'Bill Engvall Show' Travels to CBS

Zap2It.com | June 6, 2008

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Eye will air TBS show in exchange for promo time

TBS will unveil the second season of its sitcom "The Bill Engvall Show" next week, and it's hit on a novel way to promote the series: Air it on another network.

The cable channel and CBS have struck a deal to air "Bill Engvall" on CBS Monday night (June 9). An episode from the show's first season will take the place of a "Big Bang Theory" rerun at 8 p.m. ET and promote the second-season premiere on TBS Thursday, June 12.

Broadcast networks have been borrowing cable series to fill out their schedules for a few years now, but they usually come from within that network's media family, such as CBS airing Showtime's "Dexter" earlier this year. That's not the case here: "The Bill Engvall Show" is an in-house production at TBS, which is owned by Time Warner.

The arrangement in this case, Variety reports, is strictly a marketing swap. In exchange for CBS giving its show wider exposure, TBS will cede promo time to CBS to promote its fall 2008 schedule. No money changed hands.

CBS tells the trade paper that it's getting a "valuable off-net marketing opportunity" in the deal, while a TBS spokesperson says the one-time airing on CBS is a "great way for people to sample the show."
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