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Hallmark Channel

MarcB

MarcB

The Hallmark Channel currently has the rights to 4 sitcoms - The Golden Girls, MASH, I Love Lucy, and Cheers. Yet the only 2 getting decent ratings are The Golden Girls and MASH. I wonder why. Before they starting airing The Golden Girls in March they were showing I Love Lucy and Cheers 8AM-10AM and 2AM-3AM. The ratings tanked. So Cheers was replaced by more Lucy. That tanked as well. So then they picked up The Golden Girls for 8AM-10AM (as well as several other time slots) and ratings went up a lot, so they decided to build on GG's lead-in and air LUCY 10AM-11AM. The ratings from the end of the Golden Girls at 10 to the end of LUCY at 11 fell by more than half. Now LUCY and Cheers are relegated to 1/2 hour each 2AM-3AM.

My question is this - Were LUCY's ratings that bad when TVLAND aired the show?
 
MarcB said:
The Hallmark Channel currently has the rights to 4 sitcoms - The Golden Girls, MASH, I Love Lucy, and Cheers. Yet the only 2 getting decent ratings are The Golden Girls and MASH. I wonder why. Before they starting airing The Golden Girls in March they were showing I Love Lucy and Cheers 8AM-10AM and 2AM-3AM. The ratings tanked. So Cheers was replaced by more Lucy. That tanked as well. So then they picked up The Golden Girls for 8AM-10AM (as well as several other time slots) and ratings went up a lot, so they decided to build on GG's lead-in and air LUCY 10AM-11AM. The ratings from the end of the Golden Girls at 10 to the end of LUCY at 11 fell by more than half. Now LUCY and Cheers are relegated to 1/2 hour each 2AM-3AM.

My question is this - Were LUCY's ratings that bad when TVLAND aired the show?
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I'd love to know that. I know that we watched TV Land on weekend mornings because Lucy was on, and we no longer do. Most people I know like that show. Are we strange? I tend to doubt it. And, I rarely even check what's on Hallmark as we never watch it. So, there is at least 1 household that TVL had for ILL and HC doesn't. Not very scientific, I know.

What's possible is that the Hallmark Channel is the wrong venue for ILL. It doesn't attract the right audience. That the Golden Girls is killing on HC tells you that it's the nursing home set that's tuning in - at least at that hour. Especially women. And that's not necessarily who was watching Lucy at this point. Or Cheers. I tend to think that the brand of humor on those shows is a bit more male-oriented - especially Cheers.

M*A*S*H was a hilarious show in it's first 2 seasons before it got all touchy-feely. I think those later shows would do better with women, but it's hard to say.
 
But The Golden Girls was also a hit with college girls when it aired on Lifetime. And, for some reason, my parents always liked Cheers a lot more than I ever did. So who knows?

As for I Love Lucy, I think there was a big marketing campaign when it aired in prime time on TV Land around 10 years ago or so. I remember they made a big deal about restoring the original animated credits which hadn't been seen since its original run (or something to that effect). Anyway, it was a new approach to get people to watch an old show again which they probably wouldn't otherwise. I thought it worked, but I guess I'm wrong.
 
Personally, I think Lucy would be a better fit for WGN. Same for Cheers. Neither fit the network's image, I don't think....sort of a 50+ network. Matlock, LHOTP, Golden Girls, etc. just don't fit well with those 2.
 
I think that Hallmark has done a VERY poor job with I Love Lucy and Cheers. They're even worse than TV Land in just giving them a short run and then shuffling them off to extremely late night or early morning. The only time I watch Hallmark is when I happen to be home when MASH is on, and that doesn't happen very often.

It seems like that it was a bad idea for the shows' distributors to let Hallmark have exclusive cable rights. With as many shows as there are that are shown on multiple cable networks, it would make sense to have at least 2 cable channels with the rights to show them. I agree that I'd like to see WGN pick up Lucy and Cheers.
 
Cheers and Lucy ended up on Hallmark because TVLAND didnt renew its contracts for those 2 shows, so Hallmark got the rights and unfortunately both shows tanked in the ratings. Cheers still airs on local stations in some markets either on a regular basis or as filler. As for The Golden Girls, they share the rights with WE. One thing I noticed with GG on Hallmark is that they episodes are not cut. I watched every episode proabably several hundred times on Lifetime and now watching them on Hallmark I'm hearing dialog that was cut out on Lifetime. (Much like when Nick-At-Nite picked up Home Improvement).
 
BRNout said:
That the Golden Girls is killing on HC tells you that it's the nursing home set that's tuning in - at least at that hour. Especially women.
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You can't stereotype the Golden Girls as an "old lady" show. I'm a 30yr old male and I have seen every episode probably 100 times. I even own a couple seasons on DVD. I think it's one of the funniest shows ever on TV. I know a lot of people from all demographics that love the show.
 
I have to agree that Golden Girls had a broad audience during its original run and, most likely, has a broad audience now. I'm in my mid-40's now and still love the Golden Girls. I remember watching Bea Arthur and Betty White when I was a little kid on Maude and Mary Tyler Moore.
 
Wasn't the Hallmark Channel once a All Religious Channel before Hallmark acquired them?
 
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