The Global 100

After months of polling our readers for their input, realscreen emerges, for the fourth year in a row, with its Global 100 - our listing of the most influential production companies in the world for 2008.

In terms of international scope, this list is probably more similar to our Global 100 from the year before last. That's because this time around, when we solicited input from you, dear readers, we asked you to tell us what shows and films made you think to yourselves, "Damn, I wish my company made that!" Sometimes you'd tell us the prodcos behind the work, sometimes we'd have to do a little digging. As a result, you'll see a larger international contingent in this year's list as opposed to last year's, when the list was based solely on ratings. Broadcasters also let us know which shows were pulling in the numbers for them over the course of 2008, and more often than not they were the shows that were cited in the votes.

A couple of other notes worth mentioning: as in previous years, we're continuing to exclude companies whose main business is broadcasting and identifying the companies that have ties to larger entities. Also, as with previous years, enduring franchises that are several seasons deep were recognized in the voting (if they didn't have particular "Jump the shark" moments, then they still warranted attention for many of you), as well as work from the previous year that saw wider release in '08. But amongst the familiar names, you'll see some new companies that made their mark this year, either through great docs or shows that kept you away from the remote.

We hope the Global 100 list serves to illuminate the efforts of the companies behind the work that you enjoyed the most last year. Congrats to those who made this year's model.

US

ORIGINAL PRODUCTIONS/Burbank
www.origprod.com

Thom Beers and Original Productions have been making waves in factual cable since the company's inception in 1999. This past year, the prodco brought in record ratings for History with the second episode of season two of Ice Road Truckers. The series drew an audience of 311,000 in its regular timeslot, was 313% up on the channel's slot average and became the highest rated show ever on the channel. The prodco also received five Primetime Emmy nominations for Deadliest Catch (topping the list of nominated shows for Discovery and winning the award for cinematography for non-fiction programming over Ice Road Truckers), won a Fox Reality Channel Really Award for the same show (favorite non-competition program) and got one of its first scripted cable pilot orders from A&E in 2008.

But perhaps the biggest news for Original came in February 2009 with the announcement that UK-based FremantleMedia (also on this year's Global 100 list) bought a 75% stake in the prodco. "In my world, I'm always trying to stay one step ahead of the competition and create genres, not just good shows," Beers told realscreen in September 2008. So far, so good.

Employees: 45

Upcoming titles: Pitchmen: Gadgets to Glory; Extreme Trucking; The Colony; Black Gold 2; Deadliest Sea: Event TV Movie

PARTICIPANT PRODUCTIONS/Los Angeles
www.participantmedia.com

The team that quietly hammered home the dangers behind global warming with An Inconvenient Truth returns to the Global 100 this year via another documentary that exposed a darkness needing to be revealed. Director Errol Morris refers to Standard Operating Procedure as a "non-fiction horror movie," telling the story behind the infamous, ugly photos of torture and degradation taken at Abu Ghraib through Morris' interviews with some of the soldiers that participated in the horror. The doc sent chills up the spines of its international viewing audience, and garnered an Oscar nomination.

Meanwhile, 2007's partially-animated doc, Chicago 10, saw limited cinema release in 2008 and was shown on PBS' Independent Lens. This year looks like another winner, with its exposé on the food production industry, Food Inc., gaining buzz.

Employees: 50

Upcoming: Food Inc.; Casino Jack: The United States of Money

FIGURE 8 FILMS/Carrboro
www.figure8films.tv

Judging by the responses from this year's pool of Global 100 respondents, people love Jon & Kate Plus 8. The series has been a big success for Carrboro, North Carolina-based Figure 8 Films, since it debuted on Discovery Health in 2007. "One of the better compliments paid to our company was in the New York Times," says president and founder Bill Hayes. "It was an article about reality television and it cites us and our shows... it says basically [that] we don't exploit our subjects but we exploit the differences in our audience."

The company, best known for its personal life and family stories such as 17 Kids and Counting which debuted on Discovery Health in October 2008 (now 18 Kids and Counting on TLC), likes to emphasize that they see themselves as "caretakers" of people's stories, taking care not to misuse the trust their subjects put in them.

Employees: 10