DEBMAR-MERCURY PARTNERS WITH TOM GREEN TO BRING HIS GROUND BREAKING INTERNET TALK SHOW TO BROADCAST TV
LOS ANGELES, October 1--Debmar-Mercury, a leading production and distribution company, today announced it is partnering with television personality, film star, author, recording artist and talk show host Tom Green to make Tom Green Live!, the first ever internet-only nightly talk show, available for simulcast on broadcast television.
The ground breaking hour-long talk show, produced out of Green's living room, features one-on-one interviews with many of Hollywood's most well known and accomplished entertainers, including Pamela Anderson, Val Kilmer, Dave Navarro, Norm MacDonald, Ed McMahon, Bob Saget and Brooke Shields, among others.
"We are thrilled to be in business with Tom Green. He is an amazing talent with a passionate fan base, as evidenced by over 40 million downloads a month for his online show," said Mort Marcus, co-president Debmar-Mercury. "Tom has created an environment that delivers fresh, unscripted, engaging conversation that is rarely seen on television any more."
"We think stations seeking alternative programming for late night will respond enthusiastically," added Ira Bernstein, co-president Debmar-Mercury. "Tom Green Live! reflects the future of television because it plays well on both the TV and PC, a great asset for stations that are growing their online as well as television audience."
DebMar-Mercury will be making the series immediately available to a select group of stations for a test run before offering it widely.
"We're taking advantage of the advances in technology to deliver a show simultaneously to TV and the internet, but my inspiration is actually very retro, going back to Late Night with Tom Snyder," said Green. "Essentially we've been producing a television show that happens to also be interactive, so there won't be too many changes, just some more produced pieces. Tonally it will be the same, real, honest show that I do out of my living room."
Green has produced over 150 episodes of Tom Green Live!, available on demand at www.tomgreen.com, which also allows and encourages Web users to freely interact with one another, watch the show live and engage with Tom and his guests. The show has also attracted major brand sponsors. The living room studio features a combination of off-the-shelf consumer electronics and professional broadcast equipment.
Green, who made a name for himself on his MTV hit show, The Tom Green Show, continues to make regular contributions to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno as well as appear in feature films such as Charlie's Angels, Stealing Harvard, Road Trip and Bob the Butler, as well as the upcoming Shred 1 and 2 and Freezer Burn. He also wrote and directed Prankstar.
John Ferriter of William Morris Agency brokered the deal.
About Debmar-Mercury
Debmar-Mercury is a worldwide production and distribution media company specializing in syndication, cable, network, VOD/Pay-Per-View and Pay TV. The company distributes Tyler Perry's first-run syndicated sitcom Tyler Perry's House of Payne, which premiered on TBS June, 2007 to record-breaking ratings and will be followed in September, 2008 with a four year concurrent syndication run on FOX owned television stations. Debmar-Mercury also owns the distribution rights to the groundbreaking sitcom, South Park, as well as Family Feud, The Surreal Life family of celebrity-based reality shows, the Sci-Fi Channel's hit series Farscape, USA Network's The Dead Zone, National Geographic's Really Wild Animals and an extensive movie library featuring titles from Revolution Studios and Lionsgate. Debmar-Mercury is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF), the premier independent filmed entertainment studio.
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