New Line revives 'World'

Lost affils, 'Lost' reruns

By JOHN DEMPSEY

New Line TV is bringing back syndicated reruns of "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World," aiming its sales pitch at TV stations that are losing their affiliation with either UPN or the WB.

"We see a great opportunity to get some station deals for a show that has proved a workhorse for us," said David Spiegelman, New Line's senior exec VP for domestic TV distribution and marketing.

Spiegelman said he plans to take the two-hour pilot that served as the series' first episode and make it available to stations on the first weekend following the disappearance of UPN and WB -- a date still to be determined.

Produced by John Landis, "Lost World" piled up 66 hourlong episodes during its syndication run from 1999 to 2002.

Stations won't pay cash for the skein, instead giving New Line six minutes within each hourlong run to sell to national advertisers. (The stations get eight minutes for local sale.) As an extra inducement, stations will keep all 28 commercial minutes in the two-hour kickoff, Spiegelman said.

Another TV syndicator, Litton Entertainment, said it's getting some primetime deals from disenfranchised stations for weekly comedy/variety one-hour "The Tom Joyner Show" and the weekly reality half-hour "Home Team," hosted by Troy McClain.

Tim Voit, exec VP of sales for Litton Entertainment, said the company also has given a greenlight to a half-hour weekly series called "NASCAR Angels," which has landed deals with ABC-owned TV stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia.

Voit calls "Angels" a cross between "Extreme Makeover" and "Pimp My Ride." The premise: A NASCAR driver and his pit crew visit a fresh community each week, glomming onto a person and overhauling his car while teaching him how to handle it.