Canada’s chance may have come.

CBS’ acquisition of Flashpoint and NBC’s scooping The Listener will be looked back upon as either foreordained or simply fortuitous timing during the Hollywood writers strike.

But the way the Canadian producers of these homegrown drama series tell it, the U.S. network pickups were less about luck and timing than very deliberate actions, not least by CTV in developing both series as first-time pilots, starting in 2005.

‘It is a form of R&D. We had a pilot [originally entitled Sniper] that was quite successful. But we also worked on developing the franchise of the series and really trying to find a reliable structure for the audience,’ says Anne Marie La Traverse of prodco Pink Sky Entertainment. She recalls painstaking efforts to get the pilot ready for primetime through seemingly endless drafts and tinkering.

For example, in September 2007, La Traverse (former SVP TV production at Alliance Atlantis) and coproducer Bill Mustos of Avamar Entertainment (and CTV’s former SVP of dramatic programming) gauged the market and decided to retool Flashpoint from a serialized drama to an episodic series. It tells the story of cops who get into the minds of criminals to defuse crises, and stars Canucks Enrico Colantoni (Veronica Mars), Hugh Dillon (Durham County) and David Paetkau (Whistler).

Meanwhile, Christina Jennings, chair and co-CEO of Shaftesbury Films, which produced and sold NBC on The Listener, says she, too, had the luxury of time and financial backing from CTV to perfect her drama for primetime.

‘[CTVglobemedia head Ivan Fecan] was clear that ordering 13 hours out of the gate wasn’t as smart as producing a pilot that could be tested,’ Jennings says.

So, by the time Mustos and La Traverse and Jennings flew down to pitch drama-starved U.S. nets on their projects during the WGA strike late last year, they had more than just two-page pitch documents in hand.

‘It has never been possible in this country until this year,’ Mustos says. ‘It’s been invaluable to have CTV help produce, hone and refine a pilot, and be in the position to go out to the marketplace with a show that has a very clear vision of what it is. That’s what CBS responded to.’

For her part, Jennings says her company knew it had substantial interest in The Listener from the peacock network.

‘NBC came back in five days and made an offer,’ Jennings says. Initially, she says, NBC Universal was eyeing the long-running Shaftesbury series ReGenesis, but quickly switched over to the pilot for The Listener, about a paramedic (Craig Olejnik from In God’s Country) with telepathic powers.

CBS similarly jumped at Flashpoint. No sooner had Mustos and La Traverse pitched the drama at a Dec. 11 meeting led by CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler than they received a phone call on their return to Toronto expressing serious interest.

‘It happened in a very short period of time,’ Mustos notes.

The consensus is that the WGA strike did not spawn the Canadian drama sales, but rather accelerated a process whereby U.S. networks are increasingly stepping outside their comfort zones to find fresh ideas and financing for dramas.

In other recent developments, ABC bought the CBC/Sphère Média Plus half-hour sitcom Sophie for its cable specialty ABC Family, and the net is apparently considering the CBC/White Pine Pictures drama The Border, which CBS took a hard look at before passing.

‘There’s no question the ground has shifted. It has nothing to do with the strike. The networks will continue to make some product that is 100% their own. But some will be made with partners they trust,’ Jennings says.

Shaftesbury was pushing at an open door at NBC, as co-chair Ben Silverman and EVP Teri Weinberg (both recently coming over from prodco/distrib Reveille) continue to make more straight-to-series orders, and bankroll fewer expensive pilots of their own.

‘This deal is another example of us reaching out to the international community to find innovative and interesting programming,’ Weinberg explains, before adding that The Listener ‘fits squarely in our brand.’

Susanne Boyce, CTV president, creative, content and channels, argues that the Canadian broadcast sector has moved from a time when domestic drama production was an obligation to where collaboration with U.S. nets is today both possible and welcome.

‘This is a big chance, in a great way. Just having confidence to do things [like this] is exciting.’