• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, July 13, 2015

Under-the-radar TV networks looking for damaged programming goods to hopefully sell to advertisers? Reelz Channel, a cable/satellite/telco network of 67  million subscribers, headed in this direction when it decided to pick up the 2015 Miss USA Pageant, which had had Donald Trump as a minority owner.

All this occurred after we found out how Trump felt about immigration and the people of Mexico during his presidential announcement. His remarks sent TV networks NBC and Univision, as well as judges, hosts and other fleeing.  That’s where Reelz stepped in.

What does it intend to get from all of this? Hopefully,  as the savior for those contestants who worked hard to compete in the pageant, which aired July 12.

One more thing: Perhaps Reelz will now get more attention -- from consumers and TV advertisers -- for future efforts.

Before the event, Stan E. Hubbard, chief executive officer of Reelz Channel, told The Hollywood Reporter: “We've been able to reach out to virtually every agency and advertiser there is because they know why we're calling. For an independent network to make that kind of contact is a good thing.”

The bad? Hardly anyone bought into it. Even under the best of circumstances, having only 11 days to find TV sponsors can be difficult.

In terms of consumer attention -- the good, the bad, and the indifferent -- there has been a lot of it. “Sometime yesterday [July 8] we crossed the 1 billion impression mark, and it's still going,” says Hubbard, no doubt accessing a social media metric.

Reelz has walked into this arena before, in 2011, when it took “The Kennedys” after the History Channel dropped the controversial miniseries.

So what kind of advertising then for “Miss USA”? Before the event, Hubbard said: “What you're going to see on Sunday night [July 12], in terms of advertising, some decent commercials, a few nice PSAs and a lot of promos for Reelz.”

In TV land, you mostly always get what you pay for.