Disney-ABC’s new one-hour science-fiction series, Wizard’s First Rule, is cleared for fall 2008 in 84% of the country and all of the top 50 markets, the company said last week.
“To have reached over 84% coverage in less than six weeks is true testament to this concept, the show's creative team and the appetite for network-quality, scripted programming in broadcast syndication,” said Jed Cohen, executive vice president and general sales manager for Disney-ABC Domestic Television.
Besides its launch group, Tribune Broadcasting, Disney-ABC also cleared the show for weekend airings on stations from the CBS Television Stations Group, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Hearst-Argyle Television, Clear Channel Broadcasting, Gannett Broadcasting, Hubbard Broadcasting, Post-Newsweek Stations, Scripps Howard Broadcasting, Belo, LIN TV, Weigel Broadcasting, Sunbelt Communications, Acme Television and Barrington Broadcasting.
Wizard’s First Rule, based on the best-selling Sword of Truth series of books by Terry Goodkind, is the first hour-long adventure drama to come exclusively to syndication since Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules ruled the genre in the late 1990s.
The same team that brought Xena and Hercules to syndication is behind Wizard’s First Rule, with Spiderman’s Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert (The Grudge), Joshua Donen (The Quick and the Dead) and Ned Nalle serving as executive producers.
