Sony to shop Jesse Stone movie franchise to cable

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CBS may have retired Jesse Stone but that doesn’t mean the sheriff is ready to holster his gun just yet.

Sony Pictures Television, which produces the ‘Jesse Stone’ movies that star Tom Selleck for CBS, is now looking to find a new home for the franchise on a cable network.

The ‘Jesse Stone’ movies deliver big ratings -- ‘Benefit of the Dead’ averaged almost 13 million viewers for CBS earlier this month -- however the audience tends to be older, which makes it a tougher sell for advertisers. CBS had run eight ‘Jesse Stone’ movies.

Sony is already a prolific producer of cable fare. The miniseries ‘Hatfields & McCoys,’ which is setting ratings records for History, was from the studio. It makes AMC’s ‘Breaking Bad’ and is working on a remake of the theatrical movie ‘Steel Magnolias’ for Lifetime where it also produces ‘The Client List,’ starring Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Selleck, who also stars in the CBS police drama ‘Blue Bloods,’ is no stranger to cable. In the 1990s, he appeared in three Westerns for TNT.

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-- Joe Flint