Lifetime history

By 1986 the all-talk shows were eliminated, having failed to attract viewers, and Lifetime was $36 million in debt.

Lifetime quickly refocused on women as its primary audience and branded itself as "Television for Women." In 1988 Pat Fili was hired as senior vice-president of programming and production.

On the medical front, Lifetime launched Healthlink Television in June 1990 to provide programming for physicians' offices.

The production of a two-hour political special, "Seize the Power: A Lifetime Challenge," in 1992 marked a first for Lifetime.

By April 1993 Lifetime was reaching 57.2 million homes and broadcasting seven hours of original programming daily.

At the beginning of the 1994-95 season, Lifetime resurrected the tag line, "Television for Women," and began using it extensively.

For 1995-96 Lifetime committed $100 million to original programming.

In the second half of 1996 Dawn Tarnofsky was named Lifetime's new head of programming, replacing Judy Girard.

The network had four dramas and a reality series in development for the coming year. As a result of its involvement with women's sports, Lifetime created a new sports division in April 1997.

In February 1998 Lifetime won a heated bidding contest for the off-network rights to "Party of Five." The network paid $550,000-$650,000 per episode to Columbia TriStar Television Distribution, with the series set to run on Lifetime in the fall.

Lifetime's prime time audience increased by 21 percent, from a 1.4 rating with one million households in 1999 to a 1.7 rating with 1.3 million households.

In January 2001 Lifetime finally unseated perennial winner USA Networks and became the top-rated cable network in prime time.