TNT acquires ABC drama 'Castle'

TNT has acquired rights to the ABC series "Castle," the cable network announced Wednesday. Heading into its fourth season, "Castle" will join the TNT sked in the summer of 2012 in primetime. The deal also allows TNT to put the series, which stars Nathan Fillion as a detective," on digital platforms as part of the TV Everywhere intiative. In addition, sources say Disney-ABC Domestic Television is close to landing a second deal that would put "Castle" on local stations for weekend runs. "With the addition of 'Castle,' TNT continues to build a collection of hit shows that will perfectly complement our high-profile original series," said Michael Wright, executive VP, head of programming for TNT, TBS and TCM. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but "Castle" likely cost as much as $1.5 million. That's less than bigger hits TNT has wrangled in recent years including CBS series "Hawaii Five-0" and "The Mentalist," each of which fetched north of $2 million per episode. A second deal with a station group--perhaps ABC's own O&Os--would bring in additional coin, though still not on par with what "Hawaii" earned. But that still represents a significant deal for ABC, which in recent years has had few procedurals like "Castle" on its schedule. The genre tends to be the most valuable type of hourlong episodes in syndication given its episodes have self-contained storylines. Produced by ABC Studios, "Castle" executive producers are Andrew Marlowe, Rob Bowman, David Amann, Laurie Zaks and Armyan Bernstein.

Contact Andrew Wallenstein at andrew.wallenstein@variety.com

Source: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118038256?categoryid=4076&cs=1&cmpid=RSS%7CNews%7CLatestNews

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