HOMELAND

Use the internet to research answers to questions 1 - 3

Who produces Homeland?

Fox 21 Television Studios
Cherry Pie Productions
Teakwood Lane Productions
Keshet Broadcasting
Showtime Networks
Who are the distributors of Homeland?
20th television

How can audiences watch Homeland in the UK?

DVD, Netflix, TV channels

What awards has Homeland won?

The series was recognized with a Peabody Award in April 2012 describing the series as "a game of cat and
mouse, a psychological thriller and a Rorschach test of post-9/11 doubts, fears and suspicions rolled into one.
At the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards, the series received nine nominations winning six awards,
including Outstanding Drama Series, Claire Danes for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, Damian
Lewis for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, and Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon and Gideon
Raff for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for the pilot episode.
The series also won awards for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series and Outstanding Single-Camera
Picture Editing for a Drama Series.
At the 69th Golden Globe Awards, the series won the award for Best Television Series – Drama, and Claire
Danes won for Best Actress – Television Series Drama, with Damian Lewis receiving a nomination for Best
Actor – Television Series Drama.
At the 70th Golden Globe Awards, the series won its second consecutive award for Best Television Series –
Drama, Danes won again for Best Actress – Television Series Drama, and Lewis won for Best Actor –
Television Series Drama, after being nominated the previous year

Use the handout of reading to answer the remaining questions

What TV programmes is Homeland based on and who produced it?

Prisoners of War – produced by Gideon Raff who also was an executive producer of Homeland.

How does Homeland differ from the programme it is based on?

Prisoners of War is about soldiers whereas Homeland is about Claire Danes.

In Prisoners of War there is two soldiers that return home whereas there is only one is Homeland.

Carrie’s character has no counterpart in Prisoners of War.

The Soldier characters in Prisoners of War have been compressed into Brody’s character.

Prisoners of War had a smaller budget than Homeland, due to the greater use of conventional TV storytelling
methods such as fake news reports and cheaply manipulative music.
How does Homeland reflect events in America at the time it was produced and
broadcast?
The election of Donald Trump and the arrival of fake news in the national dialogue changed the course of
Homeland. They wanted to address that there was an idea that there was something going on, that the election
was influenced by another force and by fake news.

Refugee crisis also had an impact on the narrative, as season 5 began with the Syrian Refugee Crisis.

Claire Dane’s character Carrie also was one of the few female roles on TV that does not hinge on romantic or
sexual entanglements. She is shown to be bigger than her gender.

According to executive producer Lesli Linka Glatter, what makes Homeland so unique?
“I think what makes Homeland so unique is that we reinvent the show every season. We ask ourselves, ‘How does
this never get easier?’ ”

How many viewers did the opening and finale episodes get when broadcast on Channel
4; and what percentage share of the audience?
2.2 million Watched the opening episode, 2.8 watched the finale. 11.5% share.

According to Vicky Frost in The Guardian, Britons were watching more TV in 2013. How
does long form TV drama contribute to this?
TV is better in Britain and now we have to catch-up and watch on-demand. TV quality is getting better and we can
watch it anywhere with phones and laptops.

Using Stuart Heritage’s article about why today’s TV is better than movies, which of the
10 reasons can be applied to Homeland?
Longform storytelling TV is less franchise fixated, TV has the power to surprise, word of mouth, bond with
characters, TV made Netflix successful.
According to Scott Collins, how much did it cost to make an episode of Homeland in the
first season?
$3 million an episode
How many viewers did it average per episode in America and how does this compare to
big hits like NCIS?
Averaged fewer than 2 million viewers in its initial airing, less than one tenth in viewers compared to NCIS
“A show still needs a lot of views, but it also needs a cultural currency”. What is meant
by cultural currency; give examples to illustrate your answer.
Awards, blog items, mentions in social media posts such as Facebook or Twitter
How can this currency be beneficial to cable networks which broadcast programmes
like Homeland?
Word of mouth advertisement is very effective in all of media and in other industries too.
Why do cable networks need these quality shows?
“They need these quality shows,” Chet Fenster, managing partner and director of content creation for media
agency MEC Entertainment, said cable of networks, “to enhance the brand”
How does the number of episodes commissioned by the cable channel differ to big
broadcasters?
10-12 episodes or 22-24
What effect does this have on the creators of the show?
Showtime has no advertisements, funded entirely through subscriber fees. What
advantage does this give it over mainstream broadcasters?
Fox 21 Division doesn’t have to fill up 22 hours per week with original programming. It orders just 10-12 episodes
of a series per season unlike the big broadcasters that ask for 22-24.

Although almost no shows on cable are profitable in themselves, why do the channels
think they are worth producing?