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conmeo · #1 (**permalink**) 10-17-2008, 11:30 AM

The tactical unit reacts to a crisis in the CBS and CTV drama “Flashpoint.” (CBS/CTV)

On Friday “Flashpoint” becomes the first Canadian series to air simultaneously in the U.S. since “Due South” in 1994. The police drama, now being filmed in Toronto, will be shown at the same time, 10 p.m., on CBS and CTV.

At a time when television networks are cutting costs and production is increasingly moving overseas, the Canadian collaboration could be a new model for TV.

Susanne Boyce, the president of creative, content and channels for CTV, calls the arrangement a “reverse simulcast.” While Canadian networks often show American programs at the same time they premiere, the transfer of talent doesn’t often take place in the opposite direction.

Ms. Boyce said the benefits are clear. “They’re getting new content at a lesser price,” she said, “and its producers get to put more money on the screen.”

Another CTV drama may come to the U.S. next year. NBC has picked up “The Listener,” a series about a paramedic who can read people’s minds, and has tentatively scheduled it to air next summer.

What’s unusual about “Flashpoint,” said Bill Mustos, the founder of the production company Avamar, “is that, shortly after the pilot was produced and the second script was written, we were able to make a sale to both CTV and CBS in such a way that they’re both involved in a very hands-on way in the creation and production of the series.”

CTV, the largest privately owned television network in Canada, developed the script and commissioned the pilot for the drama, then known as “Sniper.” Last fall, after the pilot was produced but before CTV made a series commitment, the producers started talking to CBS about a collaboration.

The United States represents the largest English language market for television production, noted Anne Marie La Traverse, the founder of the production company Pink Sky. “What we really want, and what’s most exciting for us, is the idea of having many more millions of people watching our show,” she said.

The show, set in Toronto, makes no attempt to act as a stand-in for an American city. “It’s a fresh location that their dramatic series haven’t covered yet,” Mr. Mustos said. On television viewers “have been to New York many times, and Miami and Las Vegas and other cities, but this was a fresh locale.”

Still, he said, “you’re not going to see a show that is screaming ‘Canada.’ It’s a show in a big sophisticated urban city where crises take place. The stories we’re trying to tell are universal stories.”

In a review for The Buffalo News, Alan Pergament says the biggest clues that the series is from Canada come when “one of the officers is referred to as a ‘constable’ and an actor delivers the Canadian pronunciation of ‘process.’” Word pronunciations shouldn’t be a factor for viewers.

Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern, the husband-and-wife team who created the show, were dreaming up the finale this week. With filming scheduled to wrap on August 23, the episodes are being produced almost as soon as they are written. CBS leaned on the producers to “make the show on an accelerated basis,” Mr. Mustos said, because the network wanted to to debut it during the summer.

Every hour of “Flashpoint” includes a self-contained story. But they all relate back to a larger point. “Each episode has the loose theme of the cost of human heroism,” Ms. Morgenstern said.

The episode show a crisis in progress — like a shootout in a shopping mall or a suicidal person on a rooftop — and, through the eyes of the quick reaction force, analyze why and how it is taking place.

With an existing stable of crime procedurals, CBS is a natural fit for the show. Still, there’s good reason to be skeptical: when CBS imported “Due South” in 1994, CBS canceled it after one season, citing low ratings, but the show remained a big success in Canada.

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