Any remaining skepticism about U.S. network TV demand for Canadian dramas, either as direct orders or coproductions, should be dispelled by Fox International Channels executive Sharon Tal Yguado.

‘Canada is at the point where it can produce an American-style series, at a lower price,’ says Tal, VP of content development at FIC, which last year acquired the international cable and satellite TV rights to Shaftesbury Films’ The Listener after NBC snagged the U.S. rights.

‘I know, as a co-creator, NBC is happy with the show,’ Tal adds of the drama about a telepathic paramedic, which FIC will debut in early March across its 92 channels in Europe, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East.

Sure, the Hollywood writers strike spurred the pickups of Flashpoint and The Listener by CBS and NBC, respectively. But Tal insists that Flashpoint becoming a rookie hit for CBS has helped seal the deal for U.S. networks eyeing a new drama model that includes coproductions with foreign producers, including Canadians.

‘The strike was just one variable. You have broadcasters struggling with lower ratings and ad revenues. Broadcasters are going through changes, and they’re looking for cost-efficient ways to maintain programming slates,’ she explained while in Toronto in late November for an international media blitz for The Listener, and to shoot on-air promos for FIC stations.

Tal worked in TV development in Israel and Italy before joining FIC in New York City, so she knows the mechanics of global development and coproductions that have long sustained Canadian and European producers.

A year ago, as she stepped into a her new posting in Los Angeles to drum up prebuys and coproductions for FIC, she caught wind that the international cable and satellite TV rights to The Listener were up for grabs.

She saw NBC was fully committed to the Canadian drama, which was being sold outside North America by ShineReveille International.

So Tal arranged a meeting with Shaftesbury’s Christina Jennings and Shane Kinnear at the Avalon Hotel in Beverly Hills.

Tal says The Listener stirred her interest because it mixes two successful TV formats – crime and medicine – to hit U.S. primetime’s sweet spot.

‘CSI is the number-one primetime series, and Grey’s Anatomy is number two. And The Listener combines crime and medicine, but features a young and sexy cast,’ she explains.

Other crime and medical series on U.S. networks obsessed with ever-weirder cops and doctors chasing serial killers appeal more to an older, serious audience, Tal adds. But The Listener targets a younger demo, and one wide enough to embrace her network’s varied channels worldwide, which include Fox-branded crime, horror, lifestyle and National Geographic Channel stations.

What’s more, The Listener has a sci-fi, paranormal element. The main character Toby Logan, played by Craig Olejnik, is a young paramedic with the power to hear people’s thoughts.

But Tal marvels that Toby doesn’t have normal paranormal abilities typical of earlier U.S. dramas like The X-Files or Heroes.

The twentysomething paramedic instead must come to terms with his telepathic powers before he can use them to heal what’s broken in the lives of people he treats.

Shaftesbury’s Jennings recalls Tal listened in rapt attention as she explained Toby’s journey during their Avalon Hotel pitch.

‘For Toby, his telepathy is either a gift or a curse. He’s a 25-year-old average guy, a paramedic, and a huge part of him wishes [his telepathy] went away,’ Jennings explained at the Fox pitch.

During the series pilot, Toby can no longer deny his telepathy when occasional murmuring voices grow to a full-blown cry for help, which before long draws him to a crime scene and into a life of a telepathic sleuth.

Tal insists Jennings came to the pitch with Toby’s character arc fully drawn out and explained.

‘I was impressed. [Jennings] came and told me about the series. She came with the journey. It was all in her mind. She had it all figured out,’ the Fox exec recalls.

Once on board, coproduction partners CTV, NBC, FIC and Shaftesbury restructured and reshot some scenes.

But Jennings insists the four partners achieved unexpected unity on the series’ creative direction.

And with Global Television and NBC coproducing the Howie Mandel-starring comedy Howie Do It, and ABC picking up the U.S. rights to Galafilm’s CBC comedy pilot 18 to Life, it appears certain there’s more room for additional U.S. orders for Canadian dramas coproduced with foreign partners, including the Americans.

The Americans are as likely to acquire remake rights or adaptations of international series, as with 20th Century Fox and CBC’s Little Mosque on the Prairie (WestWind Pictures). But the trend towards collaboration with Canadians as the U.S. networks look for the next best sure thing, at an affordable price, is unstoppable.