Lifetime Movie Network

Lifetime Movie Network (LMN) is a cable channel that is part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, LLC, a subsidiary of A&E Television Networks, LLC. A&E Television Networks is a joint venture of the Disney-ABC Television Group, Hearst Corporation and NBCUniversal.^[1] LMN offers women-oriented movies exclusively, especially made for television movies. Many, though not all of its movies are Lifetime originals first shown on Lifetime.

History

Lifetime Movie Network launched on June 29, 1998. The original format of the network were longer segments of made for television movies with limited commercial interruptions, airing twice a day. As the network grew, more commercial breaks have been added, and slowly the network has added theatrical releases to the schedule. There are now different movies each day, some repeating into the next programming day. The channel rebranded as LMN in 2007, and re-added the full name in mid-2008 in Lifetime Networks's attempt to broaden their brand beyond what it previously had been.

On April 19, 2009, the broadcast of Natalee Holloway attracted 3.2 million viewers and more than 1 million women in the 18-49 age bracket, garnering the highest Nielsen ratings in the network's history at that time.^[2] Although it set ratings records for Lifetime, the movie was not received well by critic Alec Harvey of The Birmingham News, who called the movie "sloppy and uneven, a forgettable look at the tragedy that consumed the nation's attention for months".^[3] However, Jake Meaney of PopMatters found the film to be surprisingly "calm and levelheaded", and praised Tracy Pollan's portrayal of Holloway's mother.^[4] Suspect Joran van der Sloot himself watched the film one evening in 2010, according to his friend John Ludwick, and said that some parts were true while others were not.^[5]

On August 27, 2009, A&E Television Networks acquired Lifetime Entertainment Services.^[6][7]

On Palm Sunday, March 28, 2010, the Lifetime Movie Network premiered Amish Grace, which broke network records in multiple demographics, with more than 4 million viewers, becoming the highest-rated and most-watched original movie in Lifetime Movie Network’s history in Households (3.8/2,916,449 viewers), Total Viewers (2.0/4,020,496), Women 18+ (3.5/2,729,834), Women 25-54 (2.7/1,156,363), Adults 18+ (2.4/3,649,266) and Adults 25-54 (1.9/1,585,667).^{[8][9][10][11]} The movie is about the 2006 Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, Amish school shooting and the spirit of forgiveness the Amish community demonstrated in its aftermath.^[12] The movie stars Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Tammy Blanchard, and Matt Letscher ^[13] and is based on the book Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy, Jossey-Bass, 2007, ISBN 0787997617, by Donald Kraybill, Steven Nolt, and David L. Weaver-Zercher.^[14][14] Amish Grace was executive-produced by Larry A. Thompson; written by Sylvie White and Teena Booth; and directed by Gregg Champion.^[13] The movie received many positive reviews;^{[10][15][16][17][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]} however, it also received criticism because the authors of Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy, Jossey-Bass, 2007, ISBN 0787997617, distanced themselves from the production out of respect to the Amish community.^[10] Others criticized the movie for blending facts with fiction.^[26]

See also

• Lifetime
• Lifetime Real Women

References

External links

• Official website