American military TV shows are having trouble finding an international audience

The Hollywood Reporter

“Patriotic TV” is the biggest trend in fall TV with shows like NBC’s The Brave, CW’s Valor and CBS's SEAL Team seemingly aimed at Trump voters. But with overseas licensing the most lucrative part of the American TV business, international sales of those shows have been a challenge. "These shows are all really well made and the production values are great, but some of it is pretty jingoistic: lots of breast-beating and flag-flying," says Stephen Mowbray, who buys shows for Swedish public broadcaster SVT. As The Hollywood Reporter notes, “The backlash isn't related to Trump per se, but rather to the rah-rah American tone that military series can showcase — and the perception that more of these shows are coming under Trump.” Shows built around other very American topics like race (This Is Us and Empire) face similar issues, also failing to find success overseas.