Miami, FL

I agree with Alex at SotP, USA Network’s Burn Notice has become one of my favorite summer shows. Next to Top Chef Miami, this Miami based show has me hooked. And others are watching the show too. According to the Herald, there will be a season two and it will be filmed here because of the break on the rent the city is giving the show.

The show’s monthly rent to the city: a relatively minuscule $7,000 a month for 107,000 of the expo center’s 152,000 square feet.

By comparison, North Miami’s Greenwich Studios — which bills itself as South Florida’s largest such facility — charges $1,500 per day for use of a 9,202-square foot stage.

Burn Notice producer Terry Miller acknowledged the city’s rent is ’’pretty much a gift.’’ The state also has pitched in, pledging at least $1.6 million in tax incentives to Burn Notice.

Numerous other successful TV shows, such as CSI: Miami and Nip/Tuck, use Miami’s skyline as their sexy ’’location’’ but film primarily in California.

That makes Burn Notice — the story of a CIA spy who solves crimes after being fired, or ’’burned’’ from the government — the first series since Miami Vice to film an entire season in South Florida and then get picked up for an additional season.

Miami leaders responded by holding a press conference during Thursday’s final day of filming, at which City Manager Pete Hernandez signed a lease extension with the show for another six months. Burn Notice likely will need until the middle of next year to complete season two, so the terms of those final months still must be negotiated.

Note to the producers of CSI: Miami: it’s rude to base your show here but not actually film it here. I think a boycott of this show is in order until they actually film it here.

Miami, Burn Notice, USA Network, CSI: Miami, Nip/Tuck