Executive producer Jennifer Levin, from left, actor Jay Ryan, actress Kristin Kreuk, and executive producer Kelly Souders, from the television show "Beauty and The Beast", are seen during the CW Showtime TCA Panels in Beverly Hills, Calif., Monday, July 30, 2012. Some Canadian television networks struggle to make Canadian content quotas. Then there's The CW. The U.S. broadcaster is introducing three new dramas this fall. All three are shot in Canada, and two of the three are headlined by young Canadians. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Invision - Matt Sayles

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Some Canadian television networks struggle to make Canadian content quotas. Then there's The CW.

The U.S. broadcaster is introducing three new dramas this fall. All three are shot in Canada, and two of the three are headlined by young Canadians.

"Arrow" stars Toronto-born Stephen Amell. The comic book-inspired action series is based in Vancouver. "Beauty and the Beast," a remake of the late ‘80s romance series, stars Vancouver-born Kristin Kreuk. It's shot in Toronto. "Emily Owens, M.D.," the tale of a young doctor who finds a hospital can be just like high school, features not a Canadian but Mamie Gummer, the look-a-like daughter of Meryl Streep. The series is shot in Vancouver.

Factor in that two more hour-long CW dramas are based in Canada ("Supernatural" shoots in Vancouver and "Nikita" shoots in Toronto) and, this fall, The CW appears to have more hour-long, made-in-Canada, scripted dramas on its schedule than CBC, CTV, Global and City — combined.

Maybe The CW should stand for "Canadians at Work."

The CW even has a Canadian-made show on its summer schedule about young Canadian actors trying to make it in America. Network entertainment president Mark Pedowitz says he's keeping "The L.A. Complex" on his summer schedule even though few American viewers have sampled it so far.

"We wouldn't have stuck with it if we didn't believe in it," he says.

The CW's head of casting, Lori Openden, says her network casts a wide international net in its search for talent. If young Canadian actors have an edge in American television, she feels, it may be that they arrive at auditions with a more varied resume. Openden often finds Canadians have "perfected their craft" working whatever jobs they can get at home before coming to America.

She's also pleased with the Canadian "day players"— local actors in lesser roles — she sees being plugged into Toronto and Vancouver productions.

Peter Roth, president of Warner Bros. Television, says his studio looks for "the freshest, best sheer actors no matter where they come from, but there has really been a preponderance of great actors from Canada." The veteran Hollywood insider singles out Amell as especially poised for stardom.

He's long been bullish about shooting north of the border. Warners Television currently has five American network series shooting in Canada, including "Fringe" in Vancouver.

Roth credits the late, legendary TV producer Stephen J. Cannell, who he worked with on "21 Jump Street" in Vancouver in the ‘80s, with seeing that there was extraordinary value in shooting north of the border. Back then, Cannell took advantage of a great rate of exchange between the American and Canadian dollars. Now, with the dollars near par, Roth feels Canada is still a smart place to make American network television thanks to great crews "desperate to prove they are as good, if not better, than American crews. The work ethic," he says, "is unlike any place else."

Provincial tax credits and other incentives, particularly in Ontario, have also kept American productions on the streets of Toronto, Hamilton and other Canadian cities.

It's gotten so an actress such as Kreuk can have almost an entire career in American television without leaving Canada. The 29-year-old’s breakthrough role in "Edgemont" led to a seven year run on another Vancouver-based series, "Smallville." After a short stint on "Chuck," some indie films and a few failed pilots, she’s back in Canada — albeit Toronto — working on "Beauty and the Beast."

She jokes with Amell that the two have switched cities. Toronto boy Amell shoots "Arrow" in Vancouver; Vancouver girl Kreuk shoots "Beauty and the Beast" in Toronto. Both are making it in America. Only in Canada.

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Bill Brioux is a freelance TV columnist.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2012