‘The Pinkertons’ Enters First-Run Syndication

The golden age of first-run syndicated dramas may be long gone, but Rohrs Media Group is taking another shot at the genre, selling its first-run weekly The Pinkertons into broadcast syndication for fall 2014.

The drama is cleared in more than 70% of TV homes, including on Tribune’s CW affiliate WPIX New York and Weigel’s independents WCIU-WCUU Chicago. Other station groups picking it up include Hearst, LIN, Sinclair, Meredith, Cox, Nexstar, Gray, Journal Broadcast Group, Capitol, Cordillera, Lockwood, Schurz and the CW Plus.

The Pinkertons is being sold on an all-barter basis for one-year deals.

“There are no unique hours on the broadcast stations in syndication these days,” says John Rohrs, president of Rohrs Media Group. “There’s nothing they can claim as their own. A lot of the cable networks are beating them to the punch with great scripted content. So, when we came in with a project with great appeal and great writing, the stations jumped on it.”

The Pinkertons is a drama in the style of Castle and Moonlighting that’s based on the real-life Pinkerton Detective Agency.

In the mid 1800s, Allan Pinkerton popularized modern investigative techniques such as fingerprinting, surveillance, undercover work and mug shots. He also hired the country’s first female detective, Kate Warne.

Production has not begun on the show, which will be set in Omaha, Neb., but filmed in Canada. Rohrs will have more details on the show’s producers, writing team and stars later this month.

“Once we got the firm go, the producers started casting,” Rohrs says. “Just on the concept, my company got it in about 70% of homes. We’ll be way beyond that by the time we’re done.”