Debmar-Mercury

Several low-cost shows are premiering this fall, but big names are nowhere to be seen.

The pop culture game show based on crosswords will debut on top market stations belonging to Fox, CBS, Nexstar, Scripps, Hearst, Gray, Sinclair and others, with Fox’s WWOR New York slotting It at 6 p.m. weeknights.

Tom Werner’s Werner Entertainment, the production company behind ABC’s popular comedy series The Conners, has signed a global licensing deal with Lionsgate’s Worldwide Television Distribution Group and Debmar-Mercury to make past seasons of the sitcom available on streaming and in syndication. Under the agreement, Lionsgate’s Worldwide Television Distribution Group will handle global distribution, including SVOD, AVOD, basic cable and FAST rights, while Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury will shepherd domestic syndication for the Roseanne spinoff. The deal covers all five seasons of the series as well as rights to future seasons following ABC’s first window.

Station groups and syndicators are looking to collaborate more in an effort to make new shows work for everyone.

Industry leaders from Fox Television Stations, Debmar-Mercury, E.W. Scripps, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Sony Pictures Television will unpack business challenges and programming opportunities in a panel at TVNewsCheck’s Programming Everywhere event at the NAB Show on April 16. Register here.

Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury has renewed hit game show Family Feud through the 2025-26 season, taking the Fremantle-produced show into its landmark 50th year on television. Leading station groups Fox, CBS, Nexstar, Scripps and Tegna have signed multi-year renewals for the nationally syndicated ratings juggernaut, hosted by Steve Harvey.

Last week, Fox Television Stations convened station groups and syndicators for a press- and deals-free ideas exchange in Los Angeles. Attendees said it could become an annual event. (Fox Television Stations photo)

The freshman talker hosted by actress, comedian and Daytime Emmy-winning co-host of The View, Sherri Shepherd, gains a long-term extension from its anchor station group.

Executives expect a quiet ’23 for the syndication market but insist that streaming isn’t hastening its demise altogether. Audiences and advertisers are still hanging in, though programming budgets may need to be right sized under pressure from fragmentation.

The pop culture game show hosted by Leah Remini is in its third season on Game Show Network and is now available to stations for fall 2023.

The new syndicated show from Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury sees clearances soar past 97% of U.S.

Kevin Hunter is suing Debmar-Mercury for wrongfully terminating him from his longtime role as executive producer of The Wendy Williams Show. The complaint claimed he was fired “on the basis of his marital status, which is barred by the New York City Human Rights Law.”

The New York-based daily talk show with Sherri Shepherd, the actress, comedian, best-selling author and daytime Emmy winner as longtime co-host of The View, will take over the Fox O&O time slots currently held by Debmar-Mercury’s The Wendy Williams Show.

Wendy Williams will not be returning to her daytime talk show this season, but the future of her show remains in flux. Meanwhile, Sherri Shepherd is in advanced discussions with Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury for her own daytime talk show, which could potentially replace Williams’ series, sources say.

Mort Marcus and Ira Bernstein, co-presidents of syndication company Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury, say that even as syndicated options recede and station groups ramp up their own programming, there’s still a business ahead for syndies.

TV station leaders and syndication producers face ever-changing guidance on how and when to bring people back as caution continues to abound and stringent COVID protocols return. Above, on Fox First-Run’s new syndicated show, You Bet Your Life, starring Jay Leno and his former Tonight Show band leader Kevin Eubanks, the live audience of 40-60 people are all vaccinated and masked. Note: This story is available to TVNewsCheck Premium members only. If you would like to upgrade your free TVNewsCheck membership to Premium now, you can visit your Member Home Page, available when you log in at the very top right corner of the site or in the Stay Connected Box that appears in the right column of virtually every page on the site. If you don’t see Member Home, you will need to click Log In or Subscribe.

Fox Television Stations will be the anchor group for the artist’s nationally syndicated, New York-based weekday talker from Debmar-Mercury.

Following last year’s weekday test, Debmar-Mercury’s syndicated magazine will launch for the full 2020-21 season with two original weekly half-hour episodes.

The comedy and winner of nine Emmys this week will debut in national syndication on Sept. 28.

Nick Cannon, a new daytime syndicated talk show, which had been set for a Sept. 21 national launch, will not debut this year. Production has shut down on the talker in the latest fallout from the anti-Semitic remarks the actor-comedian recently made on his podcast. “We are standing by Nick in our hope that by fall 2021 he will be able to use his extraordinary talent and platform to entertain, enlighten & unite his audience on the Nick Cannon talk show,” the companies behind the show, Lonsgate and its division Debmar-Mercury, said in a statement.

Daytime Emmy Award Winners Katy Murphy Davis and Matt Strauss join the new national daytime talker, debuting Oct. 5 in more than 95% of the U.S. from the ‘106 & Park’ Studios in Harlem.

The syndicated talk show from Debmar-Mercury will launch with more than 90% coverage, including all of the top 20 markets and 29 of the top 30 thanks to carriage by groups including Fox, CBS, Sinclair, Hearst, Nexstar, Mission, COX, Sunbeam, Capitol, Meredith, Tegna, Lockwood Broadcasting, Gray and CW Plus.

Debmar-Mercury’s Co-Presidents Ira Bernstein (l) and Mort Marcus say the syndication world has become more complex with fewer entry points for new programming. But despite threats from streaming there’s still plenty of opportunity left.

Fox Stations and Debmar-Mercury will roll out a revamped magazine show in September, offering two original weekly half-hour episodes. The move follows a test run during the November 2019 sweeps.

The XFL’s February debut and Summer Olympics are among factors having a cooling effect on weekly and weekend syndicated programming. Uncertainty around new FCC E/I rules and few available holes for weekly shows aren’t helping either.

Co-producer and distributor Debmar-Mercury says Fox will serve as the launch group for the eponymous talk show, giving it access to nearly 40% of U.S. TV homes and a fast start on clearing the rest of the country. Cannon is best known for his hosting duties on Fox’s The Masked Singer and NBC’s America’s Got Talent.

The deal clears the all-new Extra, The Real, TMZ and TMZ Live and will eliminate end breaks across the Fox-owned stations across the country.

The new day-and-date series from Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury and producer Will Packer names five New York and Los Angeles correspondents who will aid hosts Julissa Bermudez and Sanya Richards-Ross in covering the celebrity worlds of relationships, red carpets, money, the law and trends emerging in Hollywood, social media and apps.

The new syndicated daytime show from Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury is slated to debut in 2020.

Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury and producer Will Packer team for a five-week preview of Atlanta-Based Central Ave starting Nov. 4 on select Fox Television Stations.

CTD adds all current and future Debmar-Mercury product, including Wendy Williams, Caught in Providence and Fremantle’s Family Feud, to Its 11-show media sales slate.

Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury and Funny Or Die partner for a three-week summer preview of an entertainment-talk-comedy hosted by Jerry O’Connell beginning Aug. 12 on some Fox O&Os.

Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury & Citylife Productions’ freshman series with Judge Frank Caprio is cleared in nearly 90% of the U.S., including the Fox Television Stations, for a second season.

Williams, who is recovering from an injury she said she suffered last month, will resume taping of her syndicated Wendy Williams Show on Jan. 21, distributor and producer Debmar-Mercury confirmed Wednesday. That’s a week later than the Jan. 14 return date that had been previously announced.