Fall 2010 Cable Syndication

[Buffyboy323]

Lifetime gets exclusive cable rights to HIMYM in 2010!!!

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i6981db6%201c01d2a4d704727cf292ffee2

Lifetime has snapped up exclusive cable rerun rights to "How I Met Your Mother" from Twentieth Television.

The half-hour comedy is set to air as a strip starting in fall 2010, joining a schedule that includes such other off-net comedies as "Reba," "Still Standing," "Will & Grace" and "Frasier."

Both parties declined comment on the financial terms of the deal, but sources said "Mother" fetched around $725,000 per episode in a highly competitive bidding situation that included at least six interested cable nets. It was considered a hot property because of the diminishing number of off-net sitcoms coming available.

"Mother's" per-episode fee seems in line with other recent high-profile off-net comedy sales to cable. it falls between FX's purchase of "Two and a Half Men" in 2006 ($750,000 an episode) and TBS' licensing of "The Office" last year ($650,000).

Lifetime's four-year licensing deal includes up to eight seasons of "Mother," should the CBS comedy run that long. "Mother" had a big fourth-season premiere Monday, jumping 21% in the ratings over last season.

JoAnn Alfano, Lifetime's new executive vp entertainment, said "Mother" is a good fit for the network's lineup. "It's fresh and contemporary," she said. "There are not a lot of shows out there that are right for us, so it was really important to go after this."

She added that "Mother" could serve as a launching pad for new original series.

"For me, to be able to develop like sitcoms with this kind of voice is exciting," she said. "The direction we want to go in for acquisitions is to not only allow us to fresh up our comedy block but also launch original series."

"Mother," from 20th Century Fox TV, is exec produced by Carter Bays, Craig Thomas and Pamela Fryman.

[PrettyinPink55]

Glad to be able to see this show in reruns!!!! :D :D :D

[Buffyboy323]

Glad to be able to see this show in reruns!!!! :D :D :D
Me too, but on the Lifetime network? I know the show has it's "soapy" moments every now and then, but it's not exactly geared towards women. If anything, because of Barney's womanizing antics, some women might even be turned off by the show. Anything is possible though. Frasier isn't exactly "television for women" either.

[Pavan]

"Television for women" is no longer their tagline. They don't have a tagline anymore I see, ever since they changed their logo.

[Scoobiedoo30]

Awsome News I know I will be watching The Reruns of How I Met your Mother on Lifetime.

[Pavan]

LIFETIME TELEVISION CONTINUES EXPANSION OF COMEDY PROGRAMMING WITH ACQUISITION OF EXCLUSIVE BASIC CABLE RIGHTS FROM TWENTIETH TELEVISION FOR
HIT COMEDY SERIES “HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER,” BEGINNING IN FALL 2010


NEW YORK -- Continuing the aggressive expansion of its comedy programming, Lifetime Television has acquired the exclusive basic cable rights to the popular sitcom “How I Met Your Mother” from Twentieth Television, beginning in the fall of 2010.

In making the announcement, JoAnn Alfano, Executive Vice President, Entertainment, Lifetime Networks, said, “’How I Met Your Mother’ is a perfect fit for the new direction of our comedy programming, from off-net acquisitions to original series. One of the top five sitcoms among all women, this is a truly hilarious and genuine water-cooler show, with sharp writing and a talented cast. It will be a fantastic addition to our 2010 schedule.”


TWENTIETH TELEVISION QUOTE
The fourth season premiere of “How I Met Your Mother” on Monday, September 22 leaped 21 percent among W18-49 versus last year’s season premiere.

Starring Neil Patrick Harris, Josh Radnor, Jason Segal and Alyson Hannigan, “How I Met Your Mother” debuted on CBS in 2005 and currently airs Mondays at 8:30PM (ET/PT).

“How I Met Your Mother” joins Lifetime comedy mainstays such as “Reba,” “Still Standing,” “Will & Grace” and “Frasier.” So far in 2008, “Reba” ranks #1 in cable comedies among W18+ and W25-54 in the Monday-Friday, 8-9PM (ET/PT) time period.


“HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER” PRODUCTION CREDITS


TWENTIETH TELEVISION BOILERPLATE
LIFETIME is the leader in women’s television and one of the top-rated basic cable television networks. A diverse, multi-media company, LIFETIME is committed to offering the highest quality entertainment and information programming, and advocating a wide range of issues affecting women and their families. LIFETIME Television, Lifetime Movie Network, Lifetime Real Women and Lifetime Digital (including myLifetime.com) are part of LIFETIME Entertainment Services, a 50/50 joint venture of Hearst Corporation and The Walt Disney Company.

[Buffyboy323]

"Television for women" is no longer their tagline. They don't have a tagline anymore I see, ever since they changed their logo.
I didn't know that. Maybe Lifetime will be going in a new direction soon. Bring on How I Met Your Mother!!! :)

[ryan423]

Can't wait!

[PrettyinPink55]

"Television for women" is no longer their tagline. They don't have a tagline anymore I see, ever since they changed their logo.

Now that you mention it, I haven't heard that tagline in quite a while!! I guess this is why they are getting rid of The Golden Girls?

[KurtfromPitts]

Then again, I always thought "The Wonder Years" belonged on Lifetime.

[R.jsheedy]

I'm not so happy that it's going to be lifetime it's going to be on. I was hopeing for FX of TBS. I don't think "Mother" will fit into lifetime.

[Scoobiedoo30]

just wonder do we know whjat Year How I Met your Mother will be coming to Local Station's.

[ryan423]

I'm not so happy that it's going to be lifetime it's going to be on. I was hopeing for FX of TBS. I don't think "Mother" will fit into lifetime.

Lifetime is turning itself into a contemporary comedy/drama network. It is no longer the network for women.

[R.jsheedy]

OK, that's why i wasn't so happy it was going to be on lifetime. But a few of there Re-Run show i do like, Fraiser and Still Standing.

[Pavan]

It will start Jan. 5, airing Mondays 7-8PM before airing 5 days a week in Fall 2010:

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/blog/2008/12/lifetime-december-2008-and-january-2009.html

[Scoobiedoo30]

it will be good to see How I Met Your Mother ZStarting Janurary 5, 2009 from 6:00 pm until 7:00 pm CT Time

[ryan423]

I hate when they pre-syndicate shows once a week:P It'll take 11 weeks to get through one season! Oh well, I also find it weird that its airing between a family show. If I were running the network, I'd give 2 full hours of Reba from 6-8 and give How I Met Your Mother the 8pm slot on Monday Nights.

[Pavan]

HIMYM is not allowed to air in primetime I believe on Lifetime, it will conflict with CBS.

[Scoobiedoo30]

I was wondering how that would work out.,=

[ryan423]

HIMYM is not allowed to air in primetime I believe on Lifetime, it will conflict with CBS.
Yeah, I came back here cause I just figured that out! But still, it's prety weird to have it sandwiched between Reba!

[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/VR1118009625.html?categoryid=14&cs=1

[Pavan]

WGN and Lifetime timeslots for Fall 2010:

http://blog.sitcomsonline.com/2010/08/lifetime-fall-2010-schedule-more-on.html

[An 80s Guy]

I cannot wait to see HIMYM on 5 days a week. It's gonna be on two cable channels, local syndication, and the sixth season is about to start up on CBS. Now there is no need for me to finish up on the DVD sets. YAY!!:D