MIPCOM: FremantleMedia Enterprises has sold Australian high school reunion drama Winners and Losers to ITV2 and blokes-in-a-band US drama The Wedding Band to 5* in the UK.

The company described The Wedding Band as “a cornerstone of our US cable drama strategy”. It is slated to premiere on US cable net TBS in summer 2012.

The 10 x 60-minute series is co-produced by FremantleMedia North America and Emmy Award-winning producer Mike Tollin (Smallville, One Tree Hill, Wild Hogs). It was created and executive-produced by writers Josh Lobis & Darin Moiselle (South Park) and follows a group of guys who escape the stress and strains of their everyday lives by performing in a wedding band.

The drama is anchored by lifelong best friends – Tommy, a perennial bachelor, and Eddie, a married father of two. FME described the drama as telling the story of “weekend rock stars. The groupies are bridesmaids, the drinks are free and the dream is still alive”.

David Ellender, FME’s global chief executive, said, “Since the launch of our global drama strategy almost two years ago we have delivered a range of high-quality scripted content to audiences around the world, and The Wedding Band is just the first of several US cable projects we hope will follow suit.”

Channel 5 head of acquisitions Paul Fagan brokered the deal with FME SVP sales for UK, Eire & Scandinavia Justin Hatfield. The series has also been sold to Turner’s TBS Latin America.

Winners and Losers has been bought by ITV2 as 22 x 60-minute episodes across two series. It will air it from spring 2012.

The series follows four women -  Bec, Jenny, Frances and Sophie – who have forged happy lives far away from the time at high school, when they were branded ‘the losers’.

A 10 year reunion brings them back together and sees them tormented once again by the bullies, but a big win on a shared lottery ticket sees the losers become winners – or so it seems.

Winners & Losers premiered on Seven Network in March and rated number one in its time slot, exceeding Seven Network’s primetime average by +59% among adults 18-49.   

Hatfiel again struck the deal for FME with ITV head of acquired series Sasha Breslau.

ITV director of digital channels and acquisitions Angela Jain described the show as “a quietly addictive drama with a distinctive Australian charm”.

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