World Screen Podcast World Screen

Currently in its tenth season, NCIS ranks as TV’s most-watched drama series, with an average audience of 21.48 million viewers. It was announced last month that CBS has renewed the show for its 11th season, with Mark Harmon again signed on to lead the cast as Special Agent Jethro Gibbs. Starring alongside Harmon is Michael Weatherly, whose role as Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo started on the series JAG in 2003 and carried over to NCIS. Showrunner and executive producer Gary Glasberg joined the series in season seven.

Glasberg and Weatherly recently sat down with World Screen’s Anna Carugati to discuss the show. In this video interview, Weatherly shares his secrets for preparing a scene, while Glasberg discusses his approach to working within a procedural format.

Since the 1980s, Tom Fontana has been changing television. The medical drama St. Elsewhere, one of the first ensemble series, demystified the concept that doctors are infallible. Oz, with its gritty depiction of prison life and its flawed characters, was HBO’s first original series. Borgia and Copper, Fontana’s current shows, represent new models of international co-production.

In this video interview, Fontana talks about his experiences with working on Oz and Borgia. He also discusses the benefits and challenges of working with international partners.

Last year, when Gaumont, the world’s oldest film company, decided to extend its venerable brand name to the production and distribution of television content, it enlisted former NBC executive Katie O’Connell to lead those efforts.

As the CEO of Gaumont International Television (GIT) in Los Angeles, O’Connell oversees a portfolio of highly anticipated projects, among them the NBC midseason replacement Hannibal. The upcoming series, starring Mads Mikkelsen as Dr. Hannibal Lecter and Hugh Dancy as FBI profiler Will Graham, was developed for television by Bryan Fuller, just one of several top-notch creatives that GIT has partnered with: Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, writers of Skyfall, have been tapped to pen the new series Barbarella, which is being co-produced with Canal+. And Eli Roth is behind the GIT-produced Hemlock Grove, which is slated to make its debut on Netflix this April.

Producing brand-defining content with universal themes is a key mandate at GIT, says O’Connell, who recently spoke with World Screen about the company’s approach to developing scripted projects for the global market.

The success of the Israeli drama Prisoners of War has helped solidify Keshet International’s place in the global spotlight. Its U.S. adaptation, Homeland on Showtime, has won numerous awards as well as much audience and critical acclaim, and the format and finished version have sold widely the world over. Keshet International has also been prosperous in selling non-scripted formats, including the dating show Girlfri3nds.

The company, which has a central headquarters in Tel Aviv, has set its sights on expanding its global presence. A few months back it announced the establishment of a U.K. office, coming alongside enhanced efforts to drive productions in the U.S.

Alon Shtruzman, the managing director of Keshet International, sat down with World Screen to discuss the company’s growth as well as its prowess in the scripted-formats space. Shtruzman also tells us about what factors have gone into making Israel a hotbed of creativity.

Discovery Networks has quite an active business across Latin America as well as in the U.S. Hispanic market. Among the entertainment networks operating under the Discovery umbrella in Latin America are the flagship Discovery Channel, Discovery Home & Health, Animal Planet and TLC and TLC HD. Meanwhile, Discovery en Español and Discovery Familia have established a strong presence in the U.S. Hispanic market.

Leading the efforts in these two key arenas is Henry Martínez, the president and managing director of Discovery Networks Latin America/U.S. Hispanic. In this video interview, Martínez talks to World Screen about the strength of the U.S. Hispanic market and the company’s many successes in Brazil, among other topics.

ZDF and ZDF Enterprises regularly work together on factual co-productions with some of the most distinguished documentary broadcasters and producers in the world. ZDF Enterprises has been particularly successful with projects relating to contemporary history, in which turning points of the 20th century are depicted in dramatic fashion. Military history has certainly been a bright spot, but the company also regularly engages in co-productions touching on ancient history and archaeology, science and technology, and wildlife and nature.

Kristina Hollstein, the director of documentary co-productions and development at ZDF Enterprises, recently sat down with World Screen to discuss the current crop of projects that are in the works. She also tells us about some of the greatest challenges in putting together a co-production nowadays and about what ZDF Enterprises can offer as a partner that is unique.