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.
Groups Likely To Expand Program Production
The trend of station groups creating and syndicating their own shows has proven itself as a worthy way to create cost-effective programming that speaks to local and regional audiences, according to a panel of executives who spoke Wednesday at NATPE.
Debmar-Mercury is syndicating the Netflix adult animated comedy starring Will Arnett as a washed-up 1990s sitcom horse.
Fox Television Stations acquire Debmar-Mercury and Citylife Productions’ syndicated strip for fall 2018 national syndication launch.
Courtroom TV queen Judge Judy Sheindlin is expanding into the game show space with iWitness (working title), a new half-hour syndicated game show from her Queen Bee Productions, FremantleMedia North America and Debmar-Mercury, which is set for a six-week test run on the Fox stations this summer.
The Debmar-Mercury syndicated strip hosted by Craig Ferguson will not be back for a fourth season.
Exclusives
Debmar-Mercury Co-Founders and Co-Presidents Mort Marcus and Ira Bernstein have signed new long-term agreements with Lionsgate, which bought their company in 2006.
Fox Television Stations join, Media General and Cox in re-upping the syndicated talker, pushing clearances to more than 50% of the U.S. entering NATPE.
The syndicated game show from FremantleMedia North America and Debmar-Mercury will return for a third season following renewals by the Tribune and Sinclair station groups.
The broadcast group will air the new syndicated talker on its 29 stations and has taken over distribution from Debmar-Mercury.
Wendy Williams is holding her own in a tough business, even growing her audience in some measurements during her seventh season. The syndicated Wendy Williams Show is watched by roughly 2 million people each day. The bejewelled microphone she carries and the collection of wigs in her dressing room speak to Williams’ outsized personality. She’s noticeably toned things down, however, to broaden her appeal.
Debmar-Mercury exec Mort Marcus (c) says Wendy Williams (l) has it, but Meredith Vieira doesn’t. Marcus and Debmar-Mercury Co-President Ira Bernstein also offered opinions on the outlook for broadcast TV, the impact of station group consolidation on syndication and more.
The new show’s four-week syndication test will offer personal stories behind socially relevant topics based on the headlines.
The new hour-long syndicated talk show distributed by Debmar-Mercury will debut Aug. 17 for four weeks in afternoon time periods on Tegna stations in Dallas, Atlanta, Minneapolis and Cleveland.
The Debmar-Mercury syndicated talk show will continue live production for the third consecutive summer following its finish in fourth place nationally among talk shows this season.
Connick Show Heads 2016 Development Slate
A variety-talk show with American Idol judge Harry Connick Jr. from NBCUniversal tops the shows being developed for first-run syndication for fall 2016, according to sources. Warner Bros. is prepping the return of Love Connection and a talk show with personal finance wiz Suze Orman. Fox will be testing two or three show this summer, while Debmar-Mercury and partner Gannett work on an interactive show.
The weekly half-hour show, which launched its seventh season on Comedy Central last month and averages about 2.1 million viewers per episode, will air on Fox TV Stations and other station groups primarily in latenight time slots on weekends and as a Monday-Friday strip.. Stations can air back-to-back episodes.
The syndicator’s three first-run shows — Family Feud, Wendy Williams and Celebrity Name Game -— posted strong ratings in the week ending Feb. 22. Celebrity and Wendy hit records in household ratings, while Feud matched its all-time high.
Fox O&Os Game For Latest Diginet: Buzzr TV
The new multicast network from FremantleMedia North America and Debmar-Mercury will feature iconic game shows. It’s set for a summer launch.
As VP of development, former TLC executive Stephanie Eno will find and guide the development of interactive projects for producing, testing and national syndication at the new partnership.
The new 10/90 sitcom from Debmar-Mercury premiered Monday at 9 p.m. to 449,000 viewers in the key adult 18-49 demographic. A second episode at 9:30 p.m. had 381,000 viewers. Later this week, the cable network will issue live-plus-three-day ratings.
She will oversee all programming, development and production, partnering with EVP Lonnie Burstein, in addition to continuing direct supervision of The Wendy Williams Show and Celebrity Name Game.
The new partnership gives Gannett Broadcasting the ability to test and perfect broad-appeal, first-run syndicated programming with a focus on interactivity across all genres from Debmar-Mercury on many of its stations beginning in 2015. In addition, Gannett will use the digital presence of its stations — including mobile — to reach viewers wherever they are.
For the second year in a row, the Debmar-Mercury talker will remains in production in June and July, following its best May sweeps performance in the metered markets.
If the new show starring Kelsey Grammer and Martin Lawrence does well in its summer run on FX, it will go into broadcast syndication for fall 2017.
She will spearhead creation, execution of branded content and advertiser partnerships.
Debmar-Mercury’s new comedy game show hosted by Craig Ferguson will debut this September.
E.W. Scripps/Debmar-Mercury says they are shooting to roll out the syndicated legal show nationally next year.
The sale puts the Craig Ferguson-hosted syndicated show to 58 more markets for a fall 2014 debut.
Debmar-Mercury and Fremantle have tapped the host of CBS’s Late Late Show to also host Celebrity Name Game, a new half-hour game show they have in the works for fall 2014. The show would serve as a companion to Family Feud.
Lionsgate-owned Debmar-Mercury is finalizing a deal with TV station owner E.W. Scripps to partner on a syndicated legal panel talk show with The View alum Star Jones as one of the co-hosts. There isn’t a full-fledged pilot for the project yet, but segments with Jones have been taped.
Two months of additional new shows follow the Debmar-Mercury syndicated talker’s record-setting February sweeps performance.
Lionsgate says it wants to ramp up its 10/90 model for comedy production on the heels of its recent success with the Charlie Sheen-starring Anger Management. A George Lopez show is moving toward launch, while Lionsgate confirmed Tuesday a series featuring an “odd couple pairing” of Martin Lawrence and Kelsey Grammer is in development.
She joins with manager Kevin Hunter and Debmar-Mercury to form Wendy Williams Productions. They sign veteran reality producer Lisa Knapp as SVP of development for WWP’s slate of non-fiction reality, game and talk programming aimed at cable and broadcast markets.
The off-net CBS sitcom is being pitched to station buyers. Other contenders for the market two years out include Debmar-Mercury’s Anger Management with Charlie Sheen.
The Lionsgate subsidiary is nearing a deal for a sitcom with the former ABC and Turner star that follows its 10-90 episode syndication model.
Distributors Debmar-Mercury will host a party for the Anger Management star at the syndication conference in late January.
Debmar-Mercury Renews ‘Jeremy Kyle’
Top Fox and Sinclair stations push renewals of the freshman syndicated talk show past 50% of U.S. TV households.
