Lifetime undergoes a nip and tuck
The network's new entertainment president is chasing a younger audience while trying to hang on to viewers older than 50.
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published March 30, 2006
NEW YORK - With American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino singing I Believe and cheerleaders from Kentucky's Dunbar High School leaping around the stage, it was clear when Lifetime made a sales pitch to advertisers last week that things are changing at the once self-proclaimed network for women.
There wasn't a Golden Girl in sight - or even a wrinkle on the faces of women speeding by in film clips.
Can Botox work on a TV network?
Lifetime is in the midst of a makeover, trying to shake off the rust and appeal to a younger audience. The grab-your-hankie movies are staying, but several reality series, a comedy about a dating service and a drama about a mind-reading FBI agent are also on the way.
"There's so much potential on so many levels," said Susanne Daniels, Lifetime's new entertainment president, who is engineering many of the changes.
Four seasons ago, Lifetime was the top-rated basic cable network with an average prime-time audience of 2.27-million people. USA, TBS and TNT have since rushed past it, and Lifetime is averaging 1.64-million viewers this season, according to Nielsen Media Research. More important to youth-obsessed advertisers, the median age of Lifetime's prime-time audience has crept past 50, and viewership is down 15 percent this season among women 18 to 49, the age group advertisers worship.
The network hired former Cartoon Network executive Betty Cohen as its president last year, replacing Carole Black. Cohen then brought in Daniels, a former programmer for the youth-fixated WB network.
Until the debut of Cheerleader Nation this month, Lifetime's schedule had only one original series, Missing. The drama Strong Medicine ended its six-year run on Super Bowl Sunday.
Lifetime's strength has long been its original movies, often lampooned as the TV equivalent of trashy beach novels. The emphasis will continue, with production being ramped up from below 60 movies a year to 80, Daniels said. Human Trafficking, which received much attention last year, is an example of how Lifetime is trying to broaden the franchise.
But Daniels also saw the need to bring on new series as quickly as possible.
Cheerleader Nation, a 10-week reality series about a championship team from Lexington, Ky., proved highly relatable. By also focusing on the cheerleaders' equally intense stage moms, the series has something that women of different ages can identify with, Daniels said.
That's the whole idea for Lifetime (new slogan: "find your own story"): Get younger but don't alienate the audience that is already there.
Lovespring, the next new series, due in June, is an improvisational comedy produced by Eric McCormack of Will & Grace focusing on the weirdos running a high-end dating service. Angela's Eyes starts in July, starring Abigail Spencer as an FBI agent whose mind-reading skills complicate her social life.
The network is also working on movies about Barrino's life and karaoke queens, along with scripted series about a divorced 40-year-old passing herself off as 28 and a company that tries to "put the fun back into funerals."
"You name the genre," Daniels said, "I'm developing something in it."