Show of the week: Chasing Life

According to Lionsgate International Television’s executive VP Peter Iacono, Chasing Life follows in the footsteps of Pretty Little Liars in marking ABC Family’s move toward edgier dramas than its previous fodder.

The show is about a young female journalist juggling her work, dysfunctional multi-generational family and a crushing cancer diagnosis, giving it heaps of that much feted quality, jeopardy.

Chasing Life is based on Terminales, a Latin American novella format from Televisa. The difference is the US version attempts to replace melodrama with a more hopeful tone. “Our version is all about chasing life. It still has twists and turns but goes in a different direction,” says Iacono.

Distributor Lionsgate debuted the pilot at the LA Screenings, where it got a “great reception”, says Iacono, with buyers pleased with the “unbelievable twist” at the end of the episode.

Lionsgate continued the international push, showing CEE buyers the pilot at NATPE East last month.

“We’ll be screening it to many commercial and basic cable channels. It plays to a really solid audience of younger women, and could sit in either primetime or access primetime,” says Iacono.

He claims ABC Family’s move toward the edgier end of the female-skewed drama market will also see more boyfriends and families taking to the show.

The show: Chasing Life
The producers: Lionsgate Entertainment, Televisa Productions, BV Family Prods
The distributor: Lionsgate International
The broadcaster: ABC Family
Concept: An aspiring journalist works her way up the corporate ladder, while dealing with her family and the devastating news she has cancer