Hoping to appeal to female viewers' funny bones, Oxygen will launch six new
comedy series as part of its fall programming lineup.
The female-targeted network will also bring back six other original shows,
including Oprah After the Show and Girls Behaving Badly, president
of programming Debby Beece said.
Oxygen, however, did not pick up former Murphy Brown star Candice
Bergen's series, Candice Checks It Out, according to executives.
Beece would not reveal the network's original-programming budget for 2003, but
she said Oxygen's new slate is the most ambitious original-programming rollout
in its history.
"We've been ramping up and getting more shows on air that are emblematic of
the network, but I think this is the biggest full-series slate we've had," she
added.
Beece said the new comedy leanings will help to distinguish Oxygen from others
in the marketplace.
The new entries include Can You Tell, a reality game show, as well as
two animated skeins: Hey Monie, a co-production with Black Entertainment
Television about a single African-American professional woman; and Life's a
Bitch, which looks at the lives of 30-something women.
Other new shows on tap include Sexual Anthropology, a "dramedy"
focusing on a 20-something man looking for love, and In Your Dreams,
about a working/romantic relationship between two book writers.
The network is also co-producing eight new episodes of Absolutely
Fabulous (Comedy Central), which are set to bow early next year. Oxygen is
currently airing library installments of the popular import.
