In the first Canadian drama sale to a U.S. network in 14 years, CBS has bought a made-in-Canada cop series for its primetime schedule.

CBS Paramount Network Television on Tuesday said it has acquired 13 episodes of Flashpoint, a CTV drama set for production in April before it airs on both CBS and CTV this summer.

‘The writers room is all Canadian, It’s Canadian produced. There’s no WGA issues. And this is the first time that a Canadian-developed original series has aired on a big-four network since Due South,’ said Susanne Boyce, president of creative, content and channels at CTV, on Tuesday.

Flashpoint was originally developed as a police drama by co-creators and writers Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern beginning in 2005, with financing from CTV’s benefits package following its takeover by BCE. It has previously been known as Sniper and, during its pilot phase, Critical Incident.

The writing duo brought the project to Anne Marie La Traverse’s Pink Sky Entertainment, which produced the pilot in July 2007. Next on board the project was former CTV programming executive Bill Mustos, who founded Avamar Entertainment last year.

CTV greenlit a first season of Flashpoint in December. But the deal with CBS was sealed by Peter Sussman, who coproduced the lucrative CSI franchise with CBS and Jerry Bruckheimer while at Alliance Atlantis.

Sussman has apparently repaid CBS by bringing it a strike-proof series the drama-starved network can plug into its primetime schedule in place of reality TV series and reruns during the current Hollywood labor strife.

‘This is not a show for the American marketplace. It’s made for the Canadian marketplace,’ said Maureen Parker, executive director of the Writers Guild of Canada, on Tuesday, eager to convey that Canadian writers are not breaching WGA strike rules as Flashpoint shows up on the CBS schedule.

Terms of the deal between CTV, CBS and the Flashpoint producers were not disclosed. But the U.S. network is essentially coming on board the Canadian project at the financing stage, where its financial exposure can be limited.

The CTV drama has an all-Canadian cast, led by Enrico Colantoni (ZOS: Zone of Seperation), Hugh Dillon (Durham County) and David Paetkau (Whistler). The trio play hardened cops on a special tactical team that puts an end to hostage and bomb incidents or attempted suicides, for example, by getting into the minds of suspects to defuse a crisis.

The Flashpoint sale caps off a busy NATPE for Canadian producers as they similarly look to fill primetime gaps for U.S. networks.

British distributor Fireworks International is showcasing the CBC’s The Border for U.S. networks.

Peter Raymont, who is executive producing the border patrol drama with White Pines Pictures, said the short list for his series is down to CBS and ABC, with USA Network and Turner Broadcasting also in the running.

‘Those four networks are seriously considering it. They haven’t turned it down. We’re also close to signing deals for Germany and Australia and Belgium,’ Raymont reported from Las Vegas.

Executives at Toronto-based Shaftesbury Films, who are shopping Murdoch Mysteries and Life With Derek stateside, report they are within days of a deal with a major U.S. network.

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This story has been corrected. Peter Sussman closed the deal with CBS but did not pitch it, as originally reported.