Calm Words from New Lifetime Chief
Wong Doesn’t Anticipate Drastic Changes at Women’s Network
By R. Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 4/26/2007 11:03:00 AM
Incoming Lifetime Entertainment Services president and CEO Andrea Wong said she doesn’t expect to overhaul the network’s programming or personnel immediately upon taking over the reins of the struggling distaff network.
Wong -- who spoke with Multichannel News Thursday, hours after being named to replace departing CEO Betty Cohen -- said she’s excited about the opportunity to lead the 92 million-subscriber cable network out of a ratings slump.
Lifetime’s first-quarter primetime-household rating dropped 7% from a year ago, to a 1.3 -- well below its 2.0 primetime rating average in 2002, which was the second year in a row that Lifetime had been basic cable’s top-ranked primetime network.
Asked whether Lifetime could regain No. 1 status, she said: "Right now, [Lifetime’s] No. 6, which is pretty good in a 70-channel environment. The goal is to continue to strengthen and evolve the relationship with women and, hopefully, through that, grow the ratings."
In a brief telephone interview, Wong also said she was “coming in to a group of executives who are incredibly seasoned, and I’m looking forward to getting to know all of them and learning from them.” She plans to attend the upcoming Cable Show convention in Las Vegas.
There are no plans now for personnel changes, including executives on the programming side, according to Wong, the former ABC Entertainment executive vice president of alternative programming, specials and late-night. This indicates that programming chief Susanne Daniels, who was widely speculated to also be departing, will remain president of entertainment -- for the time being, at least.
Wong wouldn’t say how long she’d talked with Lifetime about the position. “It’s all happened very quickly,” she added. “Things moved very fast and furious after [Cohen’s resignation] happened.” Lifetime said Cohen resigned Wednesday.
No related content found.
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
