Show of the week: Last Seen Alive

Investigation Discovery’s latest series launched on June 1 in the US to ratings that Lucy Rawson, Cineflix Rights’ sales executive for Africa, central and eastern Europe, the Middle East and southern Mediterranean, believes could lead to a quick second season commission. “It got around one million, a great number,” she says.

Each episode of the 6x60mins series follows two families searching for missing loved ones. The emotionally-charged stories pick up at the point where the individual disappeared, and follow efforts to locate them, often using private investigators and other means.

“Cineflix has produced a lot of crime, but Last Seen Alive has much less re-enactment than normal,” says Rawson. “It’s almost shot in real time. There are real action elements, but it’s incredibly emotional too.”

Rawson says Cineflix’s US crime programming has traditionally performed well on CEE networks’ schedules, especially in territories such as Poland, and the likes of Discovery often bulk-buy shows. “We’ve already sold more than 100 hours into the CEE this year,” she says.

Last Seen Alive will offer buyers better flexibility than some other true-crime doc shows as it is light on gore, Rawson adds. “The launch episode went out at 9pm on Investigation Discovery, but it could work at 7pm or 8pm.”

The show: Last Seen Alive
The producer: Cineflix Productions
The distributor: Cineflix Rights
The broadcaster: Investigation Discovery (US)
The concept: A doc series following 12 families’ journeys to locate missing loved ones