Channel 4 sitcom Catastrophe set to become a global hit
Channel 4 sitcom Catastrophe looks set to become a global hit.
The comedy, which is written by and stars Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney, has been bought by TV stations from around the world. The show follows an Irish woman and an American man who make 'a bloody mess' as they struggle to fall in love in London.
Broadcast rights for the show, which launched in the UK in January, have now been bought by TV networks in the USA, Norway, Belgium, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, New Zealand, Iceland, The Netherlands, Finland and Luxembourg.
The stations will show the first two series, a total of twelve episodes. The second six-part series is currently in production, and is expected to be shown on Channel 4 this autumn.
The sales news has been announced as the show becomes available to US residents on Amazon Prime Instant Video today (the series will also be shown on Prime Instant Video in the UK later this year). It follows a marketing move in which Amazon made the pilot episode available to a US audience via its Facebook page, with the video being watched over three million times during the 48 hour period it was on there.
Following the critical acclaim it received in Britain, Catastrophe has also now won praise from American media. Yahoo TV called the show "one of the smartest, most charming and funny shows you're likely to see all year" whilst Entertainment Weekly noted the show was "hilarious", with Horgan and Delaney "playing the characters off each other to perfection. The result may turn out to be the worst - by which we mean the best - new comedy of the year."
Other global buyers now include subscription video streaming service Shomi in Canada, Sky in New Zealand, Channel 2 in Iceland and AMC Networks for the Sundance Channel in Benelux. In Scandinavia all of the public broadcasters (SVT, DR, YLE and NRK) have picked up the series with deals in further major territories expected to be announced soon.
In the below video Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney introduce the show: