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Cable's bumper crop  US CABLE PROGRAMMING: Ed Waller kicks off a new C21Media.net themed season that examines the programming success of America's cable networks. In this first report we look at a raft of new scripted series making waves in basic cable, as broadcast networks reduce their commissions.  Things are looking bright for US cable. The reinvigorated sector is moving from a reliance on off-network re-runs into a period of commissioning its own original shows and reaping all the benefits that owning your own product brings. The strategy was proved successful by the fact that so many cable shows won gongs at this year's Golden Globes: Mad Men, In Treatment, True Blood, John Adams… Where did it all go so right for US cable?  "Basic cable has been on an eight-year growth spurt in which more and more channels that previously relied on re-runs, movie acquisitions and library, plus some light unscripted fare, are now doing big dramas," says Kevin Beggs (above), president of programming and production at Lionsgate. "This used to be the province of only HBO. A few other cable channels dabbled and failed, but then the likes of USA Network, TNT, FX and Showtime began really committing to original scripted series. Happily for them, they succeeded and the idea began to proliferate to others."Happily for the likes of Lionsgate too, since the company supplies many of the scripted shows that have hit on cable, such as Showtime's Weeds (below) and AMC's Mad Men. The latter made history last year when it became the first basic cable programme to win the Emmy for outstanding drama series. It has also picked up two Golden Globes since its debut in July 2007, the second of them this year.  "Mad Men was AMC's first original show, and our first with them, but the rewards of doing original commissions are pretty evident," continues Beggs. "The network is now on the map. They've branded themselves as a serious contender in just one season, and have the awards to prove it."While Mad Men might be in the spotlight right now following its gong haul, mention must be made of other basic cable dramas that are cutting through. A&E has found success with The Cleaner, its first original scripted series in more than six years. The show launched in July 2008, and is in production on a 13-part second season. In its first season, The Cleaner averaged 4.2 million total viewers, 2.4 million adults 25-54 and 2.2 million adults 18-49 in primetime, on a weekly three-telecast cumulative basis, according to A&E. "We've traditionally done really well with acquisitions and original real-life shows like Intervention and The First 48, but A&E decided to do some original scripted programming and that's when I came in," says the network's senior VP of drama programming Tana Nugent Jamieson, who arrived to steer the scripted effort back in March 2006. "The Cleaner premiered in June to huge numbers and we've just picked it up for a second season, and we recently premiered The Beast with Patrick Swayze, which is so far showing encouraging numbers. You'll be seeing more scripted commissions on A&E in the future. We're planning to launch another new one in 2010." In terms of what she's seeking for her next drama, Nugent Jamieson outlines the boxes that need to be ticked before any green light will go on. "Our dramas have to feel very real. Our brand is 'real-life drama,' so we'd never do a vampire show or a paranormal drama." The Cleaner is based on real-life addiction counselor Warren Boyd, for instance, and chimes with A&E's similarly themed reality show Intervention. "They also have to be closed-ended procedural episodes," continues Nugent Jamieson. "That's because we sometimes air episodes out of order and quite frequently. We don't want somebody tuning into episode four and being thrown off like you can with a serialised story." A&E dramas also require a strong lead character that an audience can gravitate towards, she says. "We also like our dramas to be set in the crime arena, since that genre does well for us." As an indication of what she might like for her next drama, she says if she could poach a couple of shows from rival nets, they'd be TNT's The Closer and USA's Burn Notice. "They're more traditional than our dramas and perhaps a little safe but just look at the numbers." She also liked the pitch for FX's Sons of Anarchy but felt it would have been "too problematic" for A&E. Over at Lifetime TV, another basic cable network beefing up its original scripted commissions, executive VP of entertainment JoAnn Alfano (below) says: "We're looking to increase the amount of dramas we put on the air and we're also looking for companion shows to Army Wives. The series is the highest-rated show in Lifetime's history. It's a game-changer and says a lot about our brand, what we want to do and who we want to be. It's about a community of women but has the backdrop of very strong male characters."  Lifetime has since debuted sitcom Rita Rocks and greenlit another original comedy, Drop Dead Diva, about a vapid wannabe model who dies and returns to Earth in the form of a geeky attorney. With Sony Pictures TV and scribe Josh Berman (Bones, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation) attached, the project was unveiled last April but now Lifetime has okayed a series for this summer. "We're looking at what other comedies might work for us," Alfano adds.Another cable network that is moving in this direction is ABC Family, where early scripted commissions like Greek and Lincoln Heights have since been followed up by The Secret Life of the American Teenager, from 7th Heaven creator Brenda Hampton. Furthermore, the network is expanding into original comedy with Roommates (below), which premieres on Monday March 23. Last month the network also okayed three pilots for series, namely comedies Ruby & The Rockits and 10 Things I Hate About You, as well as the one-hour scripted drama Perfect 10, which focuses on teens competing in gymnastics.  Kate Juergens, the network's executive VP of original series programming, is happy that Hollywood creatives are finally recognising the value of cable channels like hers. "Cable is in such a great place right now. The creative community is understanding our brand and we're getting interest from people who wouldn't have been interested just a few years ago, and now want to create shows for us," she says. "They feel that our brand now has relevance."Juergens has her own reasons for moving ABC Family into scripted programming. "We felt there was so much unscripted programming out there for the young audience - tons of it on Bravo, VH1 and MTV - so we zigged while everyone else was zagging." For audiences of younger-skewing channels like ABC Family, there has never really been much difference between cable and broadcast, she adds. "Our viewers grew up on Nickelodeon and Disney Channel and for them, there have always been 150 channels. For the under-30s, the primary broadcast networks have never been that primary." As these audiences grow up, basic cable will only get more important and be able to offer a more rounded variety of content.  All across the cable sector, in basic and premium, origination is the name of the game. It reflects big changes in the business, says Gary Newman (left), joint chairman of 20th Century Fox TV. "Previously, we wondered how basic cable could make a business out of 13-episode series, as they'd never get up to that magic number of 88 or 100 episodes to create a decent syndication package. But we saw that doing five seasons of maybe 60 episodes could make money if the show appealed internationally or to the DVD market. Cable works with much smaller audiences than broadcast but they're more loyal and intense viewers, just the kinds of viewers who would buy DVD box-sets."Now 20th Century Fox TV is beefing up its cable efforts so that by Natpe 2010 it will have another cable series or two to sit alongside FX's Sons of Anarchy. "For us to be able to look at 2009 as a good year, it would have to include our cable production division Fox21 putting another show on a cable network," says Newman. Basic cable channels are all now up to speed on the power of original scripted commissions in terms of raising profile, not to mention retaining rights to take that series across multiple platforms, and some of their series are now on a par with those in broadcast network primetime. As Sony Pictures Television International president of distribution Keith LeGoy recently told C21: "The boundary between a broadcast network show and a cable show has blurred almost to the point of disappearing." Certainly, cable's scripted commissions now have similar budgets to broadcast ones, and writers and actors now move between the different sectors far more frequently than they did a few years ago. "When I started, there were broadcast writers and cable writers, but now the lines are blurring," recalls Nugent Jamieson, echoing LeGoy's point. However, there are still some big differences between cable and broadcast commissions, especially with cable - being pay-TV channels - able to push the envelope far more than the broadcast networks. "If The Cleaner was on a network, William's best friend Micky wouldn't die in the pilot, he'd OD but they'd save him and he'd become a series regular," says Jonathan Prince (Cane, American Dreams), creator and exec producer of the show, explaining that a gulf still exists between broadcast and cable content. The language would also be cleaned up; William and his wife wouldn't sleep in separate beds, they'd just have a tiff. "If The Cleaner was on a network, the children wouldn't behave so badly around their father; our addicts wouldn't smoke, when all addicts in the real world smoke," Prince adds. "If The Cleaner was on a network, I'm not sure how dark we'd be able to go with the guest star's story of addiction; every addict would be saved at the end of each episode. But we're not on network, so not every addict gets saved. People smoke, husbands and wives often sleep in separate bedrooms, kids are shitty to their parents. We show raw emotion that doesn't need to be cleansed and sanitised." Suffice it to say, The Cleaner could never be a network show. However, "we borrow from network shows," Prince adds. "The Cleaner is a procedural, just like the best network franchises such as CSI and Law & Order. It is also a family show and family shows work well on the networks - but it is all down to the brand of procedural and family show that makes it cable."  The fact that Mad Men (left) is set in the 1960s is also something that made it more suitable for cable, reckons Lifetime's Alfano. "Cable has been able to be much more specific in terms of the kinds of shows that it wants to do," she says. "For instance, Mad Men is a period piece and a lot of the networks say that they don't do period. There's a fear that a show will feel too niche."As well as allowing writers the chance to escape the creative staightjacket of broadcast network primetime, cable also gives all involved a little more in terms of security, so that not only the actors and writers but also the international buyers of those shows know that they are more likely to last the full season, get renewed and get the full support of the network when it comes to promotion and marketing. "The deficits are more manageable, too," adds Beggs, "and cable's creative environment is more daring and closely aligned to the Lionsgate brand. So we've been happily growing along with the growth of cable." But there are other forces at play that are making cable a more appealing place to bring your latest scripted project. Broadcast networks in the US are actually reducing the number of dramas and sitcoms they're commissioning, what with NBC and others rethinking pilot season and commissioning other genres to fill their primetime slots. "The broadcast networks are ordering more big gameshows and sporting events, with just a few signature scripted series, far fewer than before," says Beggs, "and cable is picking up that slack." Then there's NBC's somewhat controversial move to bring in Jay Leno at 22.00 on weekdays, which not only brings a chatshow into network primetime for the first time, but also effectively removes five drama slots from the network weekly schedule. The move was recently described by Law & Order: SVU star Richard Belzer as "the last gasp of a dying network that could turn out to be brilliant in terms of finances, but in terms of actors, producers, all these people, it's a tragedy." Also speaking about the Leno move at the TCA tour in January, CBS president Nina Tassler said that Hollywood's creative community "was, quite frankly, shocked when they first heard about it. You have so many top-tier talent that vie for that time period every year." Suffice to say, US writers and producers have been handed yet another reason to take their next hot drama project to cable. But one of the interesting things is how far the changes at the broadcast networks will impact cable. One of the big pluses for cable, traditionally, has been launching shows away from the glare of the fall season pile-ups, when the Big Five debut all their new series at once. With those broadcasters now moving away from that model, will cable still have summer all to itself? "That's one of the big questions for me," says Juergens. "If the big networks move to year-round commissioning, will there be audiences available for when cable networks traditionally launch their new shows?" Ed Waller 16 Feb 2009 © C21 Media 2009 
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