Both TVLAND and The Hallmark Channel offer compelling options that could save Men of a Certain Age from permanent cancellation at TNT.
TVLAND already airs Everybody Loves Raymond episodes close to 200 times a month, wowzer. TVLAND has been able to use Everybody Loves Raymond's success to help launch their own original sit com programming such as Hot in Cleveland, Retired at 35, and Unhappily Married.
TVLAND has a proclivity for re-running their own original programming over and over and over. TVLAND then use this re-broadcasting of the same original programming to help amp up the total viewership of their new shows. Additionally, TVLAND runs a LOT of promos on, Everybody Loves Raymond.
It also didn't hurt that the first year promo's of Hot in Cleveland were very mediocre, so when year two of H.I.C. improved in quality, so did the promo's. This enabled Hot in Cleveland to be trumpeted as the fastest growing and successful original programming sit com on television.
Ray Romano of Everybody Loves Raymond has also appeared on TVLAND's annual TVLAND awards show. Ray Romano has been a boon to TVLAND.
TVLAND now has an opportunity to both help themselves and Men of a Certain Age. The 22 episodes of MOACA that are already produced by TNT would fit perfectly as a one month rotation for TVLAND. The episodes need to run in order and TVLAND would be able to run the show often enough to make it something fans of Ray Romano would look forward to on a nightly and weekend basis.
Every night I would put MOACA at 8PM (It's a one hour program). I would then put the standard 2 hours of Everybody Loves Raymond right afterwards from 9pm to 11pm. At 11PM I would rebroadcast the same MOACA from 8PM.
On weekends TVLAND could show a 3 hour block of MOACA on both Saturday and Sunday. This would enable fans too busy during the week to see six consecutive MOACA shows over the same weekend. This would help take the pressure off of TVLAND to keep rerunning their own original programming over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over, again and again.
If TVLAND could not afford TNT's licensing arrangement, TNT should consider buying the 8PM and 11PM one hour time slots directly from TVLAND and broadcasting MOACA while filling in the commercial time themselves. Ray Romano could do some funny promos where he talks about people watching his new show "Men of a Certain Age" (then whispers, "but I'm the only one from ELR in the new show"), intercut with sound bites from Everybody Loves Raymond, like his brother Robert saying, "It's always about you, Ray".
If TVLAND decides to play hardball, HallMark represents another exciting opportunity for Men of a Certain Age and TNT. Hallmark is presently running Frasier TEN TIMES everyday! In essence, Hallmark is following the "show all the shows in one month motiff" with Frasier that TVLAND is doing with Everybody Loves Raymond.
Just like TVLAND, Hallmark has put Frasier on in a three hour prime time block, plus additional shows in the morning as well.
Putting MOACA directly in front of Frasier and rerunning that same MOACA episode right after Frasier could do wonders for HallMark's primetime programming as it would allow them to cut Frasier down to two hours from three hours.
(edit note - September 5, 2011, 9:30PM) Upon additional research, I have found people posting on both HallMark and TVLAND discussion pages saying they are sick and tired of all the promo's for TVLAND's Hot in Cleveland and for playing Frasier so many times every day on HallMark.)
If I were TVLAND, I would be kind of freaking out that a Ray Romano produced show could end up on a competing channel and possibly become a strong lead in for Frasier, while also giving HALLMARK a way to prevent oversaturating Frasier by reducing the hours they play of Frasier from 3 hours every night to 2.
Why is it important that a show like Men of a Certain Age not be permanently cancelled? Men of a Certain Age is a show about people "figuring it out", rather than a show about intrusive people capturing, condemning, conniving, convincing, confiscating, chasing, or cheating others so they themselves can "win".
Please like the Facebook page Fight to Save Men of a Certain Age from Cancellation.
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2 comments:
You know I had all but given up any hope that there was a way this show could be saved. I really and truly think you have hit upon a wonderful idea. Especially with TV Land. Is there any way to pitch this to them?
Hi Kim. This being Hollywood, pitching to the Hallmark Channel would probably make TVLAND want Men of a Certain Age!
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