In 1997, PolyGram created a television division to distribute first-run syndicated and network series, hiring Bob Sanitsky from ICM Partners to be president of the division. The new unit absorbed the domestic syndication unit of ITC Entertainment (acquired by PolyGram in 1995), including its domestic sales president Matt Cooperstein. This company called PolyGram Television, is unrelated to an earlier domestic syndication television distribution arm of the same name that PolyGram also owned that was formed in 1981 and it was closed in 1983, and sold its assets to King Features Entertainment. The division's first project was the syndication of new episodes of Alliance Atlantis' Due South, distributing 22 new episodes for primetime or weekend afternoon slots. It was distributed in conjunction with Worldvision Enterprises for ad sales. The unit also syndicated action hour series such as The Crow: Stairway to Heaven (based on the Miramax film with Brandon Lee. The Walt Disney Company, its owner at the time had passed on the series) and Total Recall 2070, as well as the music variety program Motown Live. In early 1999, Shortly after Seagram and Universal completed their deal to acquire PolyGram. PolyGram TV was absorbed into Universal's TV and Networks division (which consisted of Universal's international TV operations). Universal would sell the ITC film and TV library to Carlton Communications, and the pre-1996 film library to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Following this, PolyGram TV was renamed Universal Worldwide Television, and in the fall of that year, UWT launched a successful realty strip, Blind Date (which gained a sister program from the same producers, The 5th Wheel). At the same time, Universal launched Universal Studios Network Programming to inherit the Brillstein-Grey productions, such as the upcoming Work with Me, and the existing Brillstein-Grey shows Just Shoot Me! and The Steve Harvey Show. By 2001, rumors began circulating about the closure of the division (and its two series would have been sold off to another syndicator). However, by October, UWT's head of sales said the closure would not happen. In June 2002, after Vivendi Universal re-acquired the entertainment arm of USA Networks. Universal Worldwide Television was merged with Studios USA Domestic Television to form Universal Television Enterprises, with Universal Domestic Television and Universal Television Distribution acting as subsidiaries of the company. Lori Shackel immediately left it as vice president of the company History NBC Universal Television Distribution was formed in 2004 from a merger between NBC