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Say Goodbye to Spike

MarcB said:
I know Viacom has way too many channels, but maybe they'd have more success if they follow the example of TBS and TNT. TBS focuses mainly on Comedy oriented programming plus movies and some sports play-by-play such as Sunday afternoon baseball and the NCAA tournament. TNT focuses mainly on Drama oriented programming plus sports programming including the NBA along with the NCAA tournament.
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Viacom have as much channels in other countries if not more in the UK.
 
LKellerIII said:
Personally, I'm surprised that in this day and age, anybody wants to watch theatrical films on commercial TV - edited for time and content. I can't do it. TV shows are paced for commercials, theatrical films are not, and some of the TV edits of modern films are just atrocious.
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I agree some of the editing is beyond reprehensible. However, with DVR's, you can watch a 2.5-3 hour block of a movie in mostly the original screen time. Purists hate this, but I am not so pure.
 
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/l...ect-viacoms-general-entertainment-hub-1074737

Here is an update though and how Viacom's The Paramount Network is going to start off.


Spike will be rebranded starting Thursday, when Viacom launches its general entertainment destination. The executives, showrunners and stars from the cabler's first four scripted shows met the press Monday at TCA.
On Thursday, Spike TV will become the first major basic cable network to rebrand itself in the Peak TV era of nearly 500 scripted originals.

Topped by president Kevin Kay, who was charged with leading the rebranding while also overseeing fellow Viacom cable networks TV Land and CMT, Paramount Network executives, showrunners and stars previewed what to expect from the cabler on Monday during its first appearance before press at the Television Critics Association's winter press tour.

Kay opened the day by noting that Paramount Network's official launch was a mere 72 hours away, telling the gathered press that he hoped the general entertainment network — launching with a roster of four scripted series and unscripted hits from Spike, would become a destination for "big, bold, high-quality, compelling and relatable" fare.

"We want to be the definitive new home for premium storytelling," said Kay, who reports directly to Viacom CEO Bob Bakish. "Our goal is to change the game of how viewers experience high-end scripted on basic cable. … We're a premium network without the premium subscription price."

Paramount Network will officially launch Thursday at 9 p.m. with a live, Michael Jackson-themed installment of Lip Sync Battle, Spike's signature show. Its unscripted offerings also include Spike holdovers Ink Master and Bar Rescue. On the scripted side, its first offering will be Waco, the six-part miniseries about David Koresh and the Branch Davidians starring Michael Shannon and Taylor Kitsch. That will be followed by Heathers, an hourlong dark comedic reboot of the cult hit 1988 movie starring Christian Slater and Winona Ryder, that TV Land and Paramount Network president of development Keith Cox developed for the former; another TV Land-turned-Paramount Network series, half-hour scripted 1970s-set feminist comedy American Woman starring Alicia Silverstone and Mena Suvari; and Kevin Costner starrer Yellowstone, picked up straight to series as the cabler's first show developed specifically for it.

Kay reiterated that Paramount Network's goal is to reach the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic. "We don't want the Spike audience to go away; we want the audience 50-50 male-female. We're not that far off as we've ended Spike. We went with Waco first because it's a big, broad show but feels like it still resonates with Spike viewers and then broadens our audience," he said. "Heathers is a young female show. When we tested it, 35- to 49-year-old men loved it. We want to find and evolve our audience. Each of these [shows] has something special to offer. Hopefully they'll sample us and stick with the other things."

Kay also stressed that Harvey Weinstein and The Weinstein Co. have both been scrubbed from Waco and Yellowstone. "Harvey has never been part of the creative process for the show and until the company has a new name and a new path, The Weinstein Co. will not be part of either show," he said. "What Harvey did is disgusting and disheartening. … Nobody wants to be associated with the things that went on there."

As for Cox's target for scripted fare, the executive used his time before press to reiterate that they're redeveloping TV Land's First Wives Club reboot for Paramount Network with a new writer (Tracy Oliver of Girls Trip fame); teaming with Kyle Killen for Velvet; and working with David Shore (The Good Doctor, House) on a remake of British anthology Accused.

"Bring us your best — and don't go to Netflix, Amazon or Hulu because Paramount Network is going to be famous for big, bold originals," Cox said of the content he hopes the town brings to the network. "We want to make linear TV urgent again," he added later when asked about Paramount Network's streaming plan.

Here's what to expect from Paramount Network's first four scripted series.
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seatownmedia said:
I agree some of the editing is beyond reprehensible. However, with DVR's, you can watch a 2.5-3 hour block of a movie in mostly the original screen time. Purists hate this, but I am not so pure.
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So why not just watch the movie on premium cable, without the edits for content - or stream it? Why watch a butchered movie?

The worst I ever saw was the TV edit of Car Wash. In the original film, the actors do a riff on the word "chicken-s**t," that lasts about 3 minutes. Because you couldn't say the "S" word on basic cable in the 80s, the scene was re-dubbed as "chicken-stuff." It was indescribably stupid. The scene should have just been cut entirely from the basic cable version, but was re-looped instead.

And I've seen other films that have been edited so heavily for time that the plot no longer makes sense unless you saw the original theatrical film.
 
I agree with Keller. Movies are just unwatchable on virtually all TV outlets these days. Either they are edited to the max or chopped up with more commercials than movie.
 
landtuna said:
I agree with Keller. Movies are just unwatchable on virtually all TV outlets these days. Either they are edited to the max or chopped up with more commercials than movie.
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Yeah, like back around the holidays when TNT was airing the Star Wars movies. Each one was in a 4-hour block of time. Who the heck is going to sit there for 4 hours to get through 1 movie. My guess is that when they air these old movies that everyone has already seen, they are banking on people casually tuning in for an hour or so, rather than sitting down for the entire movie. That's how they can get all those ads in.
 
LKellerIII said:
So why not just watch the movie on premium cable, without the edits for content - or stream it? Why watch a butchered movie?

The worst I ever saw was the TV edit of Car Wash. In the original film, the actors do a riff on the word "chicken-s**t," that lasts about 3 minutes. Because you couldn't say the "S" word on basic cable in the 80s, the scene was re-dubbed as "chicken-stuff."
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I'd much rather see it cleaned up. I saw "Scared Straight" on UPN.

SNL's "Weekend Update" had s-hole because that's what NBC wanted, then Colin Jost proceeded to say the word. Twice. I'm not saying this bothered me but I can tell some movies have too much cursing.
 
Bar Rescue will be coming back to Paramount. And tomorrow an almost 15-year run of Spike ends. I still miss the old country-flavored TNN on the other hand!
 
I remember when Spike was launched with much fanfare.
It was supposed to be "Television for Men".

I thought perhaps a mirror image of Lifetime.
"Andrew Dice Clay stars as a divorce lawyer who never loses a case in......"
 
I'm not sure what the status of Professional Boxing Champions is these days, but that promotion put a bunch of fights on Spike the past couple of years. Is boxing going to be part of the new network?
 
Professional Boxing Champions fights through the end of February air on Showtime, Showtime, and FOX. Their other broadcast partners are listed as ESPN, BounceTV, and CBS.

Guess boxing will not going to continue on Paramount Network.
 
Don CT said:
Looks like Paramount Network did a soft launch this morning as they are already promoting it as such.
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Did a Directv guide search for this weekend. Looks like a very "variety"-driven lineup. Some docudramas (They are pushing "Waco") older movies, some reality, some sitcoms...a little of everything.
 
In the UK it's only just been rebranded to 5Spike so it'll be interesting to see if the brand survives here.
 
Viacom is notorious for force feeding their shi* down our throats. Awards shows whether they're originated from CMT, MTV, BET, Nickelodeon, or Comedy Central are usually aired simultaneously on most of their channels. CMT airs new episodes of NASHVILLE at 9PM Eastern on Thursday Night and it's immediately repeated at 10PM on TVLAND.

Of course I also noticed from ads I have seen that i-Heart Radio is airing some stupid awards showsimultaneously on TNT, TBS, and TRU-TV which are owned by Time Warner.
 
MarcB said:
Viacom is notorious for force feeding their shi* down our throats.
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It's a pretty common thing. NBC Universal is doing the same thing now with the Olympics. If you have lots of channels, and you're trying to pump original programming, you run it across the platform. Still, with 500 channels, who cares?
 
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