The cast of the first season of Law & Order, from left, Richard Brooks, Paul Sorvino, Chris Noth and Michael Moriarty. Linda A Vanoff / NBC / NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
The cast of the first season of Law & Order, from left, Richard Brooks, Paul Sorvino, Chris Noth and Michael Moriarty. Linda A Vanoff / NBC / NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Spin-offs galore: How many criminal-justice shows are too many?



In TV land, once you’ve created a cash cow, the next question is a no-brainer: How can we milk it for all it’s worth? Soon the spin-offs, prequels and sequels are flying out the studio door, and you’ve created a ­franchise.

It’s the art of looking a little bit different while selling more of the same goods in the comfortable, familiar universe that viewers crave – and television has been doing it almost since the dawn of programming. It’s in the life-and-death arena of cops, victims and courtrooms where franchises have spun ­platinum.

The Methuselah of the ­criminal-justice brood is Law & Order, created by Dick Wolf, which aired 456 episodes over 20 seasons from 1990 to 2010. The franchise further gave us Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order: Trial by Jury and Law & Order: LA. As of May, 1,073 original episodes of the franchise had aired. And don't forget the five video games based on the Law & Order universe. But that's not all. On the horizon looms Law & Order: True Crime, a scripted series that will chronicle famous, real-life cases, beginning with the Menendez brothers' murders this autumn. And then there's Law & Order: You The Jury, Wolf's live courtroom series, currently in development at NBC.

Wolf and his creative partners have also tapped the windy city with their concurrently airing Chicago franchise, his newest licence to print money, which includes: Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, Chicago Med and the upcoming Chicago Justice, where popular characters enjoy crossovers ­galore as they save lives and prosecute the ­baddies.

Another long-term success worth noting has been Anthony E Zuiker's phenomenal CSI forensics franchise, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami and CSI: NY, although the fourth offering, CSI: Cyber, was cancelled last month after only two seasons, perhaps because it strayed too far from the original formula.

While many franchises have grown profitably, the risk of saturation and failure has never been stronger. “There is simply too much television,” FX Networks chief executive John Landgraf flatly declared last year, with some 400 scripted series now on the air in North America alone and more on the way this year. The business “is in the late stages of a bubble. We’re seeing a desperate scrum, everyone is trying to jockey for ­position.”

For this reason alone, a beloved franchise can be golden – a way to stand out in a crowd of hungry competitors and increase the odds of solid ratings and ­success.

However, even with a brand as durable as Criminal Minds, recently renewed by CBS for a 12th season, there can be a misfire.

First spin-off, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, made its debut in 2011 with Forest Whitaker in the lead role but was cancelled after one season of paltry ratings.

Mark Gordon, producer of the newest spin-off, Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, says his creative team learnt a valuable lesson from Suspect Behavior's failure. "[In 2011], we were trying too hard to be different," he ­lamented.

When you create a spin-off, “you want something that’s fresh and different, but at same time you want to honour the show you’re spinning off from”.

After some fine-tuning to ensure the right kind of case takes place in a new country each week, Gordon is pleased that Beyond Borders now fits "correctly in the Criminal Minds family, but with its own identity".

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THE TWIN BIO

Their favourite city: Dubai

Their favourite food: Khaleeji

Their favourite past-time : walking on the beach

Their favorite quote: ‘we rise by lifting others’ by Robert Ingersoll

How tumultuous protests grew
  • A fuel tax protest by French drivers appealed to wider anti-government sentiment
  • Unlike previous French demonstrations there was no trade union or organised movement involved 
  • Demonstrators responded to online petitions and flooded squares to block traffic
  • At its height there were almost 300,000 on the streets in support
  • Named after the high visibility jackets that drivers must keep in cars 
  • Clashes soon turned violent as thousands fought with police at cordons
  • An estimated two dozen people lost eyes and many others were admitted to hospital 
Things Heard & Seen

Directed by: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini

Starring: Amanda Seyfried, James Norton

2/5

Director: Laxman Utekar

Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna

Rating: 1/5

Western Region Asia Cup T20 Qualifier

Sun Feb 23 – Thu Feb 27, Al Amerat, Oman

The two finalists advance to the Asia qualifier in Malaysia in August

 

Group A

Bahrain, Maldives, Oman, Qatar

 

Group B

UAE, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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