Wednesday, June 30, 2010
USA Network Buys Modern Family Repeats Starting Fall 2013, Oxygen Buys Glee Repeats; Futurama Returns Scores for Comedy Central
Modern Family stars Ed O'Neill as Jay, Julie Bowen as Claire, Ty Burrell as Phil, Sofía Vergara as Gloria, Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Mitchell, Eric Stonestreet as Cameron, Sarah Hyland as Haley, Nolan Gould as Luke, Ariel Winter as Alex and Rico Rodriguez as Manny. The series is produced by Twentieth Century Fox Television in association with Levitan Lloyd Productions. Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd are executive producers/creators.
Modern Family is the biggest sitcom acquisition by USA Network since Wings in 1995. Wings aired on USA Network from 1995-2002 to good numbers. It returned to early morning in June 2008 and is sill airing. Financially, Modern Family is their biggest sitcom acquisition ever. Some of the past sitcoms they have aired were all in the morning hours such as Coach, Becker, Perfect Strangers, Gimme a Break!, Webster, The Facts of Life, Major Dad, Saved by the Bell: The New Class, Martin and Living Single. USA Network was also famous for airing short-lived sitcoms in the mornings in their USAM block, such as Hearts Afire, Veronica's Closet, Jesse, and Something So Right. They also had original comedies such as Weird Science and USA High in the '90s.
By Fall 2013, Modern Family will be entering its fifth season on ABC. Currently, USA Network has no other comedies to pair Modern Family with, so they will either buy another comedy or pair it with original programming.
Meanwhile, Oxygen Media and Twentieth Television have reached an exclusive agreement for the basic cable syndication rights to Twentieth Century Fox's critically-acclaimed television hit series Glee. The hour-long Glee will join the Oxygen line-up with a weekend marathon of the second season in January 2011. This will be followed by a companion unscripted reality competition series to discover the next Glee star scheduled to premiere in June 2011 to appear on the third season of the series in Fall 2011. Oxygen will retain exclusive basic cable rights to telecast all seasons throughout the Oxygen schedule beginning in Fall 2013.
Entering its second season this fall and renewed already for a third season on Fox, Glee is a biting musical comedy that has quickly become a pop-culture phenomenon. This is by far the biggest acquisition for the 10-year-old network. Past acquisitions have mainly been sitcoms such as Roseanne, Living Single, Mad About You, Grace Under Fire, Ellen, Kate & Allie, and A Different World. Non-sitcoms included Xena, America's Next Top Model, and The Tyra Banks Show. As with most cable network, Oxygen is focused primarily on original programming.
The Emmy(R) Award-winning animated sci-fi comedy Futurama, resurrected by Comedy Central, made an out-of-this-world return and, with 2.92 million total viewers, became the highest-rated and most-watched season premiere for an animated series on cable with the exception of South Park.
Airing its first original episode in almost seven years, the sixth season premiere of Futurama titled "Rebirth" (Thursday, 10:00-10:30 p.m.) averaged a 2.0 HH rating, 1.9 Adults 18-49 rating, 4.5 Men 18-24 rating and 3.5 Men 18-34 rating, finishing the night as the most-watched and highest-rated show in all of television for Thursday Prime among M18-24 and M18-34, as well as the highest-rated show in all of television among Adults 18-49 (tie).
With 2.92 million total viewers tuning in to watch the next chapter in the lives of Leela, Fry and Bender, the premiere powered Comedy Central to its highest-rated and most-watched night of 2010 among total viewers (1.7 million total viewers) and A18-49 (1.1 rating) and the highest-rated and most-watched Thursday night in the network's history among M18-24 (2.4 rating) and M18-34 (1.9 rating).
The second of two all-new, back-to-back premiere episodes of Futurama (Thursday, 10:30 p.m.-10:59 p.m.), averaged a 2.1 HH rating, 1.7 A18-49 rating, 4.2 M18-24 rating, 3.2 M18-34 rating and 2.78 million total viewers to rank as the #2 program of the night in all of television among M18-34 and M18-24, and the #1 cable show in its timeslot with A18-49 (tie), M18-34 and M18-24.
Encore presentations of the season premiere of Futurama air Sunday at 12:00 a.m., Monday at 12:30 a.m., Tuesday at 8:30 p.m., Wednesday at 9:00 p.m. and Thursday at 9:30 p.m. (all times ET/PT). And the series airs new episodes Thursdays at 10:00 p.m.
Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows
Tuesday, March 3
none scheduled
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of March 2)
Tuesday, March 3
- Ike Barinholtz (The Studio/The Afterparty/Bless the Harts/The Mindy Project/Eastbound & Down) - Catch Ike on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Michael Strahan (Brothers) - Michael is a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
- Maria Bamford (Lady Dynamite/Benched) - Maria appears on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
- Robby Hoffman (Hacks) - Robby is a guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- Christina Applegate (Dead to Me/Up All Night/Samantha Who?/Jesse/Married... with Children) - ABC's Good Morning America and GMA 3: What You Need to Know has Part 2 of Robin Roberts’ interview with Christina discussing her new memoir You with the Sad Eyes sometime between 7-9am and at 1pm.
- Zach Braff (Scrubs/Alex, Inc.) - Zach chats with the ladies of The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
- Christa Miller (Shrinking/Cougar Town/Scrubs/The Drew Carey Show) - Christa talks about Shrinking on Live with Kelly and Mark, so check your local listings.
- Brian Austin Green (Anger Management/Wedding Band/Freddie) - Brian talks about his film Golden on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
- Blair Underwood (Fatherhood/The New Adventures of Old Christine) - Blair and Ashton James talk about their film Youngblood on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
- Dorian Missick (Zoe Ever After) - Dorian talks about Prime's 56 Days on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
- Eric Roberts (Less Than Perfect) - Eric talks about his new memoir Runaway Train: Or, The Story of My Life So Far on Sherri, so check your local listings.
- Hilary Duff (How I Met Your Father/Younger/Lizzie McGuire) - Drew chats with Hilary all about growing up in the spotlight, motherhood and her return to pop music with her latest album and tour on The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
New on DVD and Blu-ray
07/22 - Bewitched - The Complete Series - 60th Anniversary Special Edition (Blu-ray)
08/26 - The Huckleberry Hound Show - The Complete Original Series (Blu-ray)
09/30 - Touché Turtle and Dum Dum - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
10/07 - Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage - The Complete First Season (DVD)
10/14 - Curb Your Enthusiasm - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) (DVD)
10/28 - St. Denis Medical - Season One (Blu-ray) (DVD)
11/04 - Happy's Place - Season One (Blu-ray) (DVD)
11/11 - Rick and Morty - Season 8 (Blu-ray) (DVD)
11/11 - SpongeBob SquarePants - The Complete Fifteenth Season (DVD)
11/11 - Two and a Half Men - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
12/02 - Tom and Jerry - The Golden Era Anthology (1940-1958) (Blu-ray) (DVD)
12/16 - Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
12/16 - Wally Gator - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
01/20 - The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Golden Age Collection (Blu-ray)
01/27 - The New Fred and Barney Show - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
02/11 - Tom and Jerry - The Complete CinemaScope Collection (Blu-ray)
03/24 - Looney Tunes Collector's Vault - Volume 2 (Blu-ray)
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