New Twilight Zone (UPN) Coming to Syndication

[Pavan]

New Line TV has cleared off-net series "The Twilight Zone" in more than 75% of the country.
The Forest Whitaker-hosted series first aired on UPN in 2002. Jason Alexander, Molly Sims and Portia de Rossi are among stars who made appearances.

"Twilight Zone" was made available to the marketplace as single half-hour or back-to-back segments. Shows are offered entirely on a barter basis.

Tribune stations WPIX New York, KCAL/KCBS Los Angeles and WGN Chicago have signed on, along with station groups Belo, Hearst Argyle, Scripps Howard and Meredith, for a fall launch.

New Line TV wants to turn that bit of conventional wisdom on its head: It has started pitching TV stations to buy the second remake of "The Twilight Zone," canceled by UPN earlier this year after only 22 hourlong episodes during the 2002-03 season.

David Spiegelman, senior exec VP of domestic-TV distribution and marketing for New Line TV, said he's making the 22 hours available to stations in June 2004 instead of the usual September start.

That strategy will give stations a three-month jump, allowing them to lure viewers during the summer, when reruns dominate the TV-station landscape.

No cash will change hands in the deal, which runs for 15 months. Instead, stations will hand over seven minutes within each one-hour run for New Line to sell to national advertisers. Since New Line doesn't own a division to sell ad time on syndicated TV shows, company will hire an outside firm once it has cleared the bulk of the station lineup.

New Line is looking for weekend time periods, giving stations the flexibility of scheduling the show as two separate half-hours. Each hourlong "Twilight" episode encompasses two discrete stories, which fit neatly into a 30-minute syndicated format.

"Twilight Zone" is produced by New Line Television in association with Trilogy Entertainment Group.