 | |
| 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 Studios |
| Parent | Lionsgate Television |
| Website | debmarmercury |
Debmar-Mercury is a television syndication company. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Lionsgate Studios, 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 independent motion picture and television studio headed by Chief Executive Officer Scott Hemming, founded in 2000, and based in Los Angeles, California.
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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.
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.
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Partners is an American sitcom starring Kelsey Grammer and Martin Lawrence that aired on FX. The show centers on two Chicago lawyers from vastly different backgrounds who develop a partnership after they unexpectedly meet in court on the worst day of their lives. This was Lawrence's first TV series since his eponymous Fox series ended its five-season run in 1997.
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