Movies, original and theatricals, along with acquired fare, will remain the
order for TBS Superstation and Turner Network Television in 2003 and 2004.
Steve Koonin, executive vice president and chief operating officer for both
networks, announced lineups heavy on films and light on original series during
the services' upfront presentation in New York Tuesday.
For TBS, Koonin talked up such original films as Evil Never Dies, a
Frankenstein-style thriller starring Thomas Gibson (Dharma & Greg)
and Katherine Heigl (Roswell); Red Water, the tale of a bull shark
terrorizing a small Louisiana town; and comedy National Lampoon's
Thanksgiving Family Reunion.
He also announced a fourth season of series Ripley's Believe It or Not
and House Dreams, a home-renovation-competition show sponsored by Lowe's
Home Improvement Warehouse.
Koonin also said TBS has extended its deal for Seinfeld with Columbia
TriStar Television through 2011. The show anchors the network's afternoon/early
evening "Non-Stop Comedy Block," which will house Everybody Loves Raymond
in July 2004.
Over at TNT, the focus will be on original films and miniseries including
Neil Simon's remake of The Goodbye Girl and Night Over Water, an
action-thriller set at the outset of World War II, as well as miniseries
Caesar and Stephen King's Salem Lot.
While Koonin didn't detail any new original dramatic series for TNT, which
has been without one since it pulled the plug on Witchblade last year, he
trumpeted the lineup of theatricals making their broadcast-window premieres on
TNT this year, including Proof of Life (June), The Wedding Planner
(July), Antitrust (November), Swordfish (a three-play in November)
and Along Came a Spider (a three-play in December).
For its part, TBS also has a slew of world broadcast-window premieres in the
months ahead, including such titles as The Patriot (June 8), Little
Nicky (June 27), Save the Last Dance (October) and Rush Hour 2
(first-quarter 2004).
