicate that we may be suffering from choice overload. The Economist recently reported that in a world of endless variety, making decisions becomes hard work. Coffee, once served as black or with cream, today comes tall, short, skinny, decaf, flavored, iced, spiced or frappé. Jeans are flared, bootlegged, skinny, cropped, straight, low-rise, bleach-rinsed, darkwashed or distressed. Our children surf, chat,Tweet and poke (poke?) in ways and at speeds we can hardly comprehend. An experiment was conducted in a California grocery store. On one table, 24 flavors of jam were on display, on another only six.While more shoppers stopped at the table with 24 jams, only 3 percent of them actually bought a jar. But at the table with six varieties, 30 percent of shoppers made a purchase. Marketers are finding that when options multiply, confusion often increases. In 2009, 558 feature films were released in the U.S., compared to 479 in 2000.Yet, in that same year, Avatar broke all box-office records to become the highest-grossing film ever. The Economist article rightly points out that no matter how many choices there are, people still like to watch or listen to what everyone else is.That’s why there are blockbuster movies and breakout hit songs and TV shows. To help us navigate endless choice, we look to names and brands we trust. We seek the people and companies whose products, services, music, movies or TV shows represent quality to us—that are worth our time and money. In this issue we look at many examples of the entertainment choices viewers and consumers are making today, including the dramas and comedies coming out of the U.S. cable landscape.AETN’s Abbe Raven talks about her company’s commitment to quality programming and Frank Darabont brings us behind the scenes of The Walking Dead. TV Latina looks at the main free-TV broadcasters in Latin America and celebrates Venevisión’s anniversary with an exclusive interview with Gustavo and Adriana Cisneros. And Univision’s César Conde and Telemundo’s Don Browne talk about the U.S. Hispanic market. Some boomers are facing retirement. Not this one. As technology affects media and pop culture far faster than my generation ever did, there are still too many topics and trends to report on—ah, so many choices!

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A LOOK AT INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENTS BY MANSHA DASWANI

Crystal-Ball Gazing After the tough times the media business experienced in 2009, 2010 was, in many respects, a quiet, relatively upbeat year. No writers’ strikes, but plenty of channel blackouts; no real game changers, but the iPad came close; much talk about 3D in the home, much less action. As we embark on a new year in media, it’s a good time to look back at the issues that made headlines in World Screen Newsflash in 2010, and what they could mean for this business in 2011. The disputes between channels and pay-TV platforms— seemingly endless last year—are unlikely to disappear, with providers still complaining about exorbitant renewal fees, while broadcasters and cable networks vent their frustration about inadequate compensation. In response, the Federal Communications Commission is at work on a new set of rules to govern retransmission-consent disputes. This year will see the rollout of a 3D network from Discovery Communications, IMAX and Sony. Depending on the take-up of 3D TV sets, other channels are likely to follow suit. Recent reports indicate that the number of 3D TV shipments worldwide is set to reach 41 million by 2014. Already in place to capitalize on that demand are ESPN, which launched a 3D channel in time for the World Cup, and Sky in the U.K., among many others. Sky was making headlines for a number of other reasons too, including its battle to hold on to a sizeable stake of ITV, its acquisition of Virgin Media’s channel bouquet and its possible takeover by News Corporation. The European Commission has given News Corp. approval to take a majority interest in the platform, but the proposed transaction still faces a number of hurdles. Elsewhere in the U.K., three out of the big four broadcasters experienced management overhauls in 2010: Adam Crozier took the reins at ITV, David Abraham took over at Channel 4 and Five is now owned by Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell. Excluding Desmond’s purchase of Five, 2010 was a relatively quiet year for merger-and-acquisition activity in Europe. However, Liberty Global took over the German cable-TV platform Unitymedia and Polish platform Aster. Central European Media Enterprises acquired the Bulgarian free-to-air commercial broadcaster bTV. And Europe’s big independent content creators, including FremantleMedia, Endemol, Zodiak and Banijay, all got bigger last year, and will undoubtedly continue to do so. In North America, meanwhile, Comcast and GE spent the better part of 2010 making their case for the new ownership of NBC Universal to U.S. regulators, and announcing a new senior executive team, led by Steve Burke.The joint venture will likely become a reality in the early part of 2011. 12

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MGM, heavily in debt, filed for bankruptcy protection and is now mostly owned by its creditors, with a stake in the hands of Spyglass Entertainment. Lionsgate fended off Carl Icahn’s advances all year, but the billionaire financier is still unhappy about how the studio is being run; you can expect that battle to continue.The former indie Miramax is independent again, following its sale to a consortium of investors by The Walt Disney Company. Meanwhile, in Canada, Shaw Communications now has a controlling stake in Canwest Global, while Bell is taking full control of CTV. Managing release windows has become a key issue for the studios, as online streaming continues to erode DVD sales. Netflix became a force to be reckoned with as it locked in content deals to make movies and TV shows available for online streaming. And media companies rushed to offer up apps to deliver content to the iPad.The Apple device is no longer the only tablet on the market, but it is likely to remain the front runner for some time.Apple TV, the set-top box that delivers Internet content to the TV set, has also been a hit; less noteworthy was Google TV, which has been blocked by a host of companies. Meanwhile, the jury is still out as to what impact the proliferation of online streaming, tablets and contentdownload services will have on the old-media model of pay TV. Fears of “cord cutting” will continue in 2011. For the international distribution community, the story that dominated many conversations was the volcano that had MIPTV attendees stranded for days. Another hot topic was international co-productions, in the wake of shrinking budgets.While ad revenues are returning and spending by broadcasters is set to increase, the need for multi-country partnerships is unlikely to wane anytime soon. This past year marked several landmarks for World Screen. Our 25th anniversary.The Gold Ink Award for best-printed trade magazine in the world. Two new publications—TV Middle East and Africa and TV Formats Distributors Guide—a website,TVKids.ws; and new online destinations,TVCanada.ws and TVMEA.ws. We published a comprehensive guide to U.S. cable channels, compiled by our new special projects editor, the veteran reporter Jay Stuart. So what’s to come from World Screen in 2011? Two new resources for the format business, TV Formats Weekly and TVFormats.ws; upcoming reports on channels around the world; a new website for the factual business; and much more. 1/11

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Bandeirantes Communication Group www.band.com.br/international • • • • •

Julie & The Phantoms Threedom Time to Improvise Justice The League

Time to Improvise

Brazil has been spending quite a bit of time in the global spotlight, and Bandeirantes Communication Group believes that the country’s high profile is certain to stir interest in local productions. “People will be seeking a Brazilian style, not only [the] famous telenovelas, but the other new and original formats,” says Elisa Ayub, the director of international content at Band TV International. For NATPE, Band is bringing out a slate of HD titles that includes Julie & The Phantoms, about a shy girl who is visited by a dead rock band; Threedom, which watches as three young people learn to live on their own; and Time to Improvise, a series that uses improvisational comedy. The company also considers Justice and The League to be top highlights. Ayub points to the breadth of the offerings as a key strength for Band, with “a great variety of products to attend to different [channels’ needs], such as series, humor and reality, proposing to the market the best of Brazilian audiovisual production.”

“ [NATPE] is a good chance for [buyers] who couldn’t find what they needed last year [to pick up new programming].

”

—Elisa Ayub

Claxson www.claxsonmedia.com • • • • •

True Desires Neighborhood Rumors Playboy Trip Room Service Seduction Weapon

Playboy Trip

Claxson has been on the cutting edge of new production developments in the Latin American market, first with HD and now with 3D. “This year we developed one of the first experiences in 3D format, producing a 40-minute special,” says Ariel Taboada, the director of programming and production at Claxson, pointing to True Desires. The adult-entertainment program will be available for the first time at NATPE, as will the 10x24-minute HD series of the same name. Other HD titles Claxson is offering from the erotic genre include Neighborhood Rumors, Playboy Trip, Room Service and Seduction Weapon. Taboada has attended NATPE for the last five years. “Building strong relationships and being up to date with the latest trends in the development of new content are two key factors that one should keep in mind when thinking of the development of this industry,” he says. “In this sense, conferences like NATPE are crucial.”

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“ We are pioneers in the development of new trends in Latin America.”

—Ariel Taboada

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Dori Media Group www.dorimediadistribution.com • • • • •

Diggers Date Blind Split season two Beautiful Thieves Simon

“One of Dori Media Group’s big advantages

is that we produce for one single territory— the world.

”

Dori Media Group heads to NATPE with a varied catalogue of 5,130 TV hours, 5,000-plus clips, 120 webisodes and around 556 mobile episodes of telenovelas and daily series. A number of the titles are already proven hits, according to Nadav Palti, the president and CEO of Dori Media Group.The romantic comedy Date Blind sold in 30 territories within a year. “Date Blind is what we call a ‘new-vela,’” explains Palti, “as it contains all the basic elements of the traditional telenovelas but with an edge—its story line is more updated and unique; its pace is faster; and the way it is shot and edited is innovative.” Dori is also bringing a second season of the teen daily drama Split. “Over 60 countries have already purchased the first season of Split, either subtitled or dubbed, and the second season was already sold to 23 countries worldwide only six months after its launch,” notes Palti.Among the newest productions Dori will present are Diggers, Simon and Beautiful Thieves.

—Nadav Palti

Split

FRANCE 24 www.france24.com

The 24-hour international news service FRANCE 24 has a mission to cover the world of current affairs from a French perspective. Servicing this effort, the channel showcases a diversity of opinion and opposing points of view. FRANCE 24 broadcasts in three languages—French, English and Arabic—in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the U.S. Every half-hour FRANCE 24 provides a ten-minute news bulletin, preceded by a global weather forecast and a reminder of the headlines every 15 minutes. More indepth analysis is given through numerous current-affairs magazine programs, investigative reports and daily debates. Once a week, key business leaders are put on the spot in The Business Interview, while Beyond Business spotlights strategic challenges arising from hypercompetition. Through its network of correspondents around the globe, FRANCE 24 provides special reports, including exclusive accounts of the political situations in countries worldwide. Culture is another area of focus for the channel, which travels across the world in search of the latest trends and leading events to take a look at the emerging customs of tomorrow.

News anchor on FRANCE 24’s English channel.

Reporting for FRANCE 24 in Arabic.

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Novavision Promotion Internationale www.novavision.fr • • • • •

Pop Corn TV QUIzZz Crazy Hidden Camera Hilarious Home Video Special Xmas Hidden Camera

Novavision, the French candid-camera company founded by François-Xavier Poirier, has sold Pop Corn TV in more than 90 countries. Since the beginning, the world’s largest producer of non-dialogue hidden-camera gags has been focusing on a “one product serves all” approach, which Pop Corn TV provides with its dialogue-free format. “Our long-term strategy is starting to pay off!,” says Nadege Boinnard, Novavision’s executiveVP. Novavision is also developing formats (its first being QUIzZz) and exploring new business models and avenues, including branded content, sharing advertising revenues and co-productions. “Even though this part of the ‘standard’ business is running smoothly, we decided to tackle our next target: tailoring for broadcasters that want their own [customized] show,” says Boinnard. Along with Pop Corn TV and QUIzZz, Novavision highlights its Crazy Hidden Camera programs, Hilarious Home Video clips and the Special Xmas Hidden Camera show.

“ Our catalogue is

constantly growing …maintaining us as the world’s largest producer of non-dialogue hidden-camera [programming].

”

—Nadege Boinnard

SevenOne International www.sevenoneinternational.com • • • • •

MPU: Missing Persons Unit Factor 8 Sea of Death Spook Inn The Secret of Loch Ness II

MPU: Missing Persons Unit

Latin America has long been a focus for SevenOne International, which has established a strong presence in the territory, with a large volume of titles sold. “We have a partnership with Spiral International to bring high-quality TV productions to the Latin American market and Spanishspeaking U.S.,” says Jens Richter, SevenOne’s managing director. The German outfit is heading to Miami looking to continue its success, with new sales on the detective series MPU: Missing Persons Unit, the catastrophe films Factor 8 and Sea of Death and the family entertainment titles Spook Inn and The Secret of Loch Ness II. “They all stand for high-production quality and gripping story lines,” says Richter. He adds, “For NATPE 2011, we have our largest catalogue to date available for Latin America.We continue to present volume in genres such as catastrophe, drama, family entertainment and romantic comedies, and are now also adding more factual, thrillers and formats.”

“ With 180 million TV households,

Latin America is a market almost as big as the U.S.A. and offers immense sales potential.

”

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—Jens Richter

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Telemundo Internacional www.telemundointernational.com • • • • •

Aurora The Queen of the South Love Again Paula, For Love or Money 40 Something

“Now [that NATPE is] held in Miami, we are

expecting higher attendance from European, Middle Eastern and Asian companies.

”

—Melissa Pillow The U.S. debut of the telenovela Aurora achieved more than 1.3 million viewers on Telemundo, becoming the network’s strongest premiere in its time slot in the last four years. The show will be on offer at NATPE from Telemundo Internacional. “We expect to close several deals for Aurora, presented during the fourth quarter of 2010, in the few territories where it remains available,” says Melissa Pillow, the sales director for Europe. NATPE also marks the official international launch of The Queen of the South, based on the best-selling book of the same name; Love Again, a heartfelt telenovela for audiences of all ages; and Paula, For Love or Money, which revolves around five adopted brothers. “Although it has not yet launched, many of our European clients are already making offers for Paula, For Love or Money,” says Pillow.The newest addition to Telemundo’s format catalogue, 40 Something, rounds out the slate.

40 Something

TNT www.tntla.com • • • • •

Screen Actors Guild Awards TNT Megafilm: Rocky Balboa Golden Globe Awards TNT Special: Seven Days of Academy Awards Grammy Awards

Oscar preshow host Axel Kuschevatzky.

“ Our goal is to

remain the number one televisionentertainment brand in the region.

The biggest events in TV, film and music will be on TNT in Latin America during the first quarter. In addition to the Golden Globe Awards gala, the channel will air the Screen Actors Guild Awards.Viewers can watch Rocky Balboa on the TNT Megafilm block. During February,TNT will air the Grammy Awards, as well as the Academy Awards, also with a Red Carpet special. And in tribute to the Oscars, TNT has prepped Seven Days of Academy Awards, a special showcasing one Oscar-winning movie every evening. “Our goal is to remain the number one television-entertainment brand in the region, on the cutting edge of offering the best recent and popular movies, music, industry awards and exclusive events,” says Pablo Corona, the programming director for TNT at Turner Broadcasting System Latin America. “In addition, we continue working on building an attractive HD offering from our TNT HD Brasil and TNT HD Panregional channels, recently launched in Latin America.”

”

—Pablo Corona

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Vision Films www.visionﬁlms.net • • • • •

No Ordinary Trifle The Terror Experiment William & Kate: A Fairytale Romance Gerry Anderson’s New Captain Scarlet The Keller Entertainment Group catalogue

As a new generation of British royalty prepares to step into the spotlight, the documentary William & Kate: A Fairytale Romance is set to drum up interest for Vision Films. This joins the romantic comedy No Ordinary Trifle, the sci-fi thriller The Terror Experiment and the animated half-hour series Gerry Anderson’s New Captain Scarlet on Vision’s NATPE roster. The company also represents the Keller Entertainment Group catalogue, which features a variety of TV series, feature films and TV movies, including Tarzan:The Epic Adventures and Wes Craven’s Summer of Fear. “We are very excited,” says Lise Romanoff, Vision’s managing director and the CEO of worldwide distribution. “Our company is growing and our lineup is getting more commercial, with high production values.” Romanoff notes that Vision is looking for both U.S. and international sales on its diverse slate, and believes NATPE can be the place to make these deals.

William & Kate: A Fairytale Romance

“The television side of our business is increasing, and VOD is presenting a lot of new opportunities.” —Lise Romanoff

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spotlight

A LOOK AT INNOVATION IN THE TELEVISION INDUSTRY BY ANNA CARUGATI

Frank Darabont Every once in a while a show comes along that creates a sensation. The Walking Dead is such a show. It started as a comic by Robert Kirkman and captured the attention of Frank Darabont, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, who served as writer, director and executive producer and brought the zombie apocalypse to spellbinding life on the small screen. The Walking Dead was not only critically acclaimed; after premiering on AMC, it became the most-watched drama series in basic-cable history in the U.S. among the 18-to-49 demographic. It was also the highest-rated show in pay television in most of the 120 countries where it aired on Fox International Channels. Darabont talks about his passion for zombies and storytelling.

WS: How did you come across Robert Kirkman’s comic The Walking Dead and what appealed to you about the material? DARABONT: Five years ago I walked into a comic shop in Burbank and came upon the first trade edition of Kirkman’s The Walking Dead comic. That edition contained the first six issues. Having the “love of zombies”

World Screen

gene I immediately picked it up, and as soon as I read it I began pursuing the rights to it. I loved that Kirkman created a smart, character-driven drama set against this edgy zombie apocalypse. I’ve wanted to do my own take on the zombie mythos ever since I saw one of my all-time favorite movies: the 1968 black-and-white [George A.] Romero film, Night of the Living Dead.This was in 1973; I was 14 years old. By the time I saw it, the movie had gained a legendary, mythic reputation...quite a disreputable one. People wanted to see it but were almost afraid to, so of course my friends and I sought it out. I loved it immediately; it was such a visceral and wildly original conception.These were the pre-video days when you had to seek this stuff out in actual movie theaters, mind you. Back then Los Angeles had a number of revival houses that played older films not in current release. WS: What opportunities did working off a comic book

offer you compared to working off a story, such as the ones by Stephen King that were the basis for The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and The Mist?

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DARABONT: Aside from certain technical issues, like hav-

ing to think in terms of television act breaks and things like that, the job of adaptation still entails the same things regardless of the nature of the source: extracting the great ideas, finding the character insights, etc. As long as the source material has strength, which The Walking Dead does, the job doesn’t fundamentally change. And as far as visuals are concerned, you get as many good ideas from a wellwritten novel as you do from a well-drawn comic-book panel: both plant images in your mind’s eye that you try to capture as a filmmaker. WS: How has working in television and telling a story over a number of episodes been different from working on a movie? What are the different creative challenges in each? DARABONT: I’ve always loved the zombie genre and have long wondered how I could approach it in a fresh way that hadn’t been done before. Many self-contained films have been made, many excellent ones, so I never saw the reason to try that. Then I read Kirkman’s comic and I thought, Here’s the different way to do it: as an extended characterdriven saga for television, a serialized take on the zombie apocalypse seen through the eyes of an ongoing group of characters. That, to me, felt like the fresh approach that hadn’t been done before. The biggest difference I’ve found between adapting for film versus adapting for television is that with television you have a far greater period of time to explore the story and characters; you’re not trying to squeeze everything into the two-hour running time of a film. A TV series can be a creative luxury in that sense: you can let the story and characters expand and breathe because you have a far greater span of time to tell the tale. But that does involve a shift in thinking when it comes to adapting material: you have to resist the urge to say everything all at once, as you would in a film. For television, you stretch the story out rather than compress it, hopefully in a way that keeps the audience intrigued rather than making them impatient.

believed in it from day one and campaigned like champions for us. WS: There was quite a bit of blood and violence in The

Walking Dead. How much creative freedom did AMC give you? Would you have been able to make a series like this for a broadcast network? DARABONT: We didn’t experience any constraints with AMC, and we did some pretty edgy stuff. At times we’ve been shooting and I’ve thought, I can’t believe this is going to be on television! We’re definitely doing stuff that we would not be able to do on network TV. Actually, when I first began working on the show it fell under an overall deal I had at NBC.Thank goodness it never went forward there, because it couldn’t possibly be the same show it is now; it would have been so diluted and bloodless compared to what we’ve been able to do on cable with AMC.

WS: The Walking Dead has been extraordinarily success-

ful in every country in which it has aired. What do you think makes it so appealing? DARABONT:You tell me! Zombies have become embraced as an idea in the wider mainstream culture in the past few years in a way that has frankly taken me by surprise.This used to be an obscure subgenre of horror with a very loyal but limited fan base, but suddenly it’s everywhere you turn; I see grandmothers buying zombie books at the big bookstores now. In our case, Kirkman’s great knack for telling these stories combined with what appears to be the right cultural timing has made the show a success; it seems the mainstream TV audience was ready for this show to come along. The response both in the States and abroad has been amazing and gratifying for everyone involved. I also must give highest praise to AMC and Fox International Channels for promoting the show so superbly. They really 1/11

WS: There are some overarching themes to The Walking Dead: maintaining your humanity in desperate situations, dealing with despair, survival instincts.Why are these important to you? DARABONT: Those things define most drama and art, don’t they? I think if you look at any great story you will find those components expressed in some fashion, whether subtle or grand, because aren’t those themes essential to describing the human condition itself? Aren’t we all teetering on the knife’s edge between joy and despair, between hopelessness and hopefulness, between life and death? That’s the well from which most storytelling is drawn. One of my favorite movies of all time is It’s a Wonderful Life, which is an interesting choice for a seasonal Christmas favorite because it’s about a man deciding whether or not to commit suicide.That is powerful, universal storytelling. World Screen

Fighting back: Gaining huge ratings for its first few episodes, The Walking Dead was quickly renewed by AMC and Fox International Channels.

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creator’s corner

EXPLORING THE CREATIVE MINDS BEHIND THE WORLD OF TELEVISION PRODUCTION BY ANNA CARUGATI

Greg Berlanti Prolific writer, executive producer and director Greg Berlanti has been involved in a number of successful network TV series, including Dawson’s Creek and Everwood, which he created. His production company, Berlanti Television, is now producing two shows for ABC, Brothers & Sisters, which is in its fifth season, and No Ordinary Family, the freshman series that features a family whose members discover they have superpowers. Berlanti talks about creating new shows and keeping established ones fresh.

BERLANTI: We do a little bit of both.We have major signposts that we work toward so the audience feels a sense of crescendo toward something. Everything feels like there is set up and pay off over [the course of the] episodes. But the episodes are also very closed ended, it’s not like Heroes.There is a bit of a mythology in No Ordinary Family. Jim is out trying to fight crime every week.There is a real sense of his learning process as he is trying to fight crime and [deal with] the kinds of criminals he’s up against—most are without superpowers and every now and then we throw in another super villain.We hope we have just enough mythology to draw people back, but it should play like a closed-ended family show that you can miss [an episode] and still catch up. WS: What are the challenges of keeping Brothers & Sisters,

WS: Where did the idea for No Ordinary

now in its fifth season, fresh? BERLANTI: David Marshall Grant was the showrunner

Family come from? BERLANTI: Jon Feldman, who I worked with before on two other shows, Dawson’s Creek and Dirty Sexy Money, and is a divorced dad, came to me and said, “I feel that my family is broken and I want to write a story about how a family comes back together because of something special that happens to them. What do you think about a family that gets superpowers?” I had co-written the Green Lantern film [about a test pilot who receives a mystical green ring that gives him superpowers] that is coming out [this] summer, and I had worked on family shows. [No Ordinary Family] just seemed like the perfect blending of the two: we could do a family show that had real network-style event act breaks [when the script reaches a strong dramatic moment], but we weren’t trying to create fights between family members just to have an act break, and [we could add the superpower element].

last year and [is] the showrunner again this year. I think his challenge is, character shows usually only make it four or five years. But the ones that have gone nine years or ten years are the ones that find a real sense of rebirth in their fourth or fifth year. In Brothers & Sisters, there has been some attrition in the cast; some people have left. But that is also an opportunity to bring in new faces and still hopefully keep the core of what the show is. In the premiere episode there was a reveal that we leapt a year forward and that gives a whole other level of mystery to the show. It’s not like we’re jumping forward five years or six years and so much has happened that the audience feels disoriented. There is a specific reason why we have not shown pieces from [that missing] year and we’ll go back and show them throughout [this season] so every episode has its own mystery to it. WS: You have an embarrassment of riches with your cast. BERLANTI: That is true, and that’s always been for me

WS: What served as inspiration for the show? BERLANTI: A real touch point for me was a lot of the

action shows I watched with my parents when I was growing up. We all sat around and watched The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, The Greatest American Hero, Charlie’s Angels, and they had action and they had fun, but they also had something that we could all enjoy and [provided] a real entry point for everybody, with a story line for everyone and a favorite character for everyone. And it seemed like nowadays at 8 o’clock there was a real absence of those shows on television. And finally in terms of No Ordinary Family being a superhero show, we felt in the last two or three years, visual effects had taken enough of a leap forward that we could do something on television, on a weekly basis, that didn’t look too silly.Those were our goals. WS: You received a full-season order from ABC for No

Ordinary Family. Have you planned out the story arcs all the way through or do you work episode by episode? 30

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what makes Brothers & Sisters an event. It’s really hard to say what makes a character show an event because you are not blowing things up and you are not shooting people.What makes that show an event is watching Rachel Griffiths, Calista Flockhart and Sally Field and the rest of the cast act. WS: You worked on Dirty Sexy Money, which was about

the rich and powerful, and in No Ordinary Family you are exploring another form of power. BERLANTI: Dirty Sexy Money was a kind of dysfunctional family as well.That was more an attempt, as much as anything, to see if we could do a cable show on network television, in other words, what are the boundaries now? Because when I was younger, the soaps would do something scandalous every week and there was nobody competing with them. [So our attempt was] can we do an intelligent soap that pushed the boundaries and we did it to some success, perhaps creatively, but not a ratings success. I learned a lot from that and again I worked with great people.

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milestones

CELEBRATING THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF LEADING MEDIA COMPANIES BY ELIZABETH BOWEN-TOMBARI

Univision’s César Conde Covering 95 percent of all U.S. Hispanic TV homes, and accompanied by online and mobile platforms, Univision is the leading Spanish-language network in the U.S. For 50 years it has been serving the Hispanic community with an ever-popular mix of news, sports, telenovelas and entertainment programming. In fact, for Hispanic viewers, Univision is more than a network—it provides them with a sense of community. César Conde, the president of Univision Networks, explains why.

WS: Univision is celebrating its 50th

anniversary. What have been some of the network’s milestones? CONDE: Over the past five decades, Univision’s growth and success have mirrored the ascension of Hispanics in the U.S. As this community has increasingly taken center stage as a powerful force in the nation, Univision has also enjoyed numerous breakthroughs. On a national level, Univision competes directly with ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX. In fact, in September 2010, the network made history when Univision ranked number one among the coveted adult 18-to-49 demographic for an entire week, outperforming every English-language broadcast network in the country. Univision’s Los Angeles station (KMEX) is the number one station in the country, regardless of language, among adults 18 to 34. Univision has also been an active leader and champion of the Hispanic community. Our mission is to inform, empower and entertain U.S. Hispanics. In an age of fragmented media, Univision is a unifying force. Today, Univision is one of the few media companies that regularly bring together an entire community to share in a common experience.

networks—Univision,TeleFutura and Galavisión—as well as Univision.com and Univision Móvil.This past fall, we successfully launched our new reality dance competition ¡Mira quién baila!, our first dramatic production in prime time, Eva Luna, and the game show El Gran Show. WS: How is Univision’s online content strengthening the connection it has with its audience? CONDE: Univision Communications is the most powerful brand in Spanish-language media. Univision recognizes that Hispanics are on the move now more than ever. As such, Univision Interactive Media plays a key role as Univision embraces the tenets of growth, integration and innovation. Univision provides the best experience, content and information relevant to Hispanics, regardless of platform or device. We make sure that each platform works together seamlessly to allow our viewers the ability to access information whenever, wherever and however they can. In addition, we are working to bring our online and mobile platforms closer together. Our interactive initiatives strengthen our position not only with consumers, but also with advertisers, publishers and web developers. WS: Grupo Televisa has acquired a minority stake in

Univision. How will this investment benefit Univision? CONDE: The enhanced deal with Televisa is a significant

agreement that aligns the interests of both companies, thereby removing any uncertainty for the long term, and creates enhanced growth potential.With this arrangement, Univision secures the rights to the world’s best Spanishlanguage programming, reaffirms our unique connection with our audience, and provides advertisers, distributors and Univision’s television station group affiliates with new opportunities. The partnership solidifies Univision’s position for the foreseeable future as the preferred multiplatform media destination for the U.S. Hispanic community. WS: Will the deal with Televisa have an impact on your

WS: What are your plans for Univision Studios? CONDE: The creation of Univision Studios is a transfor-

mational step in the development and growth of our company and an important, natural extension of our business. We have an unprecedented opportunity to expand our offering of quality Spanish-language programming to our loyal audiences not only through our existing programming partners but also by building on our established multi-genre production track record to create more original productions and co-productions. Univision Studios is building on the 4,000 hours of original programming that we already produced across multiple genres annually.The new division is producing and co-producing reality shows, dramatic series, entertainment specials and other programming formats for all of the company’s platforms, including its three television 32

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agreement with Venevisión? CONDE: We have a long history of working with the best

programming providers in the business to bring world-class content to U.S. Hispanics. In addition to the exclusive agreement with Televisa, we will continue to leverage the diverse pipeline of programming from international partners that include RCN,Venevisión, BBC, Endemol and many other programming companies. WS: What opportunities and challenges do you see in 2011? CONDE: We see 2011 as a year that will validate the growth

and influence of the Hispanic opportunity. Some of the challenges will continue to be on ensuring that the industry is meeting the needs and demands of a rapidly changing marketplace across all platforms. 1/11

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global nets

CHANNEL HOPPING THE INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS OF CABLE AND SATELLITE BY JAY STUART

Universal Networks International’s

Roma Khanna After steering the expansion of NBC Universal’s global channel portfolio in the past few years, Roma Khanna, the president of Universal Networks International, sees room for yet more channel launches, while focusing on adding first-run programming to build channel brands into strong local competitors.

Universal Networks Inter national (UNI) has five core channel brands: Universal, Diva TV, Syfy, 13th Street and Studio Universal. When Khanna took over her role in 2007, Universal operated 14 unique versions of those worldwide. Now there are 70. (The acquisition of Sparrowhawk Media, owner of the international Hallmark Channels, in 2007 added about 20 channels. Many more were added as HD feeds of existing SD channels.) The first priority for Khanna was looking at what the group could do in Asia. There was one channel, and now there are three Southeast Asia feeds—Universal, Diva and Syfy. The company will probably launch 10 to 20 new channels in the region, Khanna says. There is still opportunity to add even more, but that is “not a sustainable way to grow” beyond the next couple of years, she adds. “The hub of the wheel is the brand,” Khanna says. “We have a global vision of the brand, but localization is important. We do not have a shoehorn approach. The ultimate goal is to be as specific as we can be.” The main strategic task is identifying where growth potential lies. The question is partly whether growth will come from adding more channels or going deeper into markets. In terms of channels, Latin America, which has had capacity issues, is coming to the fore as digital platforms expand opportunities. And of course there are the new opportunities everywhere on DTT and IPTV. Around the world, some UNI channels are basic and some are extended basic, depending on the region. In Asia, where Diva has the broadest appeal, it is basic, and so is Universal, while Syfy is extended basic or even premium. 34

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The maturity of the particular market is a big factor. In the more mature markets of Western Europe, competition for exclusive programming between platforms within pay TV—the old cable-versus-satellite scenario—has largely given way to a perception that exclusivity is less important than growing the whole market for pay TV versus free TV and DTT. In emerging markets, there is more fragmentation and sometimes competition is fierce. Consequently, UNI’s channels are sometimes exclusive to platforms. Everywhere, branding is all-important. “Brands make pay TV work,” Khanna says. “Platform operators, the so-called gatekeepers, used to have ultimate control, but that has changed. Now it’s about tastemakers. It’s about being an editorial voice. The voice says, ‘I will navigate this for you.’ ” In developing a bigger voice in the market, pay TV is now driving television content creation. Three years ago, the bulk of programming on UNI’s channels was second or third or fourth run. Now there is first-run content. Haven, for example, actually started on Syfy internationally in 2010 and went to the U.S. market afterward. Syfy was also the first channel to show V around the world. Rookie Blue (which aired on ABC in the U.S.) was launched internationally on 13th Street. How did this new production business arise? First, there was change in thinking and attitude. UNI decided that its international channels were a first-run business. The second and determining factor was scale. Going from 14 to 70 channels brings a whole new level of efficiency and financial clout. “Scale is the key to everything,” Khanna says. “It enables you to act bigger than you are in any given territory.” Pay TV has begun to change the Hollywood model, Khanna says. “You can’t pay for an original production in one country, but you can do it across 70. Producers used to expect production costs to be covered in one shot. Now it’s about monetization in small pieces. No one piece of the puzzle has to stand up alone.” UNI will advise scripted producers not to unload worldwide distribution in one go. “We tell them we need to be first and exclusive but you can have it afterwards,” she says. “We’ll pay part of the cost and you can have the rest.” A key element in building the original-programming business is a policy of committing to a full season. UNI needs at least a 10- to 13-episode commitment for a new show to work for its channels. And the door is open for new projects. “We are now a potential partner for producers,” says Khanna. “They can come to us to do an international deal and then turn around to sell to the U.S.”

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latin beat

TUNING IN TO LATIN AMERICAN TELEVISION BY ANNA CARUGATI

Telemundo’s Don Browne About six years ago, Telemundo, the second-largest Spanish-language network in the U.S., restructured its business model and placed original productions at its center. Glossy telenovelas have improved ratings, attracted advertisers, fueled international sales and provided content to new-media platforms. Don Browne, the president of Telemundo Communications Group, talks about the enduring prowess of original programming and the new opportunities it continues to offer.

WS: You have based your business model on producing original content.What is your production strategy going forward? BROWNE: When we talk about content being king, we built a whole business model six years ago on content, and it keeps on giving, because now we are seeing tremendous growth with our productions in prime time. It is growing the core business. Obviously it grows the network and it grows our television stations. But it keeps on giving because we have a great international business, but also it lives online and it lives on mun2, our cable channel. For instance, Decisiones, one of our original productions, the highest-rated programming on mun2, is a product that comes from our studios. So all our platforms, whether digital, broadband Internet, broadcast, cable, international, they all benefit from original productions. WS: Tell us about the deal to produce La Reina del sur with the Spanish broadcaster Antena 3. BROWNE: It’s a great deal and we are excited about it. Here again is the reason that producing high-quality original content is so important. Seven years ago we weren’t even on the map, we had no international profile because we had no content. Over the years, we have had some excellent strategic alliances in co-producing our product. El Clon with Globo [TV International] is a great example of the respect that Globo showed us in allowing us to produce one of their most precious products. Antena 3 is a great company. They have seen that our content does extremely well in Spain and they felt that the quality of our content was compatible with the quality that they were looking for. When you can be greater than the sum of your parts when you partner with another great company, you are then able to produce bigger, broader productions, and La Reina del sur is by far the most ambitious, the most aggressive production we’ve 36

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ever done in the history of Telemundo. And the only way we could do that is by partnering with a company that is as big and as good as Antena 3. WS: Univision has started producing its own original

fiction programming. Does this affect your production strategy at all? BROWNE: First of all, the fact that Univision is doing it is no surprise. I predicted four or five years ago that they would have to get into original productions to expand their business—they had a one-dimensional business.We are glad they are in it, and it has been interesting to see how their original production compares against ours. They recently launched their first original at 8 o’clock and we did too, and the quality is very different. Our quality is much higher, and as it turns out we are seeing a great deal of success. We’ve been producing our own content now for six years. So we’re not too concerned about what they are doing, but we’re glad they are doing it because people will see the comparison, and right now we are very pleased with the way that’s working out. I think their issue will be how do their original productions compare against the productions by Televisa, which clearly, from Univision’s point of view, is a much stronger product. So they are competing not just against us, but they are also competing against a great product that comes out of Mexico. WS: What impact will the 2010 census have on the U.S.

Hispanic market? BROWNE: Well, the census is one of my favorite sub-

jects, and it’s amazing how I’ve been evangelizing and trying to explain how important it is. Very intelligent people look back at me and ask, Why are you so excited about the census? First of all, it’s in the Constitution, we do it every ten years, it’s about counting the population. And the demographic shifts in this country are extraordinary. The majority population is getting smaller; the minority population is getting much larger, and it’s being driven by Hispanics. I really believe [the census data] will be the sea change that moves the general market, that moves everyone to see how incredibly strong the growth in the Hispanic [market] is and what an amazing opportunity it’s going to be. So if you are in that space, whether it’s Spanishlanguage only, bicultural, bilingual or even acculturated, you’ve really got to understand what is going on. These numbers are...going to be a true game changer, in, one, the way people look at this country and the composition of this country, and, two, in business. Whether you are in the media business or any kind of business, the single best way you can grow your business is to understand this unbelievable growth and figure out how to get involved with it. 1/11

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TNT’s The Closer.

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Arresting

or quite some time now, many of the most innovative, critically acclaimed and talked-about dramas and comedies on American television have come from the basic-cable arena. Networks like TBS,TNT, FX and USA have built their brands on original scripted series, and dozens of other channels, including A&E, AMC, IFC, Syfy and TV Land, are using original series to enhance their brands, lure new audiences and attract advertisers. The first decade of the 21st century may someday be looked back upon as a sort of golden age of basic-cable drama, starting with the critical and audience successes of Monk on USA Network and The Shield on FX in 2002, through the awards heaped on AMC’s Mad Men in competition with broadcast and pay-cable series, and just recently the ratings success of AMC’s The Walking Dead, whose finale drew some 6 million viewers and an average of 3.5 million in the coveted 18to-49 demo. The latter number was a record for a basic-cable drama. There have been shows that were clunkers in that period, both on cable and on broadcast, but the clear takeaway from a careful look at the program landscape is that in recent years, cable series have

pretty much reached a par with the broadcast variety. Michael Wright, the executive VP and head of programming for Turner Broadcasting’s TNT,TBS and TCM, points out that there were basic-cable series before Monk and The Shield, but they were perceived as inferior. “It was sort of the minor leagues,” he says. “As early as 2003 we started talking here about the need to expand into original series. Others did, too. The number of original series on cable in 2010 compared with 2002 is a huge growth, scripted and unscripted. Viewers, particularly younger viewers, no longer distinguish between broadcast and cable. They just look for shows they want to watch.” Wright acknowledges that cable budgets are still below broadcast, but he suggests that the gap is narrowing as broadcast shows adopt some of the measures that showrunners who move back and forth between cable and broadcast use in both places, and cable successes free up more funds on that side. “Some cable series could do with a little more cash to look better—but not ours, of course,” Wright jokes. “The people who produce these series for us, whether it’s Michael Robin and James Duff on The Closer or Dean Devlin and John Rogers on 1/11

Basic-cable channels in the U.S. continue to be breeding grounds for cost-effective, original, high-quality scripted fare. By Bill Dunlap

Leverage or Janet Tamaro and Bill Haber on Rizzoli & Isles, they take our budgets and make a show that will hold up to anything. I would argue that the viewer cannot look at one of these shows next to most broadcast shows and say, ‘This is the one that cost less to make.’ They’ve weeded out the inefficiencies or the indulgences of some other productions and found a way to make great television for the money available.” In fact, Wright calls The Closer, which TNT announced will end after the 2011 season, “the greatest thing that has ever happened to me as a programmer. And then Rizzoli & Isles came across last year and matched it. It’s like The Closer and emblematic of what we do.” Original scripted series—nine dramas on TNT and four sitcoms on TBS (along with Conan and Lopez Tonight)—play a major role in defining the two networks.

according to Jeff Wachtel, the president of original programming at USA, and co-head of original content—with Syfy’s Mark Stern—of Universal Cable Productions. “Cable networks have seen that original programming helps drive the value of the assets of the network,” Wachtel says. “As networks differentiate themselves and sell themselves in an increasingly competitive market, the thing people can point to as exclusive to that network is its original programming. From USA to AMC you’ve seen how audiences, advertisers and affiliates all get a handle on the network from its original programming.” USA Network is premiering its latest scripted series, Fairly Legal, this month. Created for Universal Cable Productions by Michael Sardo, it stars Sarah Shahi as a lawyer who becomes a mediator. CAST OF CHARACTERS

BRAND MATTERS

“When the consumer has an infinite number of choices, helping them to know clearly what you are and what you offer is of the essence,”Wright says. “When you brand a network, it is both simple and broad. If you watch TNT, you get what that network is: drama.TBS, too. It’s a broad portfolio of comedy programming. It’s helpful not just to the consumer, but to the advertiser, too. They’re looking to place their ad dollars in an environment that is appropriate to their client.” USA Network now devotes 25 percent to 30 percent of its schedule to original programming, including wrestling and repeats of its series,

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USA Network’s umbrella brand, with the tagline “Characters welcome,” grew out of its early days of original programming. “We’re fortunate to have our brand identity feed very organically into what made us successful in our earlier days, with Monk and The Dead Zone, which were character-based programming,” Wachtel says. “That’s shifted somewhat to more of a blue-sky narrative, a more upbeat, aspirational brand.We don’t go for the grim and gritty.” Grim and gritty is where Fox’s FX network plays. Just as, at USA Network, Monk, with Tony Shalhoub in the quirky title role, set the tone for interesting characters, The Shield, with its aggressive, sometimes

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More money, more problems: Breaking Bad, from Sony Pictures Television, has become one of AMC’s signature series.

corrupt cops and the menacing Michael Chiklis in the lead role, set the tone for stark realism at FX. “We’re doing shows that could never be on a broadcast network,” says Nick Grad, the executive VP of original programming for FX, which has a slate that includes Sons of Anarchy and Justified.“We’re trying to do things that are provocative and visceral, but at the same time smart and about something and about a character’s journey, and that can resonate, with something to say.

It’s our hallmark; it’s what we do on every show. We have nine original scripted shows.The more shows you put out there sends a message as to what your mantra is, and people respond to that.” A&E, part of a family of mostly factual cable networks, is a major player in original series, but puts more emphasis on the unscripted. Bob DeBitetto, A&E’s president and general manager, sees scripted as the icing on the network cake. “The industry tends to put quality scripted programming on a higher plateau,” he says. “These shows get maybe an unfair share of attention. They tend to be more coveted by advertisers. So our scripted effort is designed to

punctuate everything that we have accomplished and offer a modest amount of this premium content, if you will.There are certain advertisers and categories that really desire this programming over nonfiction programming.” A&E had one original scripted series in 2010 (The Glades, a police procedural set in Florida), and will have two in 2011: The Glades’ second season and Breakout Kings, from Matt Olmstead and Nick Santora, executive producers of Prison Break. “We look for shows that are dramatic, have an aura of believability and authenticity to them,” DeBitetto says, “shows that engage you and tell a great story. Most of our shows are in the crime-and-justice arena, and almost all of what we do is closedended storytelling. We really try to avoid over-serialization.” ON TARGET

A&E, TBS, TNT and USA are fully distributed networks in more than 100 million homes, with FX just behind at 96 million.They are established general-entertainment players who have expanded their original scripted programming slates in recent years, but still fill the majority of their schedules with other genres. They have been joined in the last few years by other networks

Growing pains: TBS is focusing on comedy with its originals, such as the new offering Glory Daze.

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with a somewhat narrower brand and corresponding focus in the scripted genres. The best known of those is AMC, formerly known as American Movie Classics, which made waves with the critical success of Mad Men. In 2008, the show became the first basic-cable series to win the outstanding drama Emmy Award, and it won again the following two years. This year AMC will air four scripted dramas: Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead and the new The Killing, adapted from a successful Danish show. The channel had first aired the scripted series Remember WENN and The Lot in the 1990s, but was out of that business from 2001 until Mad Men came on, in 2007. Joel Stillerman, AMC’s senior VP of original programming, production and digital content, says cable has become the primary source for more substantive, serialized storytelling. “Those kinds of stories still hold great appeal for a large number of people,” he says. Unlike some channels, AMC doesn’t pursue a single type of drama. “We really embrace the idea of a more eclectic approach,” Stillerman says. “We have a channel, the core of which is still movies of all kinds.

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Seizing the moment: Eureka has become one of Syfy’s highest-rated originals, debuting to more than 4 million viewers in 2006 and consistently averaging between 2.5 million and 3 million viewers in its more recent seasons.

So our dramas try to reflect that.We purposely try not to be formulaic. We’ve tried in the last year or two to focus on a very simple premise: the idea of the best version of the broadest ideas. The Walking Dead and our upcoming series The Killing are phenomenal examples of it. We know there are a lot of people who love zombie films, but nobody’s ever done it like The Walking Dead. The Killing is not a procedural; it’s a serialized, character-driven drama. The way stories like the Chandra Levy or Natalee Holloway killings captivate the country is something we wanted to capture in a serialized drama.” INDIE SPIRIT

Similarly, the Independent Film Channel (IFC) operates on a base of movies, but in IFC’s case these are independent, often quirky movies and it also shows off-net sitcoms and unscripted series of a similar bent. IFC did two eight-episode seasons of The Business and The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman in 2006 and 2007 and just finished the first six-episode season of The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret. Debbie DeMontreux, IFC’s senior VP of original programming, has

big plans for this year. Late last year she announced a development slate of eight new series, including the animated Cartoon Show and two scripted comedies, Chosen Guns and Greg & Donny. “Our audience craves off-net shows like Arrested Development, Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared,” DeMontreux says. “They fit alongside our independent films. They exemplify the kind of indie spirit and perspective that we embrace. We’re developing shows of our own that we feel can fit alongside them. Todd Margaret reunited Will Arnett and David Cross [of Arrested Development], and what better pair to bring to IFC?” Also premiering this year are Portlandia, a celebration of all things quirky in Portland, Oregon, and Onion News Network, from the people behind the satiric newspaper and website The Onion. All the IFC shows are comedies designed to fit the network’s tagline, “Always on, slightly off.” Syfy, formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel, has an obvious slant, but maybe not quite as obvious as it seems, according to Mark Stern, the executive VP of original program1/11

ming. “We define the genre broadly—not just science fiction, but also fantasy and supernatural and paranormal.We shy away from things that are more horror-driven. Our new tagline is ‘Imagine greater.’” Syfy’s lineup includes original reality, off-net series, acquired movies and original movies.“It’s not enough now to just have a cable channel,” Stern says. “You have to distinguish yourself, to grow and to find a reason to convince people to come to you. The best way to do that is through original programming. Now you’re seeing maybe 50 cable channels in the originalprogramming game. And it is of a quality that rivals broadcast.” Syfy’s newest series, Being Human, just premiered earlier this month. “What was amazing about this for me,” Stern says, “was that when you hear the concept it almost sounds like a bad joke—a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost are living in an apartment building.” Being Human is based on a BBC Three series of the same name. “The British series has so much heart and charm and is really wonderful on so many levels. It really impressed us. The executive pro-

World Screen

ducers [of the U.S. adaptation] are a married couple, Jeremy Carver, who comes out of the supernatural [drama] realm [Supernatural], and his wife, Anna Fricke [Men in Trees, Everwood], who has done a lot of character dramas, so they’re the perfect mix for what the show needs.” The series will mix the original British story lines and new content in its 13 hours this season. TV Land entered the first-run scripted game last June with Hot in Cleveland, starring Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, Wendie Malick and Betty White.This month, Retired at 35, starring George Segal and Jessica Walter, premieres. For a network built on classic sitcoms, going into originals felt like a “no-brainer” to Keith Cox, TV Land’s executive VP of development and original programming. “We’re the home of the best sitcoms ever made,” Cox says. “If you look at both the sitcoms we produced, we really made an effort to make them feel traditional, but make sure the story lines and subject matter felt very contemporary.” Like most classic sitcoms, Cleveland and Retired are produced with multiple cameras in front of an audience.

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Biker babe: FX followed up its acclaimed series The Shield with Sons of Anarchy.

“We wanted them to blend in with the shows we have on the air now,” Cox says. “Most networks are trying to reinvent the sitcom. There’s nothing wrong with it. People love good old-fashioned funny shows. Some actors love the sitcom because they love acting in front of an audience.” Both shows started with ten-episode orders, and Hot in Cleveland has been picked up for 20 more, starting this month. “The key for us was, What shows can we develop that no one else would make?” Cox says. “I think we found something unique. That’s why people come to cable. We have to tell stories that no one in broadcast will tell. The shows are very ad-friendly.”

Wright is pretty happy with the program mix on TBS and TNT at the moment, but he believes that to remain competitive he has to find a way to program more exclusive content.“The key is to not put stuff on, at least in prime, that is available everywhere,” he says. “My understanding is that advertisers would always rather

be in original or exclusive content. From an ad perspective, you can’t have enough of it.” Another way Wright sees growth is through longer series orders. “We’re beginning to look at some 20- or 22episode orders,” he says. “Right now, we program most of our original stuff between June and Labor Day [in September] and in December and January, when the broadcast networks are in repeats. As we’ve grown, we’re looking to program in some other places as well.” Stillerman notes that The Killing will help get AMC close to one of its goals, which is having originals for a good part of the year on Sunday nights. “This past summer we had two new originals back to back,” he says. “We’re certainly interested in finding the right combination that could play back to back, but it’s not a mandate.” Stillerman notes that AMC has ordered the series Hell on

Wheels, about the construction of the first transcontinental railroad. “It’s another example of something our audience knows and loves us for, which is westerns,” he says. Stern sees more scripted series coming for Syfy. “That’s probably the general direction, as cable continues to grow and get a larger piece of that ad-sales pot. Original programming is what drives our CPM, and that’s why you’ll see more and more of it. One of our goals has always been to be in originals 365 days, and I can see us finally getting there, for the most part.” There is plenty of room for expansion on all cable networks. A typical season of a scripted show on cable consists of 13 episodes. Last year’s popular hit The Walking Dead on AMC was only six episodes. Zombie lovers can’t wait for the second season, which will be 13 episodes. And Mad Men aficionados are anxious to know what the next chapter in Don Draper’s life will be, just as loyal fans of The Closer, White Collar or Haven want to see more of their favorite characters in action. Compelling characters and engaging story lines— those are the keys to the success of basic cable’s scripted shows.

MORE IS BETTER

Like most networks in the firstrun scripted business, TV Land is planning to expand its production in coming years. “Our plan is to pick up some more pilots shortly,” Cox says. “You want Hot to have a companion. Hopefully, Retired works and then you want a companion and you start building out. In a perfect world we’d have a sitcom on every night at 10 and, ultimately, at 10:30 [too].”

Not the news: IFC’s originals slate this year includes Onion News Network, inspired by the satiric newspaper and website. 42

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one on one n a business known for its cyclical nature—ups and downs in advertising revenue and in the popularity of certain programming genres—A&E Television Networks (AETN) has been riding high and steady for several years. Particularly notable has been the company’s solid ad revenues even during the worst recession in decades. Advertisers responded to the ratings increases of several of AETN’s channels, especially HISTORY and A&E, but the entire portfolio of channels in the U.S. and internationally—which includes Bio, Crime & Investigation Network, HISTORY International, Military History, Lifetime, Lifetime Movie Network and Lifetime Real Women— has been performing well. As Abbe Raven, the president and CEO of AETN, explains, original programming is the fuel that has driven the channels’ success. HISTORY’s reputation for quality factual programming allowed it to attract the edi-

tor and activist Anthony Arnove and the historian Howard Zinn, along with the celebrities Matt Damon and Josh Brolin, to produce The People Speak. That major event was followed by another one, America: The Story of Us, produced by Jane Root’s Nutopia. HISTORY is also the home to ongoing series such as American Pickers and Pawn Stars. As a result, earlier this year HISTORY joined the ranks of the top five cable channels in the U.S. It has also surpassed Discovery as the number one factual channel in the U.S. A&E’s real-life programming offering, including Hoarders and Gene Simmons Family Jewels, and the drama The Glades, have found a loyal audience. Lifetime, the number one network for women in the U.S., was acquired by AETN in September 2009. Its program schedule is being fine-tuned, but Lifetime is an attractive addition to AETN’s portfolio. While innovative shows are the core of the business, Raven and her team have their eyes firmly focused on the many additional revenue streams good original programming can generate: international channels and program sales, consumer products, as well as digital-media revenues ranging from iTunes sales to mobile apps. Before joining the cable industry, Raven worked in theater and had been a teacher—both skill sets have served her well. She has a deep-seated understanding of what makes good entertainment, and her dedication to education has spurred AETN’s involvement in countless outreach programs. She talks to World Screen about AETN’s many success stories.

Abbe Raven

A&E Television Networks

WS: What has driven the success of HISTORY and A&E? They seem to be on a continued growth trajectory. RAVEN: They are, they are doing extremely well, and it’s all about original programming. It’s been a key to our success. It’s who we are, and it’s having an extraordinarily terrific, stable group of cable executives. Each network has its own voice in the marketplace, and our programming teams have really tapped into what the target audience of each network wants. And I think that’s what we do really well. We know what the A&E audience wants; we know what the HISTORY audience wants, we’re working on what the Lifetime audience wants. I’m extremely proud that HISTORY is the only network that has ever gone from below a top ten network into the top five networks in cable. It’s remarkable; it has surpassed Discovery as the number one nonfiction network in the U.S. as well as around the world. And A&E has done a fantastic job of combining the work that they are doing on the nonfiction side with drama. We launched The Glades last year and it did extremely well, and we are busy about to launch Breakout Kings in the beginning of this year. It’s a very strong new drama series, and I think [that, with] the combination of drama with innovative nonfiction, 1/11

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On the beat: A&E has been expanding into the scripted-drama arena with new series like last summer’s The Glades.

A&E will continue to be a success. And on HISTORY, the combination of high-profile events, like America: The Story of Us, as well as shows like American Pickers and Pawn Stars, is just phenomenal. So those two networks will just continue to grow. WS: AETN acquired Lifetime in September of 2009.What appealed to you about the Lifetime brand and what can you tell us about the improvements being made in its programming? RAVEN: We absolutely love the Lifetime brand. It has incredible potential, incredible equity in its brand value. It has the number one competition show in Project Runway and aired some of the highestrated original movies of 2010. We are building ownership of original content for Lifetime. Nancy Dubuc [the president and general manager of HISTORY and Lifetime] and her team are very heavily into development on new drama series and nonfiction shows as well as a very strong slate of original movies. We are very bullish; we believe that Lifetime will continue to be an incredible part of the AETN portfolio. WS: With the addition of Lifetime, AETN now has a very attractive

portfolio of channels to offer advertisers. Even during this recent recession, you maintained a very solid advertising business. How were you able to do that even in such difficult times, and what’s been your relationship with advertisers? RAVEN: We’ve been very fortunate that our portfolio has offered such strength to our advertisers. We have the top male network with

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HISTORY. We have the top female network in Lifetime and one of the top five adult networks in A&E. So by continuing to grow the audience as we have over the past several years (and if you look at which channels have grown in the past year and which haven’t, our portfolio is way ahead of everyone else), we have been able to make sure that we offer great value. Clearly, cable offers great value for advertisers. Cable has taken audience share from broadcasters, and for us it’s really about being the most attractive portfolio for advertisers. HISTORY right now has surpassed Discovery as the number one nonfiction network, so if you are going to be placing your bets as an advertiser, you are going to come to us.The nice thing is that right now we have this portfolio that provides one-stop shopping: advertisers can reach women, men and a dual audience.We have also always been a very customer-service-oriented company, and I think that was extremely appreciated by agencies and advertisers. We really worked with them to maximize their reach. WS: Is the worst of the downturn behind us? RAVEN: Those of us that have been able to be strong performers have

done very well, because we have grown audience share and we have been able to continue to grow our advertising revenue. One of the things that we did during the recession was to recognize what has been proven historically, that the companies that really had done well post-recession had continued to invest during the recession. In fact, we made a decision not to decrease our investment in programming but to continue to increase it. We saw it as an opportunity and it has paid off. Of course, we watched our costs company-wise, but we made sure we offered great opportunities for our ad-sales partners that benefited them as well as us. But I’m very proud that we took a strong strategy in saying that as a content company we had to continue to invest in our programming. That is reflected in the fact that we are really one of the top producers of original programming around the world. WS: While you are seeing considerable growth in the U.S., tell us about the growth opportunities internationally. Are you looking to launch more channels? RAVEN: We absolutely recognize that the growth opportunity for us is continuing and expanding the distribution of our brands and programs. We do that in a variety of ways, whether it’s additional channels around the world, or program sales, or international digitalmedia distribution. And then, of course, there is also iTunes. We’ve recently launched on iTunes in the U.K. and Canada as well. But our strategy is to continue to launch new channels in new territories as well as expand our portfolio within a given territory. So in a territory where we might have only one or two channels, we are working on launching the rest of our portfolio. We believe Lifetime is a fantastic brand and is primed for international distribution. HISTORY right now is the oldest brand in the market, and now we reach 207 million subscribers in 150 territories, including the U.S. We are also distributing the Bio channel, Crime & Investigation Network, Military History and the HD versions of HISTORY, Crime & Investigation and Bio internationally. And A&E, which is also available in Canada, is also doing extremely well in Latin America. So we are up to 150 countries, more than 250 million households. We just formed a joint venture in India,

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one on one AETN-18 India, and this new venture will be launching HISTORY and Bio in the beginning of 2011. And we just recently launched a Mandarin-language block in China. We are really looking at how to grow our bouquet around the world. And as I said, Lifetime will become part of that portfolio. WS: Are there any other businesses

that are a priority for you in 2011? RAVEN: The integration of Life-

time into the AETN family and getting Lifetime back to its roots as one of the top-rated cable networks in television is one of our goals.

their own decisions based on their creative instincts. One thing that we have tried to foster here at AETN is an entrepreneurial spirit so that we are creating new genres in television and in new media. No matter how successful we become, there is always something exciting around the corner. Our executives should always be taking those risks, those creative leaps. And finally, we are all in this together. But ours is very much a team approach, and I couldn’t be more proud of the teams that we have at each of the networks. WS: AETN has a number of edu-

WS: How would you describe your

management style? You must have something to do with the success the channels are having! How do you get the best out of your team? RAVEN: It’s very much a team approach. I have fantastic people that work here. I think I’ve had a good track record of hiring, but we’ve had people who have been here for many years.We have given them new opportunities, and most importantly, empowered them to lead their teams, make

cational outreach programs. How do you view the responsibility of businesses to help improve education in the U.S., and how are you guiding AETN in those efforts? RAVEN: As you know, we have a long history of corporate outreach here. We believe very strongly in good corporate citizenship; it’s part of our mantra; it’s part of who we are. We believe it’s smart business and it’s also the right thing to do. What’s been different about the cable business is that it has always

reached out into local communities. That is one of the reasons that we have worked with our partners over the years to develop award-winning acclaimed outreach programs. On the educational front, without question, we have felt not only the power of HISTORY in working with educational groups and schools (and we reach large numbers of teachers every week), but with all of our networks. So on HISTORY we have programs like Take a Vet to School, which I am very proud of, where we have encouraged educators and schools to invite veterans into their classrooms. So kids bring their grandparent, or parent, or a brother, or a returning vet from Iraq or Afghanistan, Vietnam or World War II to class to talk about their experiences. It’s a very powerful interactive educational experience, and we provide lesson plans and suggestions on how to do that. We’ve also been very involved in the Save Our History program, in which we’ve encouraged kids to get involved in learning about how to save their local history. Twice a year we produce some-

Men in black: With shows like Pawn Stars, HISTORY has been able to broaden its audience reach.

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thing called The Idea Book, which correlates with the programming that we are running on our networks, and is an idea book for teachers on how to use our programming in the classroom. We also provide very robust online tools for teachers as well. We have programs not just for HISTORY but for A&E as well. For example, there is one that coordinates with our show Intervention where we support intervention councils around the country with our partners. We lead something called the Intervention Recovery Rally every year, which is about recovery and is a nod to our show Intervention. And Lifetime has been a leader in breast cancer awareness and [American Heart] month. So each of our networks has a long history, and we are absolutely committed to continuing educational outreach. WS: It sounds like you are a happy

camper right now. You have a lot of areas that are doing very well. RAVEN: That is exactly right. It doesn’t happen all the time [laughs], but for now things are great.

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american network scorecard Source: The Nielsen Company, September 20, 2010, to January 2, 2011 A rating point represents 1,159,000 TV households; shares are the percentage of sets tuned to a particular program or station. Courtesy of ABC.

Rank Program

Network

Distributor

Average Share

Kids

Teens

M18–49

F18–49

M25–54

F25–54

M50+

F50+

Dancing with the Stars

ABC

BBC Worldwide

13.5/20

2.2

2.1

2.5

6.8

3.4

9.1

8.6

19.1

Dancing with the Stars: Results

ABC

BBC Worldwide

12.6/20

1.9

1.8

2.5

5.4

3.4

7.6

8.1

16.5

NCIS

CBS

CBS Studios Intl.

11.7/18

1.1

1.9

3.8

4.6

5.3

6.2

12.5

14.3

NCIS: Los Angeles

CBS

CBS Studios Intl.

10.2/16

0.8

1.8

3.5

4.1

4.7

5.6

10.8

11.9

The Mentalist

CBS

Warner Bros.

9.4/16

0.7

1.6

2.8

3.8

3.9

5.2

9.2

11.8

60 Minutes

CBS

CBS Studios Intl.

9.1/15

0.8

1.0

3.1

2.5

4.1

3.6

10.8

10.4

Criminal Minds

CBS

Disney Media Distribution

9.0/14

1.0

1.7

3.2

4.9

4.1

6.3

7.4

10.4

Two and a Half Men

CBS

Warner Bros.

8.8/13

1.0

1.6

4.6

5.1

5.9

6.4

7.9

7.8

CSI

CBS

CBS Studios Intl.

8.5/13

0.9

1.6

2.8

3.9

3.8

5.3

7.9

10.1

Grey’s Anatomy

ABC

Disney Media Distribution

8.4/13

1.3

1.7

2.4

7.6

3.0

8.1

3.3

7.6

The Good Wife

CBS

CBS Studios Intl.

8.4/14

0.5

0.8

1.9

3.5

2.7

4.9

7.0

11.3

Desperate Housewives

ABC

Disney Media Distribution

8.3/12

1.2

1.9

2.6

6.2

3.2

7.1

4.2

8.6

Hawaii 5-0

CBS

CBS Studios Intl.

8.2/13

0.6

1.3

3.4

4.0

4.5

5.4

7.2

8.8

The Big Bang Theory

CBS

Warner Bros.

8.1/13

1.2

2.2

4.5

4.9

5.7

6.1

6.3

7.3

Blue Bloods

CBS

CBS Studios Intl.

7.7/14

0.5

0.6

1.7

2.7

2.5

3.8

8.0

10.7

Survivor: Nicaragua

CBS

CBS Studios Intl.

7.6/12

1.6

2.2

3.7

4.9

4.8

6.4

6.2

7.6

Undercover Boss

CBS

ALL3MEDIA International

7.5/12

1.0

1.5

3.3

4.1

5.3

6.1

8.3

CSI: Miami

CBS

CBS Studios Intl.

7.3/12

0.7

1.2

2.5

3.4

3.1

4.4

6.2

8.7

Mike & Molly

CBS

Warner Bros.

7.3/11

0.7

1.2

3.3

4.4

4.3

5.7

5.8

7.1

Modern Family

ABC

Twentieth Century Fox

7.2/11

1.3

2.3

4.1

5.7

4.8

6.5

3.9

5.7

CSI: NY

CBS

CBS Studios Intl.

7.1/12

0.6

0.9

1.7

2.8

2.4

3.9

6.6

9.6

Castle

ABC

Disney Media Distribution

6.8/11

0.5

1.0

1.8

3.6

2.4

4.6

4.8

8.4

The Amazing Race 17

CBS

Disney Media Distribution

6.8/10

1.4

1.9

3.2

4.4

3.9

5.5

5.1

7.0

The Defenders

CBS

CBS Studios Intl.

6.8/12

0.5

0.9

2.2

2.8

3.1

3.9

6.7

8.0

Glee

FOX

Twentieth Century Fox

6.6/10

1.9

4.3

3.5

6.1

3.8

6.0

2.7

4.2

$#*! My Dad Says

CBS

Warner Bros.

6.3/10

0.8

1.4

2.9

3.4

4.0

4.5

5.4

6.3

Brothers & Sisters

ABC

Disney Media Distribution

6.3/10

0.6

0.8

1.6

4.4

2.1

5.2

2.8

7.2

Private Practice

ABC

Disney Media Distribution

6.2/10

0.7

0.9

1.5

5.5

1.8

6.1

2.1

5.9

Bones

FOX

Twentieth Century Fox

6.1/10

0.8

1.4

2.3

3.6

2.8

4.1

5.1

6.3

House

FOX

NBC Universal

5.9/9

0.9

1.6

3.2

4.6

3.7

4.9

3.9

4.5

Law & Order: Los Angeles

NBC

NBC Universal

5.9/10

0.5

0.7

1.9

3.2

2.3

3.9

4.4

6.4

How I Met Your Mother

CBS

Twentieth Century Fox

5.7/9

0.8

1.4

3.6

4.1

4.2

4.6

3.7

3.9

Law & Order: SVU

NBC

NBC Universal

5.7/9

0.6

0.9

1.8

3.5

2.2

3.9

5.9

The Event

NBC

NBC Universal

5.4/8

0.6

1.1

3.2

3.0

3.7

3.6

4.5

Rules of Engagement

CBS

Sony Pictures Television

5.3/8

0.7

1.1

3.1

3.4

3.9

4.2

4.1

4.0

Detroit 1-8-7

ABC

Disney Media Distribution

5.2/9

0.5

0.6

1.5

2.2

2.1

3.0

4.6

6.1

The Middle

ABC

Warner Bros.

5.2/9

1.4

1.5

2.1

3.1

2.7

3.9

3.4

5.4

Cougar Town

ABC

Disney Media Distribution

5.1/8

0.7

1.1

2.7

4.4

3.1

4.9

2.5

3.6

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

ABC

Endemol Worldwide Distribution 5.1/8

1.5

1.8

2.9

2.3

3.7

3.1

5.9

The Biggest Loser 10

NBC

Shine International

5.0/8

1.4

2.1

4.1

2.6

4.8

2.2

4.3

Medium

CBS

CBS Studios

4.9/9

0.5

0.7

1.1

2.4

1.6

3.4

3.5

6.5

Family Guy

FOX

Twentieth Century Fox

4.8/7

1.7

4.0

5.0

3.2

4.6

2.9

1.5

1.0

The Office

NBC

NBC Universal

4.7/7

0.8

1.9

4.4

4.1

4.3

4.1

1.9

2.1

The Simpsons

FOX

Twentieth Century Fox

4.7/7

2.3

3.3

4.6

3.0

4.6

2.9

2.1

1.3

No Ordinary Family

ABC

Disney Media Distribution

4.6/7

1.4

1.3

2.1

2.4

2.7

3.0

3.3

4.4

Parenthood

NBC

NBC Universal

4.5/7

0.5

0.8

1.8

4.0

2.2

4.5

1.9

3.5

48 Hours Mystery

CBS

CBS Studios Intl.

4.3/8

0.4

1.1

1.7

1.4

2.4

3.2

5.5

Better With You

ABC

Warner Bros.

4.3/7

0.8

1.1

1.7

2.7

2.1

3.4

2.5

4.3

Chase

NBC

Warner Bros.

4.3/7

0.4

0.8

1.8

2.2

2.3

2.7

3.6

4.0

America’s Funniest Home Videos

ABC

Disney Media Distribution

4.2/7

1.6

1.2

1.7

2.1

2.6

3.6

4.9

Minute to Win It

NBC

NBC Universal

4.2/7

1.5

1.8

2.5

2.2

3.1

2.9

4.3

For a complete list of the top U.S. network shows, visit www.worldscreen.com.

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Light Years Ahead

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world’s end

IN THE STARS

Almost every national constitution forbids the establishment of an official state religion. But this secular bent doesn’t stop people from looking to the heavens for answers to life’s most troublesome questions: Will I succeed? Will I find love? Will Julian Assange invade my privacy? Every day, papers and magazines

Ted Turner

Miley Cyrus

Hugh Jackman

Morgan Freeman

Julian Assange

Hugh Jackman

Global distinction: Founder of WikiLeaks. Sign: Cancer (b. July 3, 1971) Significant date: December 21, 2010 Noteworthy activity: The man behind the controver-

Global distinction: Australian heartthrob. Sign: Libra (b. October 12, 1968) Significant date: December 14, 2010 Noteworthy activity: The action star is taping a stunt

for his grand entrance to The Oprah Winfrey Show in Australia, entering the Sydney Opera House on a zipline. After failing to engage the brake quickly enough, Jackman slams into the lighting rig above the stage, suffering a cut and some bruising under his right eye. Horoscope: “In the workplace, the Libra has a strong work ethic, often excelling at just about anything. Don’t get too caught up in your work that you forget to put you, your safety and your sanity first.” (essortment.com)

sight occasionally prove prophetic.

sial whistle-blowing website is complaining that someone leaked a Swedish police report about his alleged sexual offenses. In an interview with the British newspaper The Times, Assange took issue about the reporting in a rival publication, saying:“The leak of the police report to The Guardian was clearly designed to undermine my bail application.” Horoscope: “Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones, as they say.You cannot criticize others when you yourself have faults and weaknesses much the same.” (californiapsychics.com)

But rather than poring over charts

Ted Turner

worldwide print horoscopes—projections for people born in a specific month, based on the positions of the stars and planets. While many people rely on these daily, weekly or monthly messages for guidance in their lives, some readers skip over them entirely. The editors of WS recognize that these little pearls of random fore-

of the zodiac to predict world events, our staff prefers to use past horoscopes in an attempt to legitimate the science. As you can see here, had some of these media figures remembered to consult their horoscopes on significant days, they could have avoided

Global distinction: Media mogul. Sign: Scorpio (b. November 19, 1938) Significant date: December 9, 2010 Noteworthy activity: The philanthropist claims that he’s

Morgan Freeman Global distinction: Hollywood icon. Sign: Gemini (b. June 1, 1937) Significant date: December 17, 2010 Noteworthy activity: A post on Twitter, allegedly sent

been so giving throughout his life that he’s now running out of money for himself. He tells Joe Scarborough on MSNBC that his main concern is not wanting to leave his family burdened “with an unpaid funeral bill.” Horoscope: “Money matters will experience pressures.You should be careful about the excessive habits that have been putting a strain on your finances.” (indianastrology2000.com)

by CNN, declares: “Breaking News: actor Morgan Freeman has passed away in his Burbank home.” The story gets re-Tweeted around the world, and tributes to the star, who is actually alive and well, pour in. The news giant removes the update, saying the breaking news was a “mistake.” Horoscope: “You may be indulging in gossip and speculation, or may be taken aback by rumors that have no substance. Pay no attention to this chatter.” (astrocenter.astrology.msn.com)

Miley Cyrus

John Travolta

Global distinction: Former Disney Channel darling. Sign: Sagittarius (b. November 23, 1992) Significant date: November 28, 2010 Noteworthy activity: Just five days after celebrating

Global distinction: Box-office heavyweight. Sign: Aquarius (b. February 18, 1954) Significant date: December 10, 2010 Noteworthy activity: The actor is reportedly out-

her 18th birthday, a video surfaces of Cyrus smoking a bong at a party in her L.A.-area home. In the clip, the pop tart gets the giggles after she smokes what is allegedly salvia, a legal, natural herb that is known for its psychedelic qualities. Horoscope: “There is temptation to carry out activities which are not in your best interest.Try and not cross lines.You may have to distance yourself from certain people to accomplish this.” (indianastrology2000.com)

raged and devastated after his old friend Carrie Fisher speaks to the gay magazine The Advocate about his sexual orientation. “Wow, I mean my feeling about John has always been that we know and we don’t care,” she tells the publication, addressing rumors that the star, who is married and has kids, is still in the closet. Horoscope: “Aquarius makes many friends but has very few confidants.You are usually correct with who you let in and who you keep out of your life.” (lilycat.net)

a few surprises.

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