 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Television syndication |
| Predecessors | Debmar Studios Mercury Entertainment |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Founder | Mort Marcus Ira Bernstein |
| Headquarters | 2700 Colorado Avenue, Santa Monica, California , |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Owner | Lionsgate |
| Parent | Lionsgate Television |
| Website | debmarmercury |
Debmar-Mercury is a television syndication company. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Lionsgate, it was formed from a merger of Debmar Studios and Mercury Entertainment in 2005.
Debmar-Mercury's history begins on October 31, 1993, when Mort Marcus founded Debmar Studios, with financial backing from The Walt Disney Company (where he had worked as senior vice president of sales at its Buena Vista Television syndication arm). Debmar signed a deal with CBS to distribute a handful of films and specials, such as My Fair Lady , Gunsmoke telefilms, the first two feature length Peanuts films ( A Boy Named Charlie Brown and Snoopy, Come Home ) and some Dr. Seuss/DFE animated specials. [1]
The company was revived in the early 2000s, with its first rights picked up being that of the animated sitcom South Park for off-net syndication, in association with Mercury Entertainment. [2] Tribune Entertainment was then attached as South Park 's advertising sales agent in 2004. [3] This was followed by the syndicated launch of Farscape , in association with Mercury Entertainment in 2004. [4]
In 2005, the two companies were merged into the new studio Debmar-Mercury. [5]
On July 12, 2006, Lions Gate Entertainment acquired Debmar-Mercury as part of its expansion into television distribution. [6] [7] In November 2006, the company was awarded the syndication rights to Family Feud starting in the 2007–2008 season, and industry rumors suggested that the company could also syndicate some classic Goodson-Todman shows. [8] On January 11, 2007, 20th Television picked up ad-sales for select Debmar-Mercury series in syndication. [9] [10]
In April 2019, Debmar-Mercury moved its advertising sales deal to CBS Television Distribution Media Sales. [11]
Debmar-Mercury was known in the past for pioneering a unique syndication model known as the "10-90" approach, where the syndicator sells the program to a cable station for a 10-episode test run. If those 10 episodes achieve acceptable ratings, the show would be renewed for an additional 90 episodes. This allows the show to have a profitable life in off-network syndication, in which achieving 100 episodes is considered the desired number for a show to begin entering daily reruns. [12] This unique broadcast syndication model for television was used with the TBS and OWN cable television networks for multiple sitcoms created by the multihyphenate Tyler Perry, [13] and for multiple series with the FX cable television network, featuring the likes of actors Charlie Sheen ( Anger Management ), [14] Kelsey Grammer and Martin Lawrence ( Partners ), and George Lopez ( Saint George ). [15]
The model eventually broke down, with Saint George and Partners failing to reach the threshold for a 90-episode renewal (along with Comedy Central's 2010 series Big Lake , a co-production with Lionsgate and Funny or Die [16] ), and Anger Management quietly being de-emphasized by FX after middling scripts that went against that network's 'premium' image and accompanying low ratings, and actress Selma Blair accusing Lionsgate of maintaining a hostile workplace and departing the series. [17] The series also performed poorly in its later run in broadcast syndication. The rise of streaming video providers such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video and their minimum quality standards also made the 10/90 model untenable in the long run. Tyler Perry also departed Lionsgate in 2011 for more creative freedom on his own in other arrangements with OWN and BET.
Revolution Studios Distribution Company, LLC, operating as Revolution Studios, is an American motion picture and television studio headed by Chief Executive Officer Scott Hemming, founded in 2000, and based in Los Angeles, California.
FX is an American pay television channel owned by FX Networks, LLC, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment business segment and division of The Walt Disney Company. It is based at the Fox Studios lot in Century City, California. FX was originally launched by News Corporation on June 1, 1994, and later became one of the properties that was included in the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney in 2019. The network's original programming aspires to the standards of premium cable channels in regard to mature themes and content, high-quality writing, directing and acting. Sister channels FXM and FXX were launched in 1994 and 2013, respectively. FX also carries reruns of theatrical films and terrestrial-network sitcoms. Advertising-free content was available through the FX+ premium subscription service until it was shut down on August 21, 2019.
George Edward Lopez is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He is most known for starring in his self-produced ABC sitcom. His stand-up comedy examines race and ethnic relations, including Mexican American culture. Lopez has received several honors for his work and contributions to the Latino community, including the 2003 Imagen Vision Award, the 2003 Latino Spirit Award for Excellence in Television and the National Hispanic Media Coalition Impact Award. He was also named one of "The Top 25 Hispanics in America" by Time magazine in 2005.
Lionsgate Television is the television division of Lionsgate, which is a Canadian–American entertainment company.
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American global mass media and entertainment company. Originally a Canadian company, it was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, and is currently headquartered in Santa Monica, California. In addition to its flagship Lionsgate Films division, its other divisions include Lionsgate Television and Lionsgate Interactive. It owns a variety of subsidiaries such as Summit Entertainment, Entertainment One, Debmar-Mercury, and Starz Inc.
Tyler Perry is an American actor, filmmaker, and playwright. He is the creator and performer of Mabel "Madea" Simmons, a tough elderly woman, and also portrays her brother Joe Simmons and her nephew Brian Simmons. Perry's films vary in style from orthodox filmmaking techniques to filmed productions of live stage plays, many of which have been subsequently adapted into feature films. Madea's first appearance was in Perry's play I Can Do Bad All by Myself (1999) staged in Chicago.
Matt Kunitz is an American television executive producer known for his work on reality television programming. In July 2008, the Los Angeles Times dubbed Kunitz "The King of Reality TV."
Tribune Entertainment was a television production and broadcast syndication company owned and operated by Tribune Broadcasting. It was started in 1964 as a subsidiary of WGN-TV in Chicago. Many programs offered from Tribune Entertainment have been broadcast on the company's television stations.
20th Television is an American television production company that is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment distributes the television series produced by 20th Television in home media formats through the 20th Century Home Entertainment banner.
CBS Media Ventures, Inc. is the television broadcast syndication arm of the CBS Entertainment Group division of Paramount Global, founded on September 26, 2006 by CBS Corporation from a merger of CBS Paramount Domestic Television and King World Productions.
Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) is an American multinational basic cable television network which launched on January 1, 2011, effectively replacing the Discovery Health Channel. The OWN is a joint venture between Warner Bros. Discovery and Harpo Studios, conceptualized largely by popular talkshow host, Oprah Winfrey—the name of Harpo Studios is Winfrey’s first name, spelled backwards.
The Wendy Williams Show is an American syndicated talk show created and hosted by Wendy Williams, and produced by Wendy Williams Productions, along with Perler Productions. The show was distributed by Debmar-Mercury and aired nationally, with Fox's owned-and-operated stations serving as its primary affiliate base. The talk show first aired on July 14, 2008, in select major U.S. markets and later expanded nationwide on July 13, 2009, due to loyal viewership which proved highly profitable. It aired its final episode on June 17, 2022, with reruns continuing on most TV stations until September 9.
Allen Media Group, alternately known by its former name of Entertainment Studios, Inc. is an American media and entertainment company based in Los Angeles. Owned and founded in 1993 by businessman Byron Allen, the company was initially involved in the production and distribution of first-run television series for U.S. television syndication. Under the Entertainment Studios Networks division, it also operates a group of digital cable and satellite channels, which broadcast a mix of original programs and the company's syndicated content.
For Better or Worse is an American television sitcom created, written and executive produced by Tyler Perry. The series is based on and is a TV spin-off to Perry's 2007 film Why Did I Get Married? and its 2010 sequel Why Did I Get Married Too? The show premiered on November 25, 2011 and aired on TBS for two seasons.
Anger Management is an American television multi-camera sitcom created by Bruce Helford that premiered on FX on June 28, 2012. The series is loosely based on the 2003 film of the same title and stars Charlie Sheen in a variation of the Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson film. The series received 5.74 million viewers in its debut, breaking the record as the most-watched sitcom premiere in US cable television history. On November 7, 2014, FX announced that the series would end after its 100th episode, which aired on December 22, 2014. It received largely negative reviews from critics.
The First Family is an American sitcom that debuted in first-run syndication in the United States on September 22, 2012. Created by Byron Allen and produced by Allen's production company Entertainment Studios, the series is the first situation comedy to air in first-run syndication since the 2000 cancellation of Malibu, CA.
Mr. Box Office is an American sitcom that debuted in first-run syndication in the United States on September 22, 2012. The show was created by Byron Allen and produced by his production company Entertainment Studios.
Saint George is an American television sitcom created by George Lopez, David McFadzean, and Matt Williams, which originally aired on FX from March 6, 2014, to May 8, 2014. It is Lopez's first starring role in a scripted series since his ABC show George Lopez.
Celebrity Name Game is an American syndicated game show that premiered on September 22, 2014. Based on the board game Identity Crisis, the series was developed by Courteney Cox and David Arquette's Coquette Productions, and was originally pitched as a primetime series for CBS with Craig Ferguson as host. The series was later picked up by FremantleMedia and Debmar-Mercury as a syndicated series for 2014 with Ferguson, who left The Late Late Show on December 19, 2014, remaining as host as well as an executive producer. The series marks Coquette's first foray into game shows. The show was subsequently renewed for a second season, which premiered on September 21, 2015.
