By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Tuesday June 2, 2015
VH1 is taking advantage of expanded California tax credits by relocated its flashback show "Hindsight" to Los Angeles for its second season after its first season was shot in Atlanta. (The show is technically based in New York City.)
This is the first time Atlanta has lost a TV series since MTV's "Teen Wolf" won a California tax credit lottery in 2012 and left after two seasons.
Proving there is demand from creative folks to shoot in California, 37 series actually applied for what ultimately was 11 slots for new and relocating TV series. (Actors and producers prefer to be closer to home, no matter how much they say Atlanta treats them great.)
According to the Hollywood Reporter, TV projects were not picked by pure lottery as it has recently. Rather, "they were selected based on their jobs ratio score, which ranks each project by wages to below-the-line workers, qualified spending (such as vendor payments and equipment), and other criteria."
Three other TV series are also relocating to California: FX's "American Horror Story" from New Orleans, HBO's "Veep" from Maryland and ABC's "Secrets & Lies" from Wilmington, N.C. All of those states have scaled back tax credits or are in discussions to do so. Georgia has committed to an uncapped tax credit program, endorsed by Gov. Nathan Deal.
Georgia is now the third-largest state in the United States in terms of films and TV production behind only New York and California.
California recently more than tripled its tax credit program to counter-act states such as Georgia which had been taking away many TV and film projects from Hollywood.
The fact VH1 even renewed "Hindsight" was a shocker, given its microscopic ratings compared to its biggest shows. Its overnight viewership barely cracked 250,000 viewers. But clearly, the network execs liked the light-hearted, sweet-natured show about a woman who flashed back to 1995 with the knowledge she had in 2014, but it didn't really fit well with the reality programming VH1 emphasizes such as "Love and Hip Hop" and "Mob Wives."
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