Oxygen Breaths New Life into Original Lineup

The senior VP of original programming and development at Oxygen, Amy Introcaso-Davis, talks about how the network is serving its audience with aspirational and relatable docu-series with its new development slate. 

This spring, Oxygen is expanding its original slate of programming by adding a second night to its lineup that showcases shows made specifically for the female-skewing network. Building on record ratings growth in 2009 with such hit shows as Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood and Bad Girls Club—both of which earned their best season ratings ever—as well as the most-watched freshman series in network history, Dance Your Ass Off, Oxygen has several projects in development.

"We think we’re ready for it," says Amy Introcaso-Davis, the senior VP of original programming and development at Oxygen, about ramping up the network’s original output. "With the big success of Dance Your Ass Off and Bad Girls Club, we feel like our originals are the building blocks of our business. Tuesdays have been a great success for us, and we think Monday is the right place to go next."

The new development slate includes Jersey Couture, a show that’s set in a family-run shop in New Jersey that specializes in over-the-top dresses. "We think they’re very real characters," says Introcaso-Davis of the cast. "What we’ve noticed from the success of Bad Girls Club is that our viewers keep talking about how real the characters are on Oxygen. When we found this show about a family and family-run business, what struck us was how real these people are and we thought our audience would relate to that."

Also on the roster is Hair Battle Spectacular, a competition series revolving around superstars of fantasy hair design. Further series include Fashion Drop, a game show where contestants must prove to the audience who has the best style, and The Russell Simmons Projects, spotlighting the women who are behind the businesses of hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons.

Introcaso-Davis says that these shows will resonate with Oxygen’s core audience because of the relatability of their characters. "For our viewers, it’s about relating to these very real people. It’s the thing that we get most about Tori [Spelling of Tori & Dean] too, which is that here’s this lady who has grown up a celebrity, grown up with everything at her finger tips, but she has to go through the real stuff too. I think that’s the thing that her fans really love about her, that she’s not afraid to show who she really is. It’s really the throughline for every single one of our shows."

The outrageous antics of the bold women on Bad Girls Club have certainly struck a chord with viewers. Just halfway through the fourth season, Bad Girls Club hit a high note last month by becoming the first-ever Oxygen telecast to draw in more than 2 million viewers. On the heels of the record-breaking numbers, the show also has been renewed for a fifth season. The success of the series has also led to a spin-off, Love Games: Bad Girls Need Love Too, in which three former Bad Girls Club stars look for love. The new show will premiere March 13.

With its current originals continuing to perform strong, and a new slate of alternative series in development, Oxygen is keen to continue stocking its grid with an increasing amount of its own programming. "We see nights as building blocks and we’d love to expand as much as we possibly can," says Introcaso-Davis. "That’s what’s working on the network now, and it’s what the future of the network is."