WBDTD Sells ‘The Closer,’ ‘Trace’

Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution has cleared its off-TNT drama The Closer in 85% of the country in two-year deals, said Ken Werner, president, WBDTD.

The Closer, basic cable’s highest-rated program, will premiere on TV stations in fall 2010 and is sold through 2012. The show is sold to the Fox Television Stations in 16 markets, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. It’s also been cleared with the following groups: CBS, Raycom, Capitol Broadcasting, Local TV, Hearst-Argyle Television, Tribune, Young, LIN TV, Turner, Newport Television, Weigel Broadcasting, Post-Newsweek Stations, Four Points Media Group, Meredith, Cox Television, Grant Television, Gannett Broadcasting, McKinnon Broadcasting, Freedom Communications, ComCorp, Bonten Media Group, Barrington Broadcasting Group, Hubbard Broadcasting and ACME Television.

The studio also has sold the third cycle of its off-CBS drama, Without a Trace, in 85% of the country, including on the CBS TV stations, through 2012. The show has been renewed on the CBS TV Stations in 18 markets, including in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

The show also has been sold to stations from the Sinclair Broadcast Group, Tribune Broadcasting, Raycom, Meredith, Newport Television, Post-Newsweek Stations, Four Points Media Group, Media General, Belo, Freedom Communications, New Vision Television, Barrington Broadcasting Group, Bonten Media Group, McKinnon Broadcasting, Dispatch Broadcast Group, Weigel Broadcasting, Journal Broadcast Group, Allbritton Communications, Grey Television, ACME Television and Hearst-Argyle Television, among others.

Without a Trace is in its seventh season on CBS.

Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.