thestar.com - 10/Jan/2013

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TCA 2013: CTV announces two new shows
Network in search for its next “Flashpoint.” Greenlights Played and Satisfaction.

ERIC MCCANDLESS / ABC

Luke MacFarlane of Brothers and Sisters will star in a new comedy for CTV.

By Tony Wong Staff Reporter, Published on Thursday January 10, 2013

PASADENA, CALIF.—Phil King gets one question more often than he’d like, now that the hit television series Flashpoint has wrapped for good.

“Where’s the next Flashpoint?”

The quest for the next big cop drama is always at the back of the mind of CTV’s president of programming and sports.

“I wish I had five Flashpoints,” says King in an interview with the Star at the Television Critics Association conference in California.

CTV announced Thursday that it is developing two new series, one of which may well become the Flashpoint.

Played is an ensemble police drama that follows the activities of the Toronto-based Covert Investigations Unit (CIU), not to mixed up with Flashpoint’s Strategic Response Unit (SRU), of course. (Unless you happen to miss Flashpoint and would conveniently like to see another cop buddy show that has a neat acronym.)

Played is being developed by the same people who gave you Bomb Girls and Saving Hope and is set to begin production in Toronto in the spring. CTV has ordered 13 one-hour episodes.

“I think the premise is really interesting. There are undercover police operations that go in for a day or a week and each week it’s different and this plays on that,” says King. “I think it has a great ensemble cast. It’s a little bit different and something that I don’t think has necessarily been seen before.”

King also announced a new half-hour scripted comedy series Satisfaction starring Luke MacFarlane (Brothers and Sisters) and Stephanie Lemelin (Bones).

CTV has ordered 12 half-hour episodes in addition to the pilot shot last fall in Toronto. Production is expected to start this spring.

“It’s about a bunch of friends who think the grass is greener on the other side, and there is even some ‘bromance’ going on,” says King.

The new series won’t be cheap. Flashpoint pushed the bar for production budgets at $2.5 million per show and Played will likely cost $2 million per episode. Satisfaction will hit close to $1 million per episode, says King.

“You have to be able to compete with American television. But by bringing out these shows I just want to be able to tell producers that we are interested in great Canadian TV,” he said.