Lifetime Buys More Blood Ties
By Anne Becker -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/4/2007 5:15:00 PM
Lifetime has picked up nine more episodes of Blood Ties, the supernatural series it acquired from Canada. The network will hold one episode from the first group of 13, currently premiering Sundays at 10 p.m., and run the last nine over five back-to-back weeks in October.
The women’s network will rest Blood while it premieres its trio of summer originals – Army Wives, Side Order of Life and State of Mind – and then bring it back when they finish. Executives are eyeing September for a rerun marathon of the 12 episodes that will have run by then.
Lifetime debuted the show, based on The Blood Book novels by Tanya Huff, on March 11 and the show has been a bright spot on the network’s schedule since. After it premiered to 1.6 million total viewers, the show has averaged 1.4 million total viewers, 460,00 women 18-49 and 220,000 women 18-34 for original Sunday-night episodes, according to Nielsen Media Research. It has also proved popular on iTunes.
Sources with knowledge of the acquisition said the show was an inexpensive buy for the Lifetime. A spokesperson for the network could not be reached for comment.
Blood Ties was shot in Canada and is set to premiere on Canadian TV later this year. It follows a cop-turned-private eye hunting down a murderer she believes is from another world. The show was created by Peter Mohan (Mutant X) and is executive produced by Mohan, Kirk Shaw, Randy Zalken and Marshall Kesten.
