PASADENA, CA–Mark Pedowitz, president of The CW, just keeps raiding Canada for content. In TV terms, The CW could stand for The Canadian Warehouse.
Pedowitz announced Wednesday at press tour that Seed, the Halifax-based comedy airing in Canada on City, will enjoy a summer run on his network. Pedowitz sees it as a good summer fit with his revival of Whose Line?, which was a modest hit last summer.
Pedowitz said Seed was an eOne acquisition and that it might be edited slightly for U.S. television. “It performed quite well in Canada,” he told critics at press tour, which isn’t exactly true, although Rogers had enough faith in the Mark Farrell/Joseph Raso-produced comedy to order a second season.
Pedowitz told critics last press tour he was looking to ramp up the funny on his network. Perhaps the folks behind Package Deal should hustle him a reel.
What sold Pedowitz on Seed? He just thought it was funny. “It has this very nebbish-y guy (played by Toronto-born Adam Korson) who’s a slacker who finds out–it’s been done before–he’s the father of many children from his past experiences at a sperm back.”
A CW deal to acquire Seed was announced last September. Pedowitz said the summer run of the similarly-themed Vince Vaughan film, Delivery Man was not a factor in adding Seed to his schedule.
One strange fact: The CW’s digital portal is called Seed; Pedowitz says he’s sticking to that name despite any possible confusion with the Canadian series.
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One show featured on The CW Seed is the Canadian web series Backpackers, which features Dillon Casey (soon to be seen in Global’s medical drama Remedy).Pedowitz says he’s looking at Backpackers, along with other Seed fare, as possible TV series projects.
Bell has the rights to Backpackers in Canada and have sat on it for months. There are rumblings the Shaftesbury-backed web series may finally get a Canadian window the end of this month.
Coming in March to The CW is The 100, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi drama. It’s shot in Vancouver and stars Marie Avgeropoulos from Thunder Bay, Ont. She previously had a role on the short-lived CW series The Cult (also a Vancouver shoot).
The CW previously acquired the Canadian series The L.A. Complex. Other CW shows either shot in Canada or starring Canadians: Reign (featuring Anne of Green Gables sweetheart Meagan Follows), Whose Line Is It Anyway? (improv aces Colin Mochrie and Ryan Styles both claim Canadian heritage) Arrow and The Tomorrow People (both shot in Vancouver and starring two lads from Toronto, the Amell boys), Toronto-lensed Beauty and the Beast (starring Vancouver’s Kristin Kreuk) and Supernatural, in production a decade in Vancouver.
Asked how long Supernatural could run, Pedowitz replied, “as long as I’m here and those numbers still hold, God bless ’em. It can go as long as it wants.” Good news for Vancouver crews.
