After its acquisition by RAI for primetime in Italy, the North American series “Hudson & Rex,” starring John Reardon, has struck further major territory deals in Europe, including sales to Germany and France, distributor Beta Film revealed Saturday as content market Mipcom prepared to roll.
The show has been acquired by TNT Serie in Germany, France Televisions in France (via Mediawan Rights), CLT UFA in the Netherlands, and NBC Universal for Eastern Europe and Africa. Other territories taking the show include Lithuania (LRT), Latvia (LTV), Puerto Rico (Telemundo), Uruguay (Channel 12), and throughout Latin America (Belleville Group). A number of high-profile deals in Spain, U.K. and Scandinavia are in advanced or final negations.
Set in St. John’s, Newfoundland, “Hudson & Rex” is an action-packed police procedural drama focused on the partnership between a dedicated detective and his extraordinary former K9 dog. Starring Reardon (“The Killing,” “Van Helsing”) as detective Charlie Hudson, and Mayko Nguyen (“Cracked,” “Killjoys”) as his partner Dr. Sarah Truong, as well as German Shepherd Diesel vom Burgimwald as Rex, this is the first English-language adaptation of the highly successful European format, “Rex, a Cop’s Best Friend.”
The series debuted on CityTV in March and was quickly renewed for a second season, which is currently being produced. More than 2.5 million viewers tuned into the show’s first six episodes, making it the network’s highest-rated drama since 2015. “Hudson & Rex” is produced by Shaftesbury, Pope Productions and Beta Film for Rogers Media/Citytv, with 32 one-hour episodes produced to date.