Exclusive: MGM Renews 'Lauren Lake's Paternity Court' for Two More Years

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MGM’s Lauren Lake’s Paternity Court is renewed for two more years in 72% of the country, taking the court show through the 2017-18 TV season, said John Bryan, president of MGM Domestic Television Distribution, on Wednesday. 

Renewing the show are the CBS, Tribune, Sinclair and Weigel station groups. Lauren Lake’s Paternity Court, which debuted in 2013, is currently cleared in 85% of the country, and Bryan expects to reach that number again.

However, MGM has decided to no longer subscribe to Nielsen’s national ratings service for the show, with Bryan saying it’s “too expensive. Most of these court shows run mostly direct-response ads, not general-market ads, so it’s not worth it. I had conversations with all of our national advertisers and they were all fine with it.”

TV station groups generally are not concerned with how syndicated shows perform nationally, only with how shows are doing in their markets.

Lauren Lake’s Paternity Court will still carry national advertising, with the half-hour show offering stations a 4 national/4 local barter split and airing mostly in double-runs on stations across the country.

Paige Albiniak
Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.