Valentine is an American romanticcomedy-dramatelevision series that aired on The CW and City in Canada from October 5, 2008 to July 19, 2009. The series was created by Kevin Murphy, who also serves as executive producer alongside Courtney Conte. The show was produced by Media Rights Capital and aired on Sundays at 8:00pm. On November 20, 2008, CW pulled Valentine along with Easy Money. However, the series returned on Sunday, June 28, 2009 to begin burning-off the remaining unaired episodes. The show's only season averaged 0.72 million viewers and 0.2 demo in Adults 18-49.
Premise
The show focuses on the Valentine family, a group of gods living amongst humans. They must keep their true identities secret as they do whatever it takes to bring soulmates together. In modern times however the gods' methods have become less effective, and unless they improve their matchmaking skills they will end up becoming mortal. As a result, Grace, aka the goddessAphrodite, has decided to recruit romance novelist Kate Providence to help them adapt their skills. With help from the fates and the Oracle of Delphi, now housed in a hot tub, it is up to the gods and Kate to help bring love back into people's lives.
Production
The show was ordered into production after Media Rights Capital took over programming Sunday nights on The CW. The show was originally titled Valentine, Inc. but dropped the "Inc." from the title prior to the fall 2008 television season. The 13-episode first season filmed in the Los Angeles area, with filming primarily taking place at the Los Angeles Centre Studios. The show is filmed on Sound Stage 1, which has previously been used to film Women's Murder Club and also Mad Men. On October 13, 2008, MRC stopped production on Valentine for 4–6 weeks, due to failure to secure a bridge loan to complete the order. This meant that only eight of the 13 episodes ordered were filmed prior to the hiatus. Two weeks later, MRC canceled both Valentine and Easy Money. On November 20, 2008, The CW announced that it was ending its Sunday Night agreement with MRC, instead programming the night itself.
Casting
, Kristoffer Polaha, and Robert Baker were the first actors announced to join the series on July 15, 2008. Just days after the first announcement on July 18, 2008 The Hollywood Reporter announced that Jaime Murray would also be part of the cast, playing the show's title character Grace Valentine. On July 19, The CW formally announced the shows cast, adding Nikki Snelson, Patrick Fabian and Greg Ellis to the previously announced actors on the show. Prior to production of the pilot Nikki Snelson had to leave the cast due to conflicts with her role in the 2008 tour of A Chorus Line. As a result, Christine Lakin joined the cast, replacing Snelson as romance novelist Kate.
"Summer Nights" was originally slated to air on November 2, 2008, and was advertised as such on the CW following the broadcast of "The Book of Love". At the last minute, the episode was pulled and replaced with a rerun. This coincided with the announcement that Media Rights Capital would be taking a 4–6 week break in filming to catch up on writing scripts. The show ultimately did not resume production. The four remaining episodes of Valentine were aired in the summer of 2009.
International airings
Valentine aired in South Africa on Pay-TV operator DStv, beginning January 2010. All 8 episodes were aired in Australia on Network 10 in 2010, late on Friday nights.
