Lifetime CEO has designs for the channel lined up on runway
TELEVISION
Andrea Wong snatched 'Project Runway' from Bravo last week and is working to reshape the cable network. She says it keeps her too busy to stop to gloat.
NEW YORK -- Any other television executive would have been gloating.
It had been a banner week for Andrea Wong, chief executive of Lifetime Networks, who stunned the industry April 7 by announcing that she had snatched hit cable show "Project Runway" from Bravo.
"It's so, so exciting to tell everyone this show is coming to Lifetime," said Wong. But she admitted that she hadn't had much time to celebrate. When the news broke, she was ensconced in long-range planning meetings in Los Angeles with her staff. She then squeezed in tea with "Project Runway's" Heidi Klum at the Polo Lounge in Beverly Hills and attended the red carpet premiere of Lifetime's "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" before racing back to New York, where she held a series of programming presentations for advertisers.
"Sometimes the people around me will say, 'Hey, you should celebrate, relax, enjoy yourself, feel good about what's happened to date,'" said Wong over a glass of Chardonnay at a Midtown club Friday evening. "Because I'm like, 'OK, what's the next thing we have to do?' "
Since she took over Lifetime and its sister movie channel last April after the ouster of former Chief Executive Betty Cohen, Wong has been working to reinvigorate the once top-rated basic cable network. The women's channel was widely viewed as a tired brand when Wong arrived from ABC, where she had been in charge of reality and late-night programming for three years. Ratings had flattened out, and the audience was aging.
"I really love the challenge, so I've relished every second of it, really diving in and rolling up my sleeves and saying, OK, what do we need?" Wong said.
Her immediate goal: to flip the Lifetime "women in peril" stereotype on its head.
"It's about turning people's perceptions of Lifetime and making them see that it's really about women overcoming great obstacles and triumphing," Wong said.
"We've got this great brand that is incredibly resonant with women," she added. "We want to take that and evolve it to a much more contemporary, relevant place."
In "Project Runway," Lifetime has a potent weapon. In four seasons, the hit fashion competition has spawned a passionate fan base and made stars of unknown designers.
