Queen Latifah isn’t the only show set to premiere in a suddenly crowded first-run landscape as the industry heads to NATPE in Miami at the end of the month.
Latifah joins Warner Bros.’ Bethenny, now cleared in 97% of the country, in daytime. The show, starring Bethenny Frankel, will be produced in New York City.
“New York is true to [Frankel’s] sensibility, and she has a huge fan base there,” says Hilary Estey McLoughlin, president of Telepictures. “It’s a very honest and truthful place, and that’s the essence of the show.”
CBS Television Distribution and Tribune are also bringing Arsenio Hall back to late night this fall, and that show also is mostly cleared througout the country.
But joining those one-name shows are several smaller shots.
Warner Bros. is launching TMZ Live, a spinoff of the successful entertainment magazine that started online, on 17 Fox-owned stations. The show is also available for other stations if the time periods and deal points are right. “TMZ Live is a place where celebrities are now coming to get the word out about what they’re up to,” says Harvey Levin, TMZ executive producer.
DNA testing is all the rage in syndication this year, with two new shows joining the conflict-talk crowd: MGM’s Paternity Court and CTD’s The Test.
And Twentieth has sold Cops Reloaded, a sprucedup version of Fox’s Saturday-night standard, Cops, to stations covering 80% of the country.
