Lifetime Acquires Rights to "Christine" Reruns

[Zoneboy]

Lifetime has picked up rerun rights to CBS' Julia Louis-Dreyfus starrer "The New Adventures of Old Christine."
The deal with Warner Bros. Domestic TV Distribution calls for Lifetime to pay about $350,000 per episode for the show, and the cabler will also hand over 1½ minutes of barter advertising time. The show, featuring Louis-Dreyfus as a harried single mother, will bow on Lifetime in fall 2010.

JoAnn Alfano, exec veep of entertainment at Lifetime, called the show "funny, modern, smart and relatable -- a perfect fit for our brand."

Warner Bros. has cleared "Old Christine" reruns on TV stations covering more than 85% of U.S. TV households, including Tribune's WPIX New York and KTLA Los Angeles, also for fall 2010. In Chicago, "Old Christine" will air in primetime on indie WCIU. On the local station front, Warner Bros. is getting cash license fees plus two minutes of barter ad time.

"Old Christine" has been on the off-network block at the same time that NBC Universal TV Distribution has been shopping rerun rights to "30 Rock." NBC U landed a significantly higher cash license fee of around $800,000 from Comedy Central and WGN America for "30 Rock" in a deal without any barter time (Daily Variety, July 8).

On the station side, NBC U confirmed Wednesday that it has cleared "30 Rock" on Fox O&Os in New York and L.A. and on Tribune's local WGN Chicago, starting in fall 2011. Those deals were done on an all-barter basis, with NBC U taking three minutes of ad time in each half-hour.

The all-barter structure for "30 Rock's" broadcast deals reflects the ad slump in the local TV biz and the fact that "30 Rock" is likely to draw a niche aud. But "30 Rock" nonetheless drew spirited bidding from Fox and Tribune stations, which committed to double runs of the show in prime evening and latenight time slots.

"Old Christine" doesn't have the same creative cachet as "30 Rock," but it does have the familiar face of star Louis-Dreyfus, a mainstay in syndie comedy thanks to the enduring appeal of "Seinfeld." The thesp earned an Emmy in 2006 for the Warner Bros. TV sitcom, which is heading into its fifth season on CBS.


http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...goryId=14&cs=1

[JulieSomoski]

Just saw this - fantastic news! $350,000 an episode is pretty damn good for this show. It's going into syndication soon, now its got a cable deal - from a show thats bashed for its low ratings, its going to have a good future ahead of it. All the more reason for more episodes to be produced. We could see a good 2 or 3 seasons out of this show still, just for the syndication money.

[Jude The Obscure]

Old Christine, IMO, will attract a wider audience in syndication than 30 Rock.

[JulieSomoski]

Originally Posted by Jude The Obscure

Old Christine, IMO, will attract a wider audience in syndication than 30 Rock.

I agree - its one of those shows that more people will find and enjoy in syndication and on cable, kind of like George Lopez. 30 Rock just doesnt have a wide appeal period - why it got $800,000 an episode is beyond me.

[Marvo301]

I think "Christine" plays to a much broader audience than "30 Rock" so it will likely draw more viewers in syndication.

[Pavan]

Press release and blog story:

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/blog/20...fetime-in.html

Lifetime Television Acquires Exclusive off-net Cable Rights to Hit Comedy The New Adventures of Old Christine From Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution

Sitcom Starring Emmy(R) Award-Winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus to Premiere on Network in Fall 2010

LOS ANGELES, July 9 -- Lifetime Television, the number one women's network, has acquired the exclusive off-net cable rights to Warner Bros. Television's critically acclaimed hit comedy The New Adventures of Old Christine, starring Emmy(R) Award-winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus, in a deal with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution.

Under the terms of the agreement, Lifetime will hold the exclusive cable rights to all 88 existing episodes of the program, as well as the exclusive cable rights to all episodes produced in future seasons. The comedy, for which Louis-Dreyfus won an Emmy in 2006 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series and which won a Humanitas Prize(R) in 2007, will make its off-net cable premiere on Lifetime in fall 2010.

"We couldn't be more excited to bring The New Adventures of Old Christine to Lifetime," said JoAnn Alfano, Executive Vice President, Entertainment, Lifetime Networks. "The show is funny, modern, smart and relatable - a perfect fit for our brand. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is one of the most talented comedic actors of this - or any -generation."

"Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a television icon starring in a show that takes full advantage of her comedic sensibilities and which we know will strongly connect with Lifetime's audience," said Ken Werner, President, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution.

Louis-Dreyfus stars in the series as Christine Campbell, a divorced working mother who successfully juggles the daily stresses of motherhood and a business. Christine owns a women's 30-minute workout gym with her best friend, Barb. Her young son, Ritchie, attends a posh private school, where Christine endures frequent encounters with two snooty stay-at-home moms, Marly and Lindsay. Christine's twentysomething brother, Matthew, lives with her and serves as Ritchie's sometime babysitter. Christine gets along with her charming ex-husband, Richard, even better than when they were married, but her life got a lot more complicated when she met Richard's new girlfriend: a nice, young, impossible-to-hate woman also named Christine - the "new" Christine. When it dawns on "old" Christine that Richard is moving on with his life, she decides it's time for her to take that same leap.

The New Adventures of Old Christine was created by Kari Lizer (Will & Grace), who executive produces along with Andy Ackerman (Seinfeld). The series also stars Clark Gregg (Iron Man) as Richard, Hamish Linklater (Fantastic Four) as Matthew, Trevor Gagnon (the upcoming Shorts) as Ritchie, Emily Rutherfurd (Will & Grace) as "New" Christine, Tricia O'Kelley (Gilmore Girls) as Marly, Alex Kapp Horner (Will & Grace) as Lindsay and Wanda Sykes (Curb Your Enthusiasm) as Barb. The series is from Kari's Logo Here in association with Warner Bros. Television.

The New Adventures of Old Christine acquisition is a component of Lifetime's ongoing strategy to aggressively expand its line-up of comedies. The Network's slate includes the original series Rita Rocks, starring Nicole Sullivan and slated to return for its second season later this year, and the recently picked-up sitcom Sherri (working title), with Sherri Shepherd (The View, 30 Rock); and the off-net programs Will & Grace, Reba and Frasier, as well as How I Met Your Mother, which will begin stripping on Lifetime in fall 2010.

[kravitzfan12]

I agree that Old Christine will do better in syndication that 30 Rock. I feel that you could just sit down and watch Old Christine without having to put any effort into it - it will be perfect to have on in the background while cooking dinner etc - with 30 Rock you kind of have to make an effort to watch and follow the story.

I feel like those people who haven't checked out the show on network TV will see it on Lifetime and discover it for the first time and start watching the new episodes and buy the DVDs.

This is truly fantastic news! I hope that this will allow the show to stay on for more seasons.

[Zoneboy]

Tribune Co. has big plans in store for its sleepy cable superstation WGN America.
During the past year, Tribune has quietly been committing significant dollars to off-network acquisitions for the channel, something WGN has rarely done in its 30-plus years on the air. The channel has long enjoyed wide distribution in cable and satellite TV — it now reaches 72 million homes — but previous Tribune Co. regimes have never done much with it on the programming side.

But that will change as of next fall. WGN America intends to rebrand itself as a haven for contempo comedy skeins with a primetime block of reruns that will include "How I Met Your Mother," "Entourage," "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "The New Adventures of Old Christine." In fall 2011, "30 Rock" will join the lineup, with more shows to come.

The hope is to capitalize on its distribution by turning WGN America into a much more targeted and carefully branded cable channel than it ever has been before. WGN launched in 1978 in the era of "superstations," when a number of large-market broadcast TV stations made themselves available via satellite to cable operators desperate for any programming to fill their channel lineups.

For years, WGN has mostly been known for carrying Chicago Cubs games (Tribune Co. owns the team, though not for much longer) and the newscasts of its local counterpart, WGN-TV Chicago. But the channel was among the first assets that Lee Abrams, Tribune's senior veep and chief innovations officer, zeroed in on for its untapped potential after he joined the company last year.

"The upside here is enormous. It would be silly not to invest as much as we can," Abrams told Daily Variety.

Abrams and Sean Compton, senior veep of programming and entertainment for Tribune Broadcasting, settled on a comedy focus for primetime after studying the competitive landscape and scoping out the available program acquisitions. With TBS focusing increasingly on original programming and Nick at Nite hewing to family-oriented fare, the execs saw a clear opening for WGN to focus on contempo sitcom fare with a little more edge.

"We came at it thinking that we have to be aggressive and make a statement that this is going to be a cable network that is going to attract eyeballs," Compton said. "We looked at a couple of different opportunities — even sports — but when we looked around we saw that we could have real strength in buying sitcoms."

The hope is that the investment in programming will pay off in increased advertising coin.

WGN certainly has plenty of room for improvement in its ratings. In the third quarter of this year, the channel ranked 40th in total viewers among basic cablers with an average primetime aud of 356,000; of those viewers, less than half (121,000) were in the adults 18-49 demo.

Industry insiders note that WGN has been effective in getting in on big off-network sales, like the deals recently orchestrated for "How I Met Your Mother" or "30 Rock," because the bigger cable players don't see the channel as a strong competitor in the general entertainment realm.

Lifetime didn't balk when Twentieth TV brought WGN into the picture to share rerun rights on "Mother," and Comedy Central actually recruited WGN to help snag the "30 Rock" rights from the rival tandem of TBS and E! (Cablers generally don't mind sharing rights on off-net shows, as long as it's not with a direct competitor, because it brings the pricetag down for both parties.)

The fate of the WGN America makeover will hinge on the aud response to its programming, but the channel is already making significant changes to its on-air look and feel. The gradual revamp started this spring with the change of its name from the dated-sounding Superstation WGN to WGN America.

More recently, the company struck a two-year deal with WWE for a Thursday night "WWE Superstars" grappler showcase, and it snapped up secondary rights to "Scrubs" and "South Park" reruns that just bowed on the cabler last month.

Taking a page from the classic cable branding playbook, WGN is investing in production of comedic interstitials and vignettes depicting slices of contempo American life to capitalize on the channel's strength in Midwestern markets. Among those interstitials is a series dubbed "Sky Dives," which features Abrams piloting his own plane to various locales for lunch at notable or unusual eateries around the Midwest.

To fill its primetime slots until the sitcom cavalry arrives next year, Compton is focused on programming stunts and themed nights, like its "Outta Sight Retro Night" showcase of '70s sitcoms and the '80s movie showcase "Way Back Wednesday with Winslow," hosted by Michael Winslow of "Police Academy" fame. And showcasing Cubs and Chicago White Sox games remains a key part of its Americana branding push.

If the makeover clicks, Tribune will likely seek over the long term to transition WGN America from the superstation model, wherein the channel gets a premium spot on the cable/satellite dial but no carriage fees, to a traditional model, where subscriber fees are a big boon to a channel's bottom line. In the near term, Tribune is focused on bumping up its distribution base to 80 million-plus homes, which will also help the channel command higher advertising rates.

Tribune Co., of course, is in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings, so there's no certainty that the current Tribune management team will remain in place for the long term. But no matter what happens with the bankruptcy, a new and improved WGN America would be an attractive asset for the company should it face a divestiture process.

Abrams has a wealth of past experience in programming. He was part of the launch of Turner Broadcasting's TNT in 1988, and he also oversaw dozens of music and entertainment channels in his previous gig as chief programming officer for XM Satellite Radio.

"We're really in complete reinvention mode," Abrams said. "The biggest change we've made has been in the (management) culture of the channel. It was time for someone to say, ‘Let's admit that things are not very good, and let's fix it aggressively.' It's better for us to make some mistakes than to not try at all."



http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...goryid=14&cs=1

[Pavan]

Timeslots on Lifetime this Fall:

http://blog.sitcomsonline.com/2010/0...e-more-on.html