‘Southland’ Faces Budget Reduction & Cast Trims On TNT

From: deadline.com

Two years after being unveiled at NBC’s upfront presentation, cop drama Southland will once again be introduced at an upfront presentation, this time at TNT’s event tomorrow after the show was recently renewed by the cable network.

“We’re delighted that we’re still alive,” executive producer John Wells said. “So far, we’ve used up the fourth of our nine lives.”

But along with the excitement of staying on at TNT came the reality of having to adjust the series, originally developed and produced for a broadcast network, to the economics of cable. The budget of Southland is being cut by more than a third going into Season 3.

As a result, not all cast members will continue as regulars and those who remain had been asked to reduce their fees and/or the number of episodes they appear in.
Staying on as regulars are Regina King and Michael Cudlitz, who have completed their deals, and Ben McKenzie and Shawn Hatosy who are in negotiations. McKenzie, King and Cudlitz are scheduled to appear at TNT’s upfront presentation tomorrow, while Hatosy had to pull out because of personal commitment.

I wish we had more money,” Well said. ”We are hoping to find a way to have a couple of more regulars if they prefer it that way or recurring if they want to have the opportunity to also appear on other series.”

For instance, after Southland’s cancelation by NBC, series regular Kevin Alejandro landed a recurring gig on HBO’s True Blood where he was upped to a regular with the blessing of the Southland producers. He is still expected to do several episodes of the TNT drama next season. Wells also is looking to bring back in some capacity former regulars Arija Bareikis and Michael McGrady.

Tom Everett Scott started off as a regular on the show on NBC but was switched to a guest star status after the network didn’t like his character and wanted him killed. But the producers loved him and kept him alive and now they have had preliminary conversations with Scott to return for next season, possibly as a regular.

And the producers on the show themselves will take deeper cuts than the actors, said to be larger than 30%. But Wells is not complaining.

“I don’t’ want to sound upset about it,” he said. “We got to keep doing the show, and we are delighted that TNT stepped up and that have been very generous. The reality is in the big difference between how you set up to do a show off the bat on cable and how you transition a broadcast show to cable. It’s new ground.”

May 18, 2010 | Media Alerts, News & Gossip, Southland | 0 Comments | Browse Archives