‘Sullivan’s Crossing’ Creator Roma Roth On Its Appeal & Price Tag: “You Need To Make A Show That Doesn’t Put A Network At Risk”
12.10.2023 - 18:21
/ deadline.com
The decision to pick up Sullivan’s Crossing wasn’t a huge departure for the CW; romantic, field-good series like Hart of Dixie, Life Unexpected and Everwood have long been hallmarks of the network. (And it doesn’t hurt that its two stars, One Tree Hill‘s Chad Michael Murray and Gilmore Girls‘ Scott Patterson, are longtime fan favorites).
Still, the show was immediately labeled as a cheap import because it first launched in Canada in March, where it became CTV’s highest-rated drama launch on over two years. It is produced by Reel World Management in association with CTV with Fremantle as global distributor. It’s from Roma Roth and Christopher E. Perry, the team behind Netflix’s Virgin River.
“We have to be entrepreneurial. We can’t just write a $10 million per-episode check for a show with some dragons in it,” President Brad Schwartz said during the upfronts in May. He added the show wasn’t any less expensive than licensing a new series from a third-party studio. “I don’t differentiate homegrown from acquired. We’ve picked shows we think have a chance to do well. … Every single show we acquire, we do because we believe in it, and we do a deal [with the producers] to be involved in creatively going forward.”
The show’s launch Oct. 4 was underwhelming: only 494,000 total viewers in L+SD. But if the runaway success of Virgin River on Netflix — another show based on Carr’s novel — is any indication, the only way is up for Sullivan’s Crossing, which follows a star neurosurgeon (Morgan Kohan) who returns to her bucolic home after a scandal rocks her world in Boston.
Here, showrunner Roth talks about the show’s budget, why she thought Sullivan’s Crossing would work, and why TV execs has sometimes been too quick to write off
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