Cable network Lifetime believes it’s high time that the world start cutting it some slack. It did, after all, just celebrate its 30th birthday in February, and likes to think it’s been showing genuine signs of maturity of late—and not the old people kind.
Remember when Lifetime was one woman-in-peril movie after another, plucky heroines outsmarting abusive thugs, overcoming breast cancer, or both; when the network was endlessly disparaged as “Television for (Battered) Women;” When their target female demographic resided somewhere between menopause and the mortuary?
Well forget about all that, ‘cause this ain’t your mama’s Lifetime anymore; maybe it’s your big sister’s. For one thing, a man now runs the estrogen-infused service; for another, its star power and production value has increased substantially in the last few years. And all of this appears to be paying off with the TV Academy.
Last year, Lifetime pulled in 12 Emmy nominations—the most ever for the network. Five went to Project Runway and four to the Jewel-starring June Carter Cash biopic, Ring of Fire. Runway co-hosts Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn even won the reality show host Emmy in 2013, a mini-breakthrough in the network’s bid to bust through to the ranks of major awards players.
The thing is, when it comes to the Emmys, network reputation often carries the night. If you’re HBO, Showtime, AMC, or FX, your nomination chances increase substantially. It’s far tougher to crash the party if you’re stuck on the second tier, like Hallmark, BBC America, Nat Geo—or Lifetime.
“There are networks that sort of game the system and build strategies while figuring out how to get as much exposure in and around Emmy voters as possible,” says Rob Sharenow, Lifetime’s executive vice president and general manager. “But you can’t sit back and complain if you want to improve your situation. You need to change the way you do things. And that’s what we’ve done.”
Sharenow describes how the new strategy, which took root some four years ago, upped the quality of its original offerings. the network green-lit Devious Maids, a series project from Desperate Housewives showrunner Marc Cherry, and went into business with producers like Oscar winners Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who are among the exec producers of this year’s miniseries contender Bonnie and Clyde.
Since the 2010 takeover of Sharenow’s creative team, Lifetime has earned more Emmy nominations than it did in its previous 26 years combined. In 2013, for the first time, three different Lifetime original films received nominations—besides Ring of Fire, ridiculed biopic Liz & Dick (starring Lindsay Lohan as Liz Taylor) earned makeup and hairstyling nominations, while its Steel Magnolias remake earned a supporting acting Emmy nod for Alfre Woodard.
In Sharenow’s mind, it’s no accident that Emmy attention is on the rise, mirroring Lifetime’s push to turn around its stodgy image. For one of its nights of original programming, he points out, the network’s median age is now a comparatively pubescent 28 years old.
“As a broadcaster, we want to deliver exceptional content and indelible performances,” Sharenow says. “And we feel that if the TV Academy stays in step with the times, that’s a positive thing for Lifetime. The more Emmy voters mirror popular sentiment, the better it will be for us. We’ve set our sights on having it all; we want to be a populist channel as well as a high-quality one.”
Their hopes this year appear more than justified. The network has a pair of acclaimed films competing for nods in the made-for-TV movie category—remakes of The Trip to Bountiful and Flowers in the Attic,as well as Return to Zero and major miniseries contender, Bonnie and Clyde.
There’s expected to be heavy competition in the newly-separated movie and miniseries lineups this year, from the likes of HBO’s The Normal Heart, Nat Geo’s Killing Kennedy,and BBC America’s Burton and Taylor among the movies; FX’s Fargo and American Horror Story: Coven,as well as the Starz pair Dancing on the Edge and The White Queen in miniseries. But Lifetime’s candidates are well in the running.
Too, a handful of acting nominees could represent Lifetime in the movie/miniseries arena this summer, including Trip to Bountiful lead Cicely Tyson (a favorite not just to land a nomination but to win) and supporting player Blair Underwood; leads Emile Hirsch and Holliday Grainger, and supporting performers William Hurt and Holly Hunter for Bonnie and Clyde; lead Whoopi Goldberg for A Day Late and a Dollar Short; lead Gina Gershon for House of Versace; Christina Ricci for Lizzie Bordon Took an Ax; Minnie Driver as lead and Kathy Baker as support for Return to Zero; Martin Landau as a supporting player in Anna Nicole; and supporting players Ellen Burstyn and Heather Graham for Flowers in the Attic.
There’s little doubt that Lifetime is attracting a far more eminent class of performer than it managed to even a few years ago. The above list of acting talent claim a collective 20 Oscar nominations and six wins all told.
“We’ve had much greater success of late due to bringing out better creative,” Sharenow maintains. “And when you have a higher caliber of creative, the TV Academy notices, as they have with us. Lifetime isn’t traditionally a place people think of as an Emmy haven, but that perception is beginning to change because of the superior level of talent we’ve been bringing to the channel. We’re working very hard to reach a new generation of viewers. This year, we believe we have our greatest opportunity for significant Emmy attention yet.”
What Sharenow doesn’t want his network to ever be again, is dismissed as the same old Lifetime. “No one feels the sting of the stereotype of what the Lifetime viewer is more than we do,” he admits. “We still fight that battle every day to reverse some of those perceptions. But we believe that, slowly but surely, we’re doing it.”