Weigel Broadcasting’s multicast network MeTV will begin airing a two-episode block of NBC’s hit sitcom “The Golden Girls” in March, the company confirmed on Wednesday.
The show will air weeknights in the 10 p.m. Eastern / Pacific Time slot, just after the two-episode block of “Everybody Loves Raymond,” which MeTV picked up late last year. A four-episode block will air between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Eastern / Pacific Time on Sundays, just before Everybody Loves Raymond.
It will be the first time in nearly three decades that the Golden Girls has aired on broadcast TV, Weigel said in a press release. The show last aired on broadcast TV in 1997, five years after its original run on NBC. Repeats have since aired on cable networks like Lifetime and Hallmark Channel, with on-demand streaming available via Hulu.
“The popularity of The Golden Girls is unlike that of almost any other comedy in television history – sharply written and distinctive for portraying and celebrating mature leading female characters as vital, engaged, sexy and downright funny,” Neal Sabin, the vice-Chairman of Weigel, said in a statement on Wednesday.
Sabin continued: “The show is a phenomenon, spanning all corners of pop culture and fan appreciation. It is a true honor to bring the series back to broadcast television as part of MeTV’s lineup, where viewers of all ages can tune-in and enjoy this truly memorable and entertaining series.”
In an interview last year after MeTV added Everybody Loves Raymond, Sabin confirmed Weigel intends to acquire more shows for the channel, which will come across as newer to its audiences but still fit with the theme of “memorable” television that MeTV aims for.
“The network has to grow — some of our die-hard viewers may have changed the channel, but we had tens of thousands of viewers in the first few weeks who watched Raymond, who never watched MeTV before,” Sabin told The Desk. “In that vein, it’s a success.”
Repeat airings of another classic show, “MASH,” consistently rank among the top 200 TV programs in Nielsen’s weekly ranker by overall audience, as do special airings of the humor-horror anthology series “Svengoolie.”
Other shows offered by MeTV include “Andy Griffith Show,” “The Carol Burnett Show” and “All in the Family.” MeTV will also air “The Wizard of Oz” in its entirety as part of a Halloween programming franchise in October.
MeTV is available on digital broadcast stations across the country, with a national programming feed available on streaming services Philo and Frndly TV.
