Debmar-Mercury, LLC is a television syndication company. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Lionsgate Television, it was formed from a merger of Debmar Studios and Mercury Entertainment in 2005.
History Debmar Studios Debmar-Mercury's history begins on October 31, 1993, when Mort Marcus founded Debmar Studios (named for his wife, Debbie's, first name & his own last name), 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.
The company also planned to distribute a court show called I Accuse (produced by Mark Goodson Productions and co-distributed by Viacom Enterprises), which never materialized. As well as distributing syndicated reruns of Supermarket Sweep, which Debmar acquired distribution rights to from Al Howard Productions, the series was distributed to stations by ITC Entertainment.
The first iteration was folded into Buena Vista Television on August 15, 1994 after Marcus became president of its syndication arm.
The company was revived in 2002 after Marcus left Miramax Television, with its first rights picked up being that of the animated sitcom South Park for off-net syndication, in association with Mercury Entertainment. Tribune Entertainment was then attached as South Park's advertising sales agent in 2004. This was followed by the syndicated launch of Farscape, in association with Mercury Entertainment in 2004.
Mercury Entertainment Mercury Entertainment was formed in 1999 by Ira Bernstein after his employer Rysher Entertainment sold its distribution operations to Paramount Domestic Television. The company handled advertising sales of the television show Tracker. In 2000, the company struck a deal with Paramount to co-distribute the series Queen of Swords. In 2001, Bernstein joined Lionsgate Television, temporarily folding Mercury into the company. After Bernstein left Lions Gate, the company was reestablished to partner with Debmar Studios to handle sales of its programming, such as South Park and Farscape.
Debmar-Mercury In 2005, the two companies were merged into the new studio Debmar-Mercury. The company started its relationship with Lions Gate Entertainment, obtaining the syndication rights to its movie library, followed by the distribution rights to the television show The Dead Zone.
On July 12, 2006, Lions Gate Entertainment acquired Debmar-Mercury as part of its expansion into television distribution. 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. On January 11, 2007, 20th Television picked up ad-sales for select Debmar-Mercury series in syndication.20th Century TV to handle ad sales of both Debmar-Mercury shows for 2007 season. TV Newscheck. Retrieved on March 13, 2012.Elizabeth Guider 'Dead Zone' headed to syndication Variety. January 11, 2007. Retrieved January 29, 2013.
In April 2019, Debmar-Mercury moved its advertising sales deal from Disney's 20th Television to the CBS Corporation's CBS Television Distribution Media Sales.
"10–90" model 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 network 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. 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, and for multiple series with the FX cable television network, featuring the likes of actors Charlie Sheen (Anger Management), Kelsey Grammer and Martin Lawrence (Partners), and George Lopez (Saint George).
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), 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. 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.
List of series
In-house shows Title Years Network Notes Tyler Perry's House of Payne 2006–2012 TBS co-production with Tyler Perry Studios The Wendy Williams Show 2008–2022 Syndication co-produced with Perler Productions and Just Wendy Trivial Pursuit: America Plays 2008–2009 co-production with Hasbro and Wheeler/Sussman Productions Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns 2009–2011 TBS co-production with Tyler Perry StudiosCo-distributed with Warner Bros. Television Distribution (via Turner Broadcasting System) Big Lake 2010 Comedy Central co-production with Gary Sanchez Productions and Motron Productions Are We There Yet? 2010–2013 TBS co-production with Revolution Studios, 5914 Entertainment and Cube Vision The Jeremy Kyle Show 2011–2013 Syndication co-produced with and distributed outside of the United States by ITV Studios Anger Management 2012–2014 FX co-production with Mohawk Productions, Revolution Studios, Estevez/Sheen Productions, and Twisted Television Saint George 2014 co-production with Wind Dancer Films, Travieso Productions, and 3 Arts Entertainment Partners co-produced with the production companies of Robert L. Boyett, Robert Horn, Kelsey Grammer, and Martin Lawrence T.D. Jakes 2015-2017 Tegna co-production with 44 Blue Productions, TDJ Enterprises, and EnLight Productions; syndication handed to Flow Media Partners in 2016 Caught in Providence 2018–2020 Syndication Ambitions 2019 OWN co-production with Will Packer Media and Harpo Films Jerry O' Syndication co-production with Funny or Die and 3 Arts Entertainment Nick Cannon 2021–2022 co-produced with NCredible Entertainment Sherri 2022–2026
Third party distribution Title Years Network Notes Really Wild Animals 1994–1997 Direct-to-video produced by National Geographic Society E! True Hollywood Story 1996–2021 E! produced by Comcast Entertainment Studios South Park 1997–present Comedy Central produced by Comedy Partners and South Park StudiosSyndicated by Debmar-Mercury from 2005 to 2015 Farscape 1999–2003 Sci-Fi Channel American syndication rightsproduced by Hallmark Entertainment and The Jim Henson Company Family Feud 1999–present Syndication produced by Fremantle North Americapreviously distributed by Pearson Television from 1999 to 2001 and Tribune Entertainment from 2001 to 2007 RoboCop: Prime Directives 2001 Space produced by Rigel Entertainment and Fireworks Entertainment in association with CHUM Television The Dead Zone 2002–2007 USA Network produced by The Segan Company and Piller² in association with Lionsgate and Paramount American Chopper 2003–2010 Discovery ChannelTLC produced by Pilgrim Films & Television; distributed under license by Discovery Communications for syndication Animal Atlas 2004–2015 Syndication produced by Midori Entertainment and Bellum Entertainment Group Safari Tracks 2005 produced by Bellum Entertainment Group Deadliest Catch 2005–present Discovery Channel produced by Original Productions; distributed under license by Discovery Communications for syndication Tosh.0 2009–2020 Comedy Central produced by Black Heart Productions and Comedy Partners The Fran Drescher Show 2010 Syndication produced by Uh Oh Productions and Scott Sternberg Productions Celebrity Name Game 2014–2017 produced by Fremantle North America, Entertain the Brutes, Green Mountain West, Coquette Productions and CBS Television Studios BoJack Horseman 2014–2020 Netflix produced by Tornante Television, Boxer vs. Raptor and ShadowMachine Schitt's Creek 2015–2020 CBC produced by Not a Real Company ProductionsAmerican distribution under license from ITV Studios iWitness 2017 FOX produced by Entertain the Brutes and Queen Bee Productions The Conners 2018–2025 ABC Worldwide distribution rightsproduced by Werner Entertainment, Jax Media and Mohawk Productions
List of movies A deal was reached with Revolution Studios to distribute their movies to syndication, which took effect on January 5, 2005. Most other films were originally distributed by Lionsgate. Title U.S. Release Distributor Producers The Arrival 5/31/1996 Orion Pictures Live Entertainment, Interscope Communications, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, Steelework Films Held Up 5/12/2000 Trimark Pictures Minds Eye Entertainment, Original Film The Animal 6/1/2001 Sony Pictures Releasing Columbia Pictures, Revolution Studios, Happy Madison Productions Black Hawk Down 1/18/2002 Columbia Pictures, Revolution Studios, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Scott Free Productions WiseGirls 10/19/2002 Lions Gate Entertainment Leading Pictures, Intermedia Films, Monarc Films Daddy Day Care 5/9/2003 Sony Pictures Releasing Columbia Pictures, Revolution Studios, Davis Entertainment The Missing 11/26/2003 Columbia Pictures, Revolution Studios, Imagine Entertainment Peter Pan 12/25/2003 Universal Pictures Universal Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Revolution Studios, Red Wagon Entertainment, Allied Stars Ltd. Hellboy 4/2/2004 Columbia Pictures (through Sony Pictures Releasing) Lawrence Gordon/Lloyd Levin Productions, Dark Horse Entertainment The Punisher 4/16/2004 Lions Gate Films Marvel Enterprises, Valhalla Motion Pictures, Artisan Entertainment 13 Going on 30 4/23/2004 Sony Pictures Releasing Columbia Pictures, Revolution Studios, Roth/Arnold Productions, Gina Matthews Productions Godsend 4/30/2004 Lions Gate Films 2929 Entertainment, Atmosphere Pictures Christmas with the Kranks 11/24/2004 Sony Pictures Releasing Columbia Pictures, Revolution Studios, 1492 Pictures XXX: State of the Union 4/29/2005 Columbia Pictures, Revolution Studios, Original Film Rent 11/23/2005 Columbia Pictures, Revolution Studios, 1492 Pictures, Tribeca Productions The Benchwarmers 4/7/2006 Columbia Pictures, Revolution Studios, Happy Madison Productions Little Man 7/14/2006 Columbia Pictures (through Sony Pictures Releasing) Revolution Studios, Wayans Bros. Entertainment Rocky Balboa 12/20/2006 MGM Distribution Co. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Revolution Studios, Chartoff Productions, Winkler Films Slow Burn 4/13/2007 Lionsgate DEJ Productions, GreeneStreet Films Perfect Stranger 4/13/2007 Sony Pictures Releasing Columbia Pictures, Revolution Studios Next 4/27/2007 Paramount Pictures Revolution Studios, Initial Entertainment Group, Virtual Studios, Saturn Films The Brothers Solomon 9/7/2007 Screen Gems TriStar Pictures, Revolution Studios, Carsey-Werner Productions The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep 12/25/2007 Columbia Pictures (through Sony Pictures Releasing) Revolution Studios, Walden Media, Ecosse Films, Beacon Pictures
See also Lionsgate Television
References
External links