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Hallmark Channel's movie network The Hallmark Movie Channel will bring back reruns of Perry Mason starting President's Day! The classic Raymond Burr series will start off with a 24-hour President's Day Marathon on Monday, Feb. 20, 2012 starting bright and early at 6am! Perry Mason will then start airing every weekday as well starting Tuesday, Feb. 21 and will air weekdays at 12 noon ET and 1pm ET, replacing Matlock. It seems Matlock will be off the schedule, but the two-hour movies will still pop-up on weekends from time to time. No word on when the regular Matlock airings will return, but you can still catch it on WGN America and in local syndication (if your market airs it). Perry Mason will be the lead-in to Murder, She Wrote, which remains weekdays at 2pm & 3pm ET. The Angela Lansbury drama will also still air at 12am & 1am, but Perry Mason will not get an encore. As you know, Murder, She Wrote also airs on TV Land, while Perry Mason can also be seen on MeTV Network and the two-hour movies pop-up from time to time on Encore Suspense.
No other series airs on The Hallmark Movie Channel and rightfully so, since it is a movie network. Stay with us for any further updates and we'll let you know if Matlock does indeed return at some point, but for now the verdict is in and Perry Mason is in!

Trifecta Entertainment & Media announced a two year deal to bring Leverage, the hit TNT television drama from Dean Devlin's Electric Entertainment, to the CBS-owned stations in 13 markets, beginning in Fall 2012. The fast-paced, light hearted caper series, recently picked up for its fifth season on TNT, will air on weekends on WCBS in New York, KCAL/KCBS in Los Angeles, WBBM in Chicago, KYW/WPSG in Philadelphia, KTVT/KTXA in Dallas, KPIX/KBCW in San Francisco, WBZ/WSBK in Boston, WUPA in Atlanta, WWJ/WKBD in Detroit, KSTW in Seattle, WCCO in Minneapolis, WPCW in Pittsburgh and WJZ in Baltimore.
Leverage follows a five-person team: a grifter, a hacker, a thief, a retrieval specialist, and their leader, former insurance investigator Nathan Ford (Hutton), who use their skills to right corporate and governmental injustices inflicted on ordinary citizens. In its fourth season, Leverage averaged more than 4.8 million viewers, up 10% over season three.

Speaking of syndication, the annual NATPE conference is Jan. 23-25 from Miami and we will bring you some news from that next week. We promise some classic TV sitcom news will come out of this as well. What will it be? Stay with us next week and find out!