Lifetime Mans Up

There's nothing a man likes better than sitting down in an easy chair with a cold brewski and spending a night with the Lifetime network. That, at least, was the message, slightly exaggerated, from that channel's presentation at the TCA tour this afternoon. Producer Mark Gordon, fielding a question from my colleague Aaron Barnhart, disputed Barnhart's reference to Lifetime as a "woman's network." Lifetime may have been that once, he said, but no longer; it wanted to appeal to both genders.

The show that Gordon was discussing is called "Army Wives."

So, OK, Maybe Lifetime is still kind of a woman's network. Network president Susanne Daniels emphasized, nonetheless, that there is room for both sexes to watch the channel. "ESPN," she noted, "doesn't call itself the men's network."

Daniels might want to get some of her talent on board. Doing a panel for a series of series based on Nora Roberts novels (manly, that), Sex and the City heartthrob John Corbett said, "I'm not sure any men watch Lifetime. Hands up. What men out in the audience watch Lifetime regularly?"

Not a hand went up. Thought we do like catching Corbett in those SATC reruns.