Lifetime Television

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Lifetime Television
Launched	February 1, 1984
Owned by	Lifetime Entertainment Services
Slogan	Television for Women
Headquarters	New York, New York, United States
Sister channel(s)	LMN, Lifetime Real Women
Website	www.mylifetime.com
Availability
Satellite
DirecTV	Channel 252
Dish Network	Channel 108
Cable
Available on most cable systems	51

Lifetime Television is an American television network devoted to movies, sitcoms and dramas, all of which are either geared toward women or feature women in lead roles. The network is owned by The Walt Disney Company and Hearst Corporation.

Contents 1 History 2 Carriers 3 Logos 4 Programs broadcast by Lifetime 4.1 Original programming 4.2 Former original programming 4.3 Syndicated programming 4.4 Former syndicated programming 5 Weekday Schedule 6 Criticism 6.1 Negative criticism 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] History

Lifetime was established as the result of a merger of Hearst's Daytime network, established in March 1982 as a four hour per day service with women's programming and Viacom's Cable Health Network, established in June 1982 as a 24-hour service that carried health and wellness programming.

The service originally aired women's programming during the day on Monday–Saturdays, and offered the Lifetime Medical Television service on Sundays from November 1983 to June 1993 carrying programming for health professionals.

Among the most popular shows currently on the channel are Frasier, The Golden Girls, Reba, Still Standing, and Will & Grace. The network has recently acquired and added past episodes of Desperate Housewives, Medium, and Grey's Anatomy to its weekend lineup. The network also airs original programming such as Strong Medicine, Intimate Portrait, Blood Ties, and Army Wives.

In addition, Lifetime airs many movies targeting to women-both original and other networks' made for television. Lifetime Movie Network (launched in 1998). These movies usually have frequent appearances by Meredith Baxter-Birney, Melissa Gilbert, or Valerie Bertinelli.

Aside from women's programming, the network used to air several game shows in prime time, including Supermarket Sweep, Shop 'Til You Drop and Debt. Lifetime also produced one original game show (Who Knows You Best?, starring Gina St. John), with a format based on The Newlywed Game. It was cancelled after one season.

In April 2004, Lifetime launched Lifetime Radio for Women, a daily nationally syndicated four-hour morning block mixing adult contemporary music, live caller interaction, celebrity guests and lively discussions about the topics relating to women. In partnership with Jones Radio, The service airs Monday to Friday from 5 to 9 AM or 6 to 10 AM, depending on the market.

Lifetime is a property of Lifetime Entertainment Services, which owns a number of media ventures. Viacom remained as co-owner with ABC/Capital Cities and Hearst until 1994.

Around 2005, Lifetime dropped its signature tagline Television for Women (used since 1995). The network launched a new look and tagline on July 16, 2006 with the launch of the then-new, now-defunct original series Angela's Eyes, using a new logo and promotions with the tagline My story is on Lifetime.

On March 31, 2005, Betty Cohen, previously an executive at Turner Broadcasting Services, was named CEO of Lifetime Entertainment Services according to the Walt Disney Company.^[1]

Lifetime's main competitors as "women's channels" are the Oxygen Network and WE: Women's Entertainment, although both of those services have substantially lower ratings than the spin off Lifetime Movie Network, much less Lifetime.

Because of the obvious feminine slant to the network's programming, Lifetime is often jokingly referred to as The Estrogen Channel. Other comedy programs have satirized Lifetime's sometimes sentimental programing. Family Guy once parodied their slogan, making it Lifetime: Television for Idiots.

Lifetime Television has just teamed up with Glam Media, Inc. to develop a new vertical media network called Lifetime Glam with co-branded websites and shared content.^[2]

[edit] Carriers

On January 1, 2006, Dish Network dropped Lifetime becoming the only major U.S. multichannel television distributor not carrying the channel. This was a result of contract expiration. Dish Network chose to continue with the discontinuation of the transmission. Should they have decided to renew the contract, Dish Network claimed that this would have forced them to increase rates by as much as 76.47%, although Dish sometimes quoted other figures in their press releases. Lifetime responded by claiming that the rates were only four cents per viewer per month and that even at the end of the contract the total increases were nowhere near 76%. Neither side issued complete figures to verify their claims. Dish would eventually add competitor Oxygen to its channel line-up later in the month.

On February 1, 2006, Lifetime's 22nd birthday, Dish announced they were returning Lifetime Television and Lifetime Movie Network to their service.^[3]

[edit] Logos

The original logo was used from February 1984 and was used until May or June 1995. The logo was a square with a small square, resembling an "L". That logo was changed in May or June 1995. It was changed again in July 2006. In early 2008, the network began to phase in a new logo while phasing out its previous one. The change became permanent on Memorial Day.

Lifetime's original logo, used from February 1984-June 1995.

Former logo and tagline for the network, launched in July 2006 during the launch of Angela's Eyes, and discontinued on May 27, 2008.

[edit] Programs broadcast by Lifetime

† - Seasons 3-5 of The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd were produced exclusively for Lifetime after airing for two seasons on NBC.

[edit] Weekday Schedule

Lifetime's Weekday Schedule (Monday - Friday). Original Programming is in red; syndicated programming is in yellow; orange is for mixed time slots; and green is for movie time slots.

Times given are ET/PT.

7:00 AM	The Balancing Act
7:30 AM	Get Married
8:00 AM	The Nanny
8:30 AM	The Nanny
9:00 AM	The Golden Girls
9:30 AM	The Golden Girls
10:00 AM	Frasier
10:30 AM	Frasier
11:00 AM	Will & Grace
11:30 AM	Will & Grace
12:00 PM	Movie
2:00 PM	Movie
4:00 PM	The Golden Girls
4:30 PM	The Golden Girls
5:00 PM	Still Standing
5:30 PM	Still Standing
6:00 PM	Reba
6:30 PM	Reba
7:00 PM	Reba (Monday) Still Standing (Tuesday-Friday)
7:30 PM	Reba (Monday) Still Standing (Tuesday-Friday)
8:00 PM	Army Wives (Monday) Reba (Tuesday-Friday)
8:30 PM	Reba
9:00 PM	Movie
11:00 PM	Will & Grace
11:30 PM	Will & Grace
12:00 AM	Frasier
12:30 AM	Frasier
1:00 AM	The Golden Girls
1:30 AM	The Golden Girls
2:00 AM	The Nanny

• Subtract one hour for Central and two hours Mountain time.

Weekend TV series

Saturdays 11:00 PM	Army Wives
Sundays 12:00 AM	Grey's Anatomy
Sundays 1:00 AM	Desperate Housewives
Sundays 7:00 PM	Movie
Sundays 9:00 PM	Army Wives
Sundays 10:00 PM	Army Wives
Sundays 11:00 PM	Medium

[edit] Criticism

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[edit] Negative criticism

Lifetime has been criticized for its promulgation of radical feminist philosophies and fear-mongering, including exaggerated portrayals of violence against women.^[4] Most of its features have suggested that only women are victims of rape and molestation. As part of a feature weekend, on April 15, 2007, LMN broadcast nine continuous hours of melodramatic movies with the central theme of men abusing women. Other stories have portrayed lesbians as the only members of the LGBT community oppressed by society.

It has also faced some criticism for the unimaginative or over-explanatory nature of its made-for-TV film titles. An example would be "Victim: Rape in A New Jersey Suburb" or "Hope: One Woman's Struggle With Breast Cancer". In fact, an episode of Family Guy parodied Lifetime's widely-criticized program titles in a sequence where the family is watching the channel. In this sequence, a male OB/GYN is supposed to be examining a woman for cancer. To no one's surprise, the man rapes her and then tells her she has cancer. After she begins to sob, the announcer brings the viewers to a break, saying that they will return shortly to "Men Are Terrible And Will Hurt You, Because This Is Lifetime." ^[5]

Critics point out that the Lifetime programs carry the hallmark of unimaginative storytelling where viewers are dumbed down and forced to follow a particular structure dictated by the screenplay, and not leaving any room for viewer imagination and room for viewers to draw their own conclusions.

In the spring of 2008 Lifetime faced its most ardent criticism from viewers for its cancellation of Side Order of Life, a groundbreaking series that featured a young woman grappling with her friend's cancer diagnosis. The show's creator is Margaret Nagle, the same woman who wrote the screenplay Warm Springs for HBO, which in 2005 nabbed a record breaking 16 nominations and 5 awards home at the Emmys.

Ironically, the same day Lifetime pulled the plug on Side Order of Life the show was awarded a Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Honors award for best series, in a new award that recognizes television that seeks to uplift the human condition.

Shocked and disheartened fans of the show spoke out against the decision, citing Lifetime's insensitivity to its audience and denounced this unanticipated move, ending the drama after only 13 episodes. Many cancer survivors wrote messages on Lifetimes website saying they felt betrayed by the network that supposedly *cares* about cancer survivors. Lifetime did not respond to any of the criticism other than to post a rather generic p.r. statement on the show's website. Despite the critical success and fan support of such programming Lifetime is apparently moving in a new direction. Lifetime announced it was purchasing Project Runway to help steer Lifetime the way of other networks bowing to reality television. Subsequently NBC sued the Weinstein Company, that owns the show for making the deal with Lifetime.

In a similar manner, Lifetime has come under fire for cancellations of other popular series. Perhaps the most vociferous challenge has come from the loyal fans of the Canadian-based Blood Ties. The series, based on novels written by Tanya Huff, had a tumultous run on the network. The single season purchased by Lifetime was broken up into two "mini-seasons" with a hiatus of several months between the delivery of the two portions. In addition, the final two episodes--We'll Meet Again and Deep Dark-- were only available to US viewers via streaming video on Lifetime's website. Many websites showing support for the now officially cancelled series have sprung up on the Internet, with fans calling for the series to be picked up by another network. Fans are outraged by the fact Blood Ties was cancelled with no closure to the storylines, and are further angered by the extended period of time that passed before the network made public the fate of the series.

[1]

[2]

[edit] See also

• LMN
• Lifetime Real Women, launched in 2001.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Site