ABC’s High Potential, Fox’s Rescue among Bell Media LA Screenings pick-ups

Tracker is based on novel The Never Game by Jeffery Deaver

Bell Media-owned Canadian network CTV has unveiled its first batch of pick-ups from the LA Screenings, including Fox drama Rescue: HI-Surf, unscripted series Snake Oil and ABC drama High Potential.

The titles will join CTV’s 2023/24 broadcast season alongside other newly unveiled acquisitions CBS drama Tracker, starring Justin Hartley, and Fox military training series Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.

Snake Oil, officially ordered by Fox in April, sees contestants being pitched unique products by persuasive entrepreneurs. Some of them are legitimate business ventures while others are ‘snake oil salesmen’ peddling fake products.

The show is hosted and produced by American actor and comedian David Spade and is produced by Fox Alternative Entertainment and Electric Avenue Productions, the prodco led by Canadian producer, podcaster and actor Will Arnett.

Fox drama Rescue: HI: Surf, which follows the personal and professional lives of heavy-water lifeguards who patrol and protect the North Shore of O’ahu, is coproduced by Warner Bros Television and Fox Entertainment Studios.

ABC’s High Potential is written by Drew Goddard (The Good Place) and based on the popular French comedy police procedural Haut Potentiel Intellectuel, while Tracker is based on the bestselling novel The Never Game by Jeffery Deaver about a lone-wolf survivalist who roams the country as a ‘reward seeker.’

Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test follows celebrity recruits as they are put through harsh and grueling challenges from the playbook of the special forces.

In addition, Bell Media revealed a pair of acquisitions for its pay TV channels, including The Killing Kind starring Emma Appleton (The Witcher) and Colin Morgan (Merlin).

The thriller drama, which follows the compelling past and present relationship between a high-flying defence lawyer and her client, successful businessman John Webster, comes from UK-based Eleventh Hour Films and is distributed worldwide by Sony Pictures Television. It will premiere on Bell Media’s pay TV channel CTV Drama.

In addition, lifestyle-focused pay TV channel CTV Life acquired Jamie Oliver: Cooking for Less, which sees the British celebrity chef serving up delicious dishes on a budget.

Bell Media will unveil further US acquisitions, as well as its full Canadian programming line-up, during its Canadian Upfronts presentation next week.