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Post by héad.casé on Nov 24, 2017 6:43:16 GMT -5
A few years back when TNA were dropped from Spike, news was that WGN America wanted them, but wanted TNA to take a break for a few months, reboot, and come back with a fresh start on their network. Of course TNA passed because they didn't want to take that few months off, and went to Destination America. When they were dropped from Destination America, I heard WGN wanted them again, but TNA decided on POP TV.
What is it with this network wanting TNA so badly? I guess they won't want them as bad the next time if things go bad with POP.
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Post by The Barber on Nov 24, 2017 7:03:57 GMT -5
My guess is that they needed cheap, filler programming.
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Post by OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 on Nov 24, 2017 7:53:20 GMT -5
They dodged a bullet.
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Post by 2coldMack is even more baffled on Nov 24, 2017 8:21:12 GMT -5
Yeah, same reason Anthem wanted them, most likely. Wrestling's cheap, does reasonable ratings(well, a normal wrestling promotion), and it fills hours.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2017 9:34:07 GMT -5
Yeah, same reason Anthem wanted them, most likely. Wrestling's cheap, does reasonable ratings(well, a normal wrestling promotion), and it fills hours. Anthem has went broke because of them. (Pun originally not intended).
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Post by 2coldMack is even more baffled on Nov 24, 2017 9:39:35 GMT -5
Yeah, same reason Anthem wanted them, most likely. Wrestling's cheap, does reasonable ratings(well, a normal wrestling promotion), and it fills hours. Anthem has went broke because of them. (Pun originally not intended). As I said, a NORMAL wrestling promotion is cheap, and does reasonable ratings. Impact's....a special, tragic case.
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Post by This Player Hating Mothman on Nov 24, 2017 11:32:42 GMT -5
Exact same reason POP wants them; they're a bigger station, but it's the same general idea. WGN America relies heavily on syndicated programming, which has its niche, but it's not an amazing niche. TNA would have been new, WGN America-only programming that would have run them much less money and risk than having to produce their own content. In an ideal world, you bump the usual ratings compared to whatever else you'd put in that slot and then use that time to run commercials hoping you can pull the dedicated viewerbase in to watch 30 Rock reruns.
We shit on channels for getting into bed with TNA, and kind of rightfully so since we come at it from a wrestling industry perspective, but the TV people see a brand pulling in bigger numbers than anything they air, and think they can get good numbers and ad revenue out of it. They've consistently been proven wrong, of course, and there's a reason TNA's channel bouncing was a hard downward trajectory from Spike to POP, but TV people aren't generally wrestling people.
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Post by 06vwgti on Nov 24, 2017 12:44:56 GMT -5
Didn't WGN offer more money than Pop or Destination?
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Aya Reiko
Team Rocket
Judgement Day is here.
Posts: 783
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Post by Aya Reiko on Nov 24, 2017 13:59:00 GMT -5
Didn't WGN offer more money than Pop or Destination? I think I may have heard that, but Ditzy wanted her reality show and she thought she had a better chance at getting it with DA than WGNA.
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Post by This Player Hating Mothman on Nov 24, 2017 14:09:37 GMT -5
Didn't WGN offer more money than Pop or Destination? I think I may have heard that, but Ditzy wanted her reality show and she thought she had a better chance at getting it with DA than WGNA. It's a bit deeper than that. Destination America was ready to go in deep on TNA, and signed a deal that involved lots of auxiliary content like classic matches and a recap show, really wanted to make it a cornerstone of the network, and I think that appealed to the idea of TNA as Dixie's vanity project, so she went with them. Within months it was all gone because they couldn't sell ads for it and nobody was watching. Dixie definitely wanted the reality show she aspired to have to be on DA and probably hoped them wanting to make Impact a focus of their channel would be a boon to helping with that, but there were other factors. In the end Dixie didn't get her reality show, the supplemental shows didn't last, and taking the deal for less money but more vanity potential put the company into worse financial shape, because if you own TNA it's a proven fact you can't help but make the worst decisions in running it.
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Rave
El Dandy
Perpetually Bored
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Post by Rave on Nov 24, 2017 14:18:39 GMT -5
A few years back when TNA were dropped from Spike, news was that WGN America wanted them, but wanted TNA to take a break for a few months, reboot, and come back with a fresh start on their network. Of course TNA passed because they didn't want to take that few months off, and went to Destination America. When they were dropped from Destination America, I heard WGN wanted them again, but TNA decided on POP TV. What is it with this network wanting TNA so badly? I guess they won't want them as bad the next time if things go bad with POP. They wanted them post-FSN as well. Makes me wonder how things would've been if they'd gone there and not Spike. WGN has a history of having something wrestling-wise or at least related to it on the network every so often. Cheap filler programming, like was said.
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Sephiroth
Wade Wilson
Surviving
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Post by Sephiroth on Nov 25, 2017 12:10:47 GMT -5
“Because then I couldn’t interrupt them!”
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Post by JTG Fan on Nov 25, 2017 12:42:31 GMT -5
It goes back even further, I remember the rumors in 04-05 that TNA getting a Monday night slot on WGN to go against RAW.
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Post by jimmyjames on Nov 26, 2017 0:08:09 GMT -5
I think I may have heard that, but Ditzy wanted her reality show and she thought she had a better chance at getting it with DA than WGNA. It's a bit deeper than that. Destination America was ready to go in deep on TNA, and signed a deal that involved lots of auxiliary content like classic matches and a recap show, really wanted to make it a cornerstone of the network, and I think that appealed to the idea of TNA as Dixie's vanity project, so she went with them. Within months it was all gone because they couldn't sell ads for it and nobody was watching. Dixie definitely wanted the reality show she aspired to have to be on DA and probably hoped them wanting to make Impact a focus of their channel would be a boon to helping with that, but there were other factors. In the end Dixie didn't get her reality show, the supplemental shows didn't last, and taking the deal for less money but more vanity potential put the company into worse financial shape, because if you own TNA it's a proven fact you can't help but make the worst decisions in running it. In addition I think WGN wanted to wait until May to start airing it and Destination America was ready for them to start airing Impact in January.
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Post by A Platypus Rave on Nov 26, 2017 0:26:02 GMT -5
It's a bit deeper than that. Destination America was ready to go in deep on TNA, and signed a deal that involved lots of auxiliary content like classic matches and a recap show, really wanted to make it a cornerstone of the network, and I think that appealed to the idea of TNA as Dixie's vanity project, so she went with them. Within months it was all gone because they couldn't sell ads for it and nobody was watching. Dixie definitely wanted the reality show she aspired to have to be on DA and probably hoped them wanting to make Impact a focus of their channel would be a boon to helping with that, but there were other factors. In the end Dixie didn't get her reality show, the supplemental shows didn't last, and taking the deal for less money but more vanity potential put the company into worse financial shape, because if you own TNA it's a proven fact you can't help but make the worst decisions in running it. In addition I think WGN wanted to wait until May to start airing it and Destination America was ready for them to start airing Impact in January. Don't believe that was WGN. I think that was CMT or whatever was still under the Viacom umbrella that spike was trying to get them a deal with.
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Post by Milkman Norm on Nov 26, 2017 0:59:00 GMT -5
Tom Skilling really wanted to do a run in.
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Lancers
El Dandy
Oh you
Posts: 7,951
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Post by Lancers on Nov 26, 2017 1:32:28 GMT -5
Tom Skilling really wanted to do a run in. "There's a 30 percent chance of me kicking Eli Drake's ass tonight! And the 7 day forecast calls for more ass kickings until the weekend."
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Post by Jedi-El of Tomorrow on Nov 26, 2017 7:08:17 GMT -5
In addition I think WGN wanted to wait until May to start airing it and Destination America was ready for them to start airing Impact in January. Don't believe that was WGN. I think that was CMT or whatever was still under the Viacom umbrella that spike was trying to get them a deal with. I remember reading that WGN wanted to do it as well. They wanted to take a few months off, rebrand, and get all their ducks in a row, before launching, but TNA didn't like that. Basically WGN wanted to get everything hammered out, and had a plan, and TNA don't play that.
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Post by This Player Hating Mothman on Nov 26, 2017 8:04:18 GMT -5
In addition I think WGN wanted to wait until May to start airing it and Destination America was ready for them to start airing Impact in January. Don't believe that was WGN. I think that was CMT or whatever was still under the Viacom umbrella that spike was trying to get them a deal with. Yeah CMT was also in talks with TNA and that's where this was really insane; being under the same parent company in Viacom, a move to CMT could have come with the missing key TNA wasn't going to be able to get from any other network they talked to: promotion. Spike was never going to advertise Destination America, so when TNA moved it was just gone, not allowed to say where it would be going to on-air because Spike wasn't going to let them freely advertise another network. TNA had to advertise only on their social media, but not everyone follows their social media, and they likely had a very sizable bunch of fans who don't follow wrestling on the internet and had no idea Impact was leaving until it was just gone and nobody knew where it went. CMT, by being in the same ring of ownership, would have been advertising a sister station and not a rival, and Spike could have gladly let them mention the CMT move and run advertisements on both channels talking about it. That was the plan, that was what Spike wanted. But CMT wasn't putting it at the forefront of their network either or giving them extra programming, so they really were just trying to f*** themselves over as hard as they could.
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Chainsaw
T
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It is what it is
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Post by Chainsaw on Nov 26, 2017 20:27:49 GMT -5
Perhaps. But they also seemed really intent on putting TNA in a timeout while they figured out the best way to go forward as a wrestling show, which says to me that they had the best interest of the show in their mind. Of course, Dixie's ego wasn't going to let them do that, as they had no interest in having to make a vanity project for her, and probably would have gotten rid of her as soon as they could. I don't know how TNA would have fit on a network that was in fewer homes and had more dramatic shows that were getting attention from critics, but it had to have been a better choice than throwing in with shows about Bigfoot hunters and haunted barbecues. The ironic part is, if they had decided to go with WGN, there's a growing chance that TNA would eventually be owned by Sinclair Media.
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