Lifetime readies laughs alongside TV movie staples

Lifetime has unveiled a 2009-10 program slate heavy on TV movies, drama and with an expanded comedy slate.

The cornerstone of the female-skewing US cable network’s line-up has been TV movies and across Lifetime and Lifetime Movie Network 28 new originals were announced. Having ironed out a legal spat with The Weinstein Company, Project Runway will also make its debut on the network. What breaks from the norm is the focus on comedy at the channel.

Lifetime launched Rita Rocks, its first original comedy in a decade last year, and has greenlit a second series of the Media Rights Capital-produced show.

It has also got a trio of multi-camera comedy pilots including Alligator Point, a half-hour sitcom starring Cybill Shepherd and exec produced by Kelsey Grammer. The other two are Sherri, starring and based on the life of Sherri Shepherd (30 Rock) and The Valerie Bertinelli Project following a newly divorced mother (Bertinelli).

There will also be a new body-swap comedy-drama, Drop Dead Diva, created and exec produced by Josh Berman (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation).