What’s Hot At This Week’s LA Screenings?
After ad buyers at last week’s upfronts, it is international buyers’ turn to get a glimpse of the broadcast networks’ crop of new shows. The annual LA Screenings are wrapping after marathon sessions of the studios unveiling their new series, with talent and producers on hand to promote them. After lackluster LA Screenings last year, with international buyers lamenting the lack of breakouts, there is some excitement this week. That is a promising sign for the broadcast networks as the screenings usually serve as a good barometer — last year’s broadcast freshman class indeed failed to produce major hits. The interest seems spread almost evenly between drama, which normally travels better overseas, and comedy this year. Not surprisingly, hot NBC drama pilot The Blacklist is garnering a ton of attention for producer Sony TV. Also hot at the studio is 1980s comedy The Goldbergs. Interestingly, Australian networks are very high on Rake, a remake of an Australian series. Additionally, Michael J. Fox, star of Sony TV’s new NBC series The Michael J. Fox Show, has been receiving enthusiastic reaction from buyers who waited up to an hour for a photo with the actor at the studio’s party Monday. Star power also is boosting 20th TV’s new comedy The Crazy Ones starring Robin Williams, which is among the studio’s best-received pilots, along with another CBS comedy, Friends With Better Lives and dramas Sleepy Hollow (Fox) and thriller Crisis (NBC). Not surprisingly, given The Avengers’ gigantic worldwide boxoffice, new ABC drama Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC) is the ABC Studios drama that garners the most interest, with procedural Intelligence (CBS) also doing well, along with two single-camera comedies for ABC, Trophy Wife and Mixology. Warner Bros. TV dramas Hostages is being well received, with buyers also showing interest in comedies Mom, from hit maker Chuck Lorre, and Super Fun Night, toplined by hot comedy actress Rebel Wilson, as well as the postapocalyptic the CW drama The 100. Another new CW drama, the Mary Queen Of Scots tale Reign, is a hot commodity for CBS TV Studios, along with Greg Garcia’s new family comedy The Millers.
Related: ‘Reign’ Co-Creator Stephanie SenGupta Exits
Related: Primetime Pilot Panic
Related stories
UPFRONTS 2013: The Overachievers
2013-14 Schedule Grid & Top Face-Offs
Get more from Deadline.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
