Debmar-Mercury

Debmar-Mercury
Founded	2006
President
Notable Works
Official Site	Debmar-Mercury

Debmar-Mercury is a television syndication company that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lions Gate Entertainment.

History

Debmar-Mercury formed as a merger between Debmar Studios and Mercury Entertainment in 2006. On July 12 of that year, Lions Gate Entertainment expanded into television distribution and acquired the company. On January 11, 2007, 20th Television picked up ad sales for Debmar-Mercury series that were airing in syndication; this arrangement lasted until April 2019, when CBS Television Distribution (through its division CTD Media Sales) took over ad sales for the Debmar-Mercury-distributed shows after 20th Television was purchased by The Walt Disney Company on March 20 that year.

The 10-90 Model

Debmar-Mercury is best know for pioneering a unique syndication model, which is know as the "10-90" approach. This is where the syndicator sells the program to a cable station for a 10-episode run, and if the show does well within those 10 episodes, the station would renew it for 90 more episodes. This allows the show to have a profitable life in off-network syndication, in which 100 episodes is considered as the desired number for a show to start daily reruns. This method has been used with TBS and OWN for multiple sitcoms created by Tyler Perry, and for shows on FX, featuring actors such as Charlie Sheen & Kelsey Grammer, along with comedians such as Martin Lawrence, George Lopez, & Kevin James. This also includes the syndication rights to Nickelodeon sitcoms. So far, the only two shows that didn't make it through the 10-90 scale are Comedy Central's Big Lake, which was produced by Funny or Die co-creators Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, FX's Saint George, and Partners. Lionsgate stated that they are open to doing another project with George Lopez.

List of shows distributed by Debmar-Mercury

Title	Format	Buyer		Year(s)
ALF	Sitcom	NBC		1986–1990
Produced by Alien Productions; formerly distributed in North America by Warner Bros. Television, which still holds the international distribution rights
South Park	Animated comedy	Comedy Central		1997–present
Distributed in conjunction with 20th Television for ad-sales until 2019 and in conjunction with CBS Television Distribution for ad-sales since 2019
Family Feud	Game Shows	syndication		1999–present
Distributed in conjunction with 20th Television for ad-sales until 2019 and in conjunction with CBS Television Distribution for ad-sales since 2019
American Chopper	Reality	Discovery Channel		2003–2010
Deadliest Catch	Reality	Discovery Channel		2005–present
Tyler Perry's House of Payne	Sitcom	TBS		2007–2012
Distributed in conjunction with 20th Television for ad-sales until 2019 and in conjunction with CBS Television Distribution for ad-sales since 2019 and produced by Tyler Perry Studios
The Wendy Williams Show	Talk Show	syndication		2008–present
Distributed in conjunction with 20th Television for ad-sales until 2019 and in conjunction with CBS Television Distribution for ad-sales since 2019
Trivial Pursuit: America Plays	Game Shows	syndication		2008–2009
Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns	Sitcom	TBS		2009–2011
Produced by Tyler Perry Studios
Are We There Yet?	Sitcom	TBS		2010–2013
Distributed in conjunction with 20th Television for ad-sales until 2019 and in conjunction with CBS Television Distribution for ad-sales since 2019 and produced by Tyler Perry Studios
Big Lake	Sitcom	Comedy Central		2010
The Jeremy Kyle Show	Tabloid talk show	syndication		2011–2013
Anger Management	Sitcom	FX		2012–2014
Produced by Revolution Studios and co-produced with Lionsgate Television
Saint George	Sitcom	FX		2014
Co-produced with Lionsgate Television
Partners	Sitcom	FX		2014
Co-produced with Lionsgate Television
Celebrity Name Game	Game Shows	syndication		2014–2017
Distributed in conjunction with 20th Television for ad-sales until 2019 and distributed in conjunction with CBS Television Distribution for ad-sales since 2019 and co-produced with Entertain the Brutes, Green Mountain West Inc., CBS Television Studios and FremantleMedia North America