Lifetime Revamped

Throughout it's life time, Lifetime, the television network that markets women, has been known  as the "Estrogen Channel".Synonymous for depicting the 'scorned women', Lifetime's dramatic made for tv movies, although the target of many jokes, has been a staple for American television.

However, the emergence of other women targeted networks such Oxygen and WEtv, Lifetime's ratings  have been dropping for a number of years.

So what's a ailing network to do? Remodel itself of course.

Lifetime is no stranger to remodeling, below are tag lines Lifetime featured for the last 30 years:

"Lifetime Medical Television" (1984-1993)

"Television for Women" (1994–2006)

"My Story is on Lifetime" (2006–2008)

"Connect. Play. Share." (2008–2012)

"Your Life. Your Time." (2012–present)

The newest remodel "Your Life. Your Time", that launched May 2nd, in my opinion, has been the biggest programming revamp since 'Medical Television' was Lifetimes focus. In attempts to get the ratings up "Your Life. Your Time." claims to target the modern women, for which managing her time, has now become the biggest issue of her day. The message struck an immediate cord with Nancy Dubuc, network CEO, and the other women managing the network. Dubuc herself, who is currently juggling multiple television networks (including Lifetime and A&E) could definitely relate.

The new “L” logo (shown at top) is not the only change Lifetime has made, remodeling it’s entire line up of shows to include more racy, fast paced shows.

Shows such as the Client List, which stars Jennifer Love Hewitt, as a masseuse, whose clients expect more than just a massage

And their new reality show staring Bristol Palin, focusing on her life from the after math of being a teenage mother, and daughter of Sarah Palin.

Big names also involved in the shows relaunch line up include Queen Latifah, Courtney Cox, Renee Zellweger and Demi Moore. The shows in their line up (aside from the out of place America’s Most Wanted) do all sound promising. I don’t exactly love the logo, logo that instead of an L, appears to be a yin-yang sign gone wrong, however I can definitely say I am excited to see how Lifetime fairs with their relaunch, especially compared to their competing networks like Oxygen, whose Bad Girl’s Club, sadly, has attributed to much of Oxygen’s success. 

Women Behind the Scenes- Pt. 1

                                                            

                                                            

The Top Ten Most Powerful Women in Television ( according to ADNEWS ) are: 

(In Order from Left to right from images above)

Abbe Raven - CEO of A&E Networks

Bonnie Hammer- USA Networks  

Anne Sweeny- CEO Disney -ABC 

Debra Lee- BET

Lauren Zalaznick- NBCUniversal

Linda Yaccarino- Turner 

Nancy Dubuc- A&E Networks

Nina Tassler and Jo Ann Ross

Oprah Winfrey

         

                    

AdNews comments on the general style of the women who now are taking over the airwaves are significantly different from their male precedence. Unlike the boasting, arrogant, showy men that treated television as a 'lifestyle', these women run it for what it is, a business. 

A list of 'to do's', which being a women studying the medium understand that sentiment exactly. There's little glamorous about the job, and when there is a slight bit of glamor attached, I could imagine it would be hard to enjoy, having to worry about who needs to be where and when, whether or not a story is in on time, whether or not a program is attracting enough viewers. And a million other things that can and will go wrong. 

The change from men controlling the atmosphere to women in a lot of major networks, also coincides with the fact that most of the people watching television, aside from ESPN, are women. Rarely do I hear any of my male acquaintances contemplating how they are going to get home in time before there favorite show starts, nor do I hear them gossiping over the last nights episode of Teen Wolf, and how awesome it was. Actually I take that back, I have heard that one, but my point it, women are the undeniable major market demographic in television, and women know how women think. With that being said this was a change that was bound to happen. 

It is an interesting fact however, that many have said, including myself,  television "isn't as good as it used to be" and the quality of the content is suffereing. Does this have anything to do with the leadership of the estrogenized bosses? Or is this a completely different issue to blame entirely?