CanWest hit the jackpot last season with Heroes. The key now is finding the next big hero.
Fifteen new acquisitions from U.S. networks will grace the airwaves on Global and E! (the updated CH) next season, it was announced yesterday by CanWest Media Works.
"This is all a big blend of art and science -- if it were all science, the accountants would have figured it out long ago," said Barbara Williams, CanWest's senior v-p of programming.
"It is the art piece of it that is the fun part for a programmer. But gosh, we use all the science we can."
After locking up big-buzz shows such as Heroes last year, Prison Break the year before that, and House the year before that, Williams was asked which show she thinks has breakout-hit potential for 2007-08.
"I'm going to hedge my bets a little bit in my answer, because there are a few really strong possibilities," Williams said.
"We're really excited about Journeyman (starring Kevin McKidd of Rome), which will be Monday nights at 10 p.m., coming out of a big, strong lineup for us with Prison Break and Heroes. It's about life travelling, not just time travelling -- it's very cool.
"Tuesday night, the Latin family epic Cane with Jimmy Smits is spectacular, and we'll be able to put that at 10 p.m., coming out of House. As a programmer, you never want to let your big audience slip away on you. Cane is a lush, gorgeous show.
"And Wednesday at 10 is Life (starring Damian Lewis from Band of Brothers), and that may be the one. It's a great, strong detective show, and it delivers on that front, but it looks and sounds so different, with a quiet intensity to it. It has a great procedural strength, but it also has a couple of big arcs to the whole story that I think are fascinating."
Other new dramas purchased by CanWest include: The new interpretation of Bionic Woman starring Michelle Ryan; Cashmere Mafia starring Lucy Liu; Canterbury's Law starring Julianna Margulies; In Plain Sight starring Mary McCormack; Women's Murder Club starring Angie Harmon; New Amsterdam starring Nikolaj Waldau; K-Ville starring Cole Hauser; Life is Wild starring Leah Pipes; and Swingtown starring Canadian Molly Parker.
The new comedies are: Back To You starring Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton; and Viva Laughlin starring Lloyd Owen and Melanie Griffith.
There also is a new reality show on the CanWest docket, Kid Nation, in which 40 kids aged 8 to 15 will have 40 days to build a new world in a ghost town that went belly-up in the 19th century.
"The actual negotiation and buying intensified just over the past couple of days," Williams said. "It all sort of happens pretty quickly at the end.
"You start to understand where the U.S. networks have put their biggest commitment and where they think their best opportunities are. So by the time you screen the shows yourself, you have a lot of background."
