Clifton Shores now airing in the US

Quinton van der Burgh and Destiny Moniz

"Licensing a finished show to a US network is a massive coup for a man who only got involved in the entertainment industry a few short years ago with a dream to show off SA as a world-class tourist destination," says publicist Melinda Shaw of Shaw Media. On Sunday nights across America a potential audience of 80 million households that subscribe to TV Guide Network can now watch The Shores, as the series has been renamed for the US market.

While SA viewers have been watching Destiny, Katy, Kathy and Jamillette try to fit into the landscape and lifestyle so familiar to us, American viewers will share the girls' discovery of an exotic new territory, unfamiliar accents and foreign-sounding names every week.

Says Allen Shapiro, chairman of TGVN, "The Shores complements our existing lineup of reality programming... the look into the glamorous lifestyles of the rich and beautiful in other parts of the world will surely entice our viewers."

Back-to-back episodes

According to Van der Burgh two episodes are screened back-to-back every week in the US, bringing the US season finale very close to the South African one.

"Confirming the US deal was our first goal, and we are very proud to have achieved that," he says. "We had a fantastic start in South Africa on the youth-focused channel Vuzu TV - we already have over 18 300 Facebook Likes nine weeks in - and this new partnership with TV Guide Network is set to be a great springboard to the rest of the world."

Last week, Van der Burgh's US distribution partner, MarVista, showcased the series at the international entertainment content market Mipcom in Cannes, France. MarVista CEO Fernando Szew believes that the show's recipe of showing Americans their own people experiencing extravagant lifestyles in exotic foreign climes is a winner. Says Szew, "It has all the elements to drive viewer engagement!"

Further distribution on the cards

If the interest shown at Mipcom is anything to go by, The Shores may soon end up on small screens across Europe, South America, India and China, says Van der Burgh, who is the executive producer and also features as the billionaire boss in the series. "A lot was dependent on us getting US distribution, so now that this has happened, we expect faster movement in licensing the show elsewhere."

"It is almost impossible to break into the US TV market with a finished show," explains the Witbank-born coal-mining magnate-turned-TV producer. "The major networks prefer to be involved in the production process from start to finish so that it can be an original production - a finished show like Clifton Shores has a very hard time even when the network heads are as impressed with the concept and the production values as they've been."

Van der Burgh has confirmed that a follow-up season is a distinct possibility. He has the concept ready to go, and reveals that it is likely to include a broader international footprint, with additional filming possible in Europe and Dubai. He hopes to have news soon as filming could commence early in 2013.

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