Hercules and Xena : Conquer the World

Much has been written about how movies have become the dominion of big-budget action and science-fiction fare--in part because stories short on dialogue and long on thrills play especially well overseas.

Often overlooked, however, is how television has paralleled this trend, with executives saying the viability of one-hour drama series now depends to a significant degree on their appeal abroad--where action and sci-fi often travel better than softer, character-driven programs.

“The shows wouldn’t get made unless we felt there was a very strong international component,” said Universal Television Group Chairman Greg Meidel, whose company produces the hit syndicated tandem “Hercules, the Legendary Journeys” and “Xena: Warrior Princess.” “It’s very similar to the motion picture business. The international component is critical. . . . It really helps to cover an enormous amount of our risk.”

That risk arises from the difference between what a network pays for the right to televise a show and the cost of producing it. Network fees to production companies have remained constant, around $1 million per hour, while costs have soared to $1.6 million or more for an episode of many popular dramas.

Sources say CBS’ cop show “Nash Bridges,” starring Don Johnson, spends more than $2 million per episode, as did Fox’s sci-fi series “Space: Above and Beyond,” which the network canceled after one year.

As a result, studios increasingly count on international sales to recoup those deficits, heightening the pressure to develop shows attractive to major markets like Germany and the United Kingdom.

Greater competition in Europe, Latin America and Asia, meanwhile, thanks to new broadcast and cable networks, has led to higher prices, with top shows generating perhaps twice as much as they did five years ago.

CBS’ new Steven Bochco police drama, “Brooklyn South,” is already considered an international hit, reportedly exceeding the $800,000-per-episode gross that the producer’s “NYPD Blue” and “Murder One” generated.

Those figures roughly double the average sales on a new series, though industry sources say programs with concepts that tickle the fancy of overseas program buyers now frequently garner between $500,000 and $650,000 per episode internationally. Certain series can thus approach a profit, or at least a break-even position, while still in their early run on a U.S. network, as opposed to absorbing weekly production deficits of $250,000 or more on the chance they’ll play for years and be sold into syndication--a feat few series achieve.

*

The popularity of fantasy series like “Hercules” and “Xena” helped awaken the industry to the potential of such programs internationally, prompting Universal to try to further mine that terrain with “Timecop,” a new ABC series based on the sci-fi movie that starred Jean-Claude Van Damme. The studio, in fact, just announced plans to launch its own networks overseas, using those shows and other series in its library as programming.

Some popular series with more peculiar sensibilities, meanwhile, don’t translate as well. Just as “Seinfeld” was recently canceled in Germany, its humor lost on that audience, many family shows, such as CBS’ “Promised Land,” have run into roadblocks overseas.

“What doesn’t work is the more quirky shows, a la ‘Northern Exposure’ or ‘Picket Fences,’ ” Meidel said.

Studio officials maintain that the pressure to create shows with the potential to generate big returns overseas has yet to exert major influence over the kind of programs that get made but acknowledge the day may be coming.

“You do the math, and studios are taking deficits on dramas the likes of which they never had to previously,” said Twentieth Century Fox Television President Sandy Grushow. “It hasn’t up till now, but going forward it certainly will help inform [the creative process]. . . . You have to be aware of it. It was a part of our strategic plan to make sure that the big hours we’re doing have universal appeal.”

Most program suppliers, in fact, say they are more mindful now of a show’s worldwide prospects even at the concept level.

“Going into development season, we are looking and saying, ‘What’s the next franchise, action-oriented show for us?’ ” said Eric Tannenbaum, president of Columbia TriStar Television.

With shows less likely to become such a franchise, the focus shifts to containing costs. Columbia will shoot “Dawson’s Creek”--a coming-of-age drama that will air on the WB network--in North Carolina, just as many series film in Vancouver to lower production expenses.

“There’s always a place for smart relationship shows if they are well executed, but you have to do those kind of shows for a price,” Tannenbaum said.

Another reason certain programs don’t sell well abroad is a growing preference for home-grown product. Most countries tend to favor local productions and can shoot game shows or sitcoms relatively cheaply. By contrast, the action sequences and special effects in shows such as “Walker, Texas Ranger” or “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” can’t easily be replicated.

“You can see the money that Americans are putting in the shows on the screen,” noted CBS Broadcast International President Rainer Siek. “That’s something a lot of the smaller markets can’t afford.”

*

The appetite for such programming has helped keep series alive that would have died otherwise, among them “Baywatch”--a show NBC canceled that went on to become a global hit.

More recently, “Due South,” featuring a Chicago cop and Canadian Mountie, and “Sliders,” in which a team of explorers “slide” between universes, have found new life after being dropped by CBS and Fox, respectively.

Airing in more than 60 countries, “Due South” will be sold directly to local stations, as is “Baywatch,” while “Sliders” will begin running next year on cable’s Sci-Fi Channel. Although a cable network can’t afford to pay as much as Fox did, Universal is depending on overseas sales and a reduced budget to keep the show economically viable.

In similar fashion, the producers of the sci-fi series “Dark Skies” have sought to revive the show after NBC dropped it last spring, citing its cult following in the United States and abroad.

“Somebody will get a very good deal out of it in the U.S., because they don’t have to pay the freight for the whole thing,” said Bryce Zabel, the program’s co-creator.

Germany remains the biggest market for American programs, but studios are already looking toward Asia and Eastern Europe--developing regions with massive populations--for future revenue growth.

Despite such international opportunities, executives say their primary focus remains the lure of creating long-running franchises that can eventually garner huge returns through the sale of rerun rights in the United States. Though dramas can’t equal the money paid for sitcoms, “ER” commanded more than $1 million an hour (well over $100 million total) from the Turner cable networks, while “The X-Files” and “NYPD Blue” each fetched considerable sums from Fox’s fX channel, which begins repeating both shows later this month.

According to Grushow, whose division produces “The X-Files,” one major hit “will pay for all this folly, and then some.”