TERRA NOVA Producers Guardedly Optimistic For Season 2

Terra Nova exec producers Brannon Braga and Rene Echevarria say they’re “guardedly optimistic” about the show coming back next year for a second season to be filmed in Australia, while they also share some of their plans for what Season 2 would look like.

In particular, they address the following Terra Nova rumors and questions in this interview with THR:

The show’s chances of a second season.
If moving production to Hawaii is a cost-saving option for a potential second season.
The plan for the potential second season.

While ratings have been good enough to pique the network’s interest in bringing the show back (averaging 7.8 million total viewers and a 2.6 in the adults 18-49 demographic that advertisers crave), they’ve not been great when considering the cost and initial expectations. How confident are they about FOX green-lighting a second season?:

RE: We’re guardedly optimistic; we’re hoping for good news any day. There are a lot of factors in play and a lot of things for the network to consider. We know we have a lot of people there who like the show and we have a core audience that seems to like what we’re doing. We’re hoping for good news soon.

On potentially moving the series to Hawaii in a bid to lower the cost of a second season:

RE: I don’t know where that speculation is coming from, it’s not really founded. If anything, that would be much more expensive. Australia is very aggressive in its tax abatements. In terms of keeping production there, the facilities we have in Queensland are world class. We’re invested in Australia and that’s where we would go back.
BB: We also built a town that would have to be reconstructed. It would be a major move.

On whether they are willing to make concessions in order to lower costs for a second season:

RE: We amortized cost of those sets over the cost of the first 13 episodes; they are now paid for. We paid the mortgage (laughs) and that in a sense frees up that amount of money per episode to either go on screen or absorb [costs associated with returning series how] every year, a show becomes more expensive as everyone contractually makes more money. We’d be able to hold the line on costs having amortized that, which I’m sure is a factor.

On whether the ‘major character death’ in the finale was part of a cost-cutting exercise with Season 2 in mind:

BB: We’re not looking to cut costs right now. It’s an expensive show for a first-year show. We were all pretty much on budget. Season 1 wasn’t one of those runaway productions you read about. We found a way to do the show within our current budgetary parameters. The pilot [expense] is well known, but the series came in on time and on budget. None of the conversations about renewal have been about money so far. It’s all been creative. When I say it’s not about money, but obviously ratings — it hasn’t been about, “Hey, if you can do the show for this much cheaper, let’s talk turkey.”We have said that a beloved character will meet their end, but that decision was not a financial one — it was a creative one. At a certain point in television, the only way to show that the stakes are really high is to show that anything can happen to anybody.
RE: That’s not part of the conversation right now. You hear a lot of, ‘It’s a really expensive show.’ It’s not an inexpensive show but it’s not most expensive show on television by a long shot.

On whether Season 2 is mapped out:

RE: We don’t have it all mapped out but we have pitched a take on Season 2 to the network and that’s part of the decision making process for them. It’s a creative conversation with them; it was an opening conversation, it went well, but they have some thoughts of their own and we’re eager to get in there and work it out and come up with a great Season 2. They were listening to some of the ideas and had feelings about what did and didn’t work for them. It’s the beginning a conversation.

On the show’s ratings and how DVR/time-shifted figures factor-in:

RE: It’s such a brave new world with DVR and with other platforms. One of the things you may be hearing more about is VOD. I’m not talking about iTunes or Hulu, I’m talking about people on their cable system watching a show the last five episodes of half shows on TV and that’s becoming a bigger deal. We’re getting another 700,000 viewers on VOD — we’re getting 35 percent more viewers in Live Plus 3. It’s hard for somebody who’s been knocking around the business for a while, it’s all new. Advertisers are paying attention to those numbers. We wouldn’t be having creative conversations with the studio if the numbers weren’t at a minimum threshold that makes sense for them. They wouldn’t be asking us to come in if we weren’t at a threshold that we can build on.

Season 2 tidbits:

RE: In Season 2, as we get to tell the audience about what happened on those 118 days that Taylor was alone in Terra Nova and how that all links back to his personal back story. We may get to go into that. We do have a flashback story that we’ve thought about doing this year and decided to do in Season 2.

Source: THR

An announcement on the future of Terra Nova is expected in 2012, although a decision may well be made before then with the finale ratings potentially having a large bearing. (the ratings news is that the finale was up 5% on last week’s season low to a 2.2 in the all-important adults 18-49 demo. Will it be enough? If it is, I imagine it will be by the skin of a Carnosaur’s teeth.)

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Tagged as: brannon braga, interviews, rene echevarria, terra nova