PASADENA, Calif. -- For years, the Lifetime channel called itself “Television for Women,” and no wonder. More than any other cable network, Lifetime had direct access to millions of female viewers. It had perfected a popular brand of damsel-in-distress entertainment where women were perpetually in danger from their ex-husbands, creepy boyfriends and trendy illnesses.
But ratings aren't what they were, so there's a new Lifetime in town, as evidenced by the new series, “Army Wives,” set to premiere in June. Besides looking like the best thing to come from Lifetime in nearly a decade (since “Any Day Now” in 1998), “Army Wives” sets a new tone for the channel, one in which men are not assumed to be pigs until proven otherwise.
Set at a southern military base, “Army Wives” has a great pedigree. It stars Kim Delaney of “NYPD Blue” and Catherine Bell of “JAG” and comes from producer Mark Gordon, whose most recent credits are a couple of little shows called “Criminal Minds” and “Grey's Anatomy.”
“I don't think it's the women's channel anymore,” Gordon said. “I think that they're broadening their horizons in terms of their audience. So we were very excited to make this multidimensional show with these wonderful actors and these wonderful characters that appeals to a very broad audience.”
Perhaps most striking about “Army Wives” is that, while Delaney and Bell play spouses of military men, the show also features a black power couple in which the husband, played by Sterling K. Brown, is second banana to his wife (Wendy Davis), an ambitious Army officer who's just returned from Afghanistan.
This doesn't mean Lifetime has forgotten how to make the secret sauce. Beginning January 29 and for four straight Mondays, it's presenting movies adapted from the wildly popular romance-mysteries by Nora Roberts. The press session for those was opened by this question to producer Peter Guber: “In your research, did you discover any men who had read Nora Roberts?”
That got a laugh. In response, Guber implied that it didn't really matter, since Roberts' audience is older, married women.
And so, to the men in the room, Guber said, “If you're married and your wife says, 'We're watching this tonight,' there's a good chance you're watching it tonight.”
Other news from the winter press tour
* For the first time in its 16-year history, the MTV Movie Awards will be broadcast live on June 3. This should prove a challenge to producer Mark Burnett (“Survivor”), who's overseeing the broadcast. The awards tend to be quite the bleepfest -- hence the tradition of taping the show. Then again, it's not like the Parents Television Council will be watching or anything.
* Earlier this week at the Consumer Electronics Show, Comedy Central introduced “South Park Mobile,” with clips from all 10 years of the show, plus behind-the-scenes dirt and Q-and-A with the creators of “South Park.” The service will be offered sometime in 2007.
* Donnie Wahlberg will co-star with John Leguizamo in Spike TV's “The Killpit,” and eight-part miniseries about “a bank heist that goes terribly awry.” It's scheduled for this summer.
* ESPN is turning the bestselling book The Bronx Is Burning, about the 1977 New York Yankees, into an eight-part miniseries to air later this year.
Burnett will already have live show specialists in place in May for the Survivor finale (historically the Sunday before upfronts), so it makes some sense.
Posted by: Keith | January 16, 2007 at 01:23 AM