The New TNN

[Glacophane]

I was so happy today as I was flipping channels while lying in bed, thinking about taking a nap, and I came across the channel TNN. Playing was the sci fi time travel show Seven Days that ran on UPN a few years back. I really liked that show and was just thinking about it a few days ago. After Seven Days was Highlander the series and I was in heaven for 2 full hours. Sci Fi channel I said to self, what is that? There is more sci fi on TNN. I now have Seven Days, Highlander, and plenty of ST:TNG.

The New TNN as it bills itself, use to be called the Nashville Network; but changed its name to The New Network awhile back. Now it's called The New TNN....wouldn't it be more acurate now to say it is called The New The New Network?

 

[Kyehlar]

Actually after going from The Nashville Network, they donned their new slogan as "The National Network". After a while, that monicker did go to the wayside, and they have been called "The New TNN" ever since.

They got my wrestling, my star trek, and a couple other things. What more could I ask for?

Rommie

 

[Jade Jaguar]

Wonder if they would like to bankroll a new series of space based sci fi?

 

[Glacophane]

I don't know, maybe we should ask them.
I watch TNN more than I do the Sci Fi channel.

 

[Jade Jaguar]

I just read on Netscape that TNN is changing its name to "Spike TV" and will be the first cable TV station aimed at men. No joke! Sort of a Lifetime for men, I guess.

 

[tygirwulf]

Can you give details on time? I remember seeing commercials for Seven Days on tv, but I always seesmed to forget it when it came on. Interesting concept, though.

 

[crofootski]

Hmmm. I thought perhaps we could ask TNN to acquire B5 and show it, but now that they're Spike TV, hmmmmmm. Would B5 appeal to "young men"?

 

[Glacophane]

Can you give details on time?

Seven Days is on at 4pm and 2am Pacific time. I couldn't find any information about it yet on their website.

 

[LondosHair]

I don't see why not... Seven Days was geared more toward women, if anything... and I'd imagine just as many men would like B5 as do TNG. Maybe even moreso, since B5 has more of an action-based theme to it.

 

[KoshN]

Regarding:

http://www.mediapost.com/dtls_dsp_news.cfm?SubMatter=Traditional&newsID=202439

"TNN To Become Spike TV, Reflect Male Focus"
TNN President Albie Hecht announced that TNN: The National Network will be re-named Spike TV, reflecting its new brand positioning as the first network for men. The name change will take effect on-air on Monday, June 16, and the network's new logo will be unveiled at the MTV Networks upfront presentation in New York City on Tuesday, May 6. The re-naming of the channel will be supported by a multi-million dollar awareness campaign that will include on-air, outdoor and print advertising. For programming listing guides, Spike TV will utilize the abbreviation SPIKE.
********************

I HOPE this will not be a 100% stereotypical "For Dumb Men/Neanderthals Only Channel" (e.g. with the "Man Show" or caveman attitude). I'm sick to death of the low-IQ, sports loving. wrestling loving, mindless violence loving, utterly tastless T&A loving, "Man Show" stereotype. Real men also like multi-threaded, complex "thinking" shows, shows like:

CSI
Babylon 5
Crusade
Brimstone
Firefly
Boomtown (before they simplified it for the masses)
The Dead Zone
Monk
24
Twilight Zone
John Doe
The Agency
etc.

Given the proposed new name for the channel, "Spike TV," I don't hold out much hope. CSI would not belong on a channel called Spike TV. CSI, Car and Driver TV, Horsepower TV, Trucks!, and the occasional episode of Trek TNG are the only things I currently watch on TNN.

 

[PsionTen]

Given the proposed new name for the channel, "Spike TV," I don't hold out much hope.

Tell me about it... it sounds like the channel is for the tractor pull, monster truck, pro-wrestling sect.... not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

[KoshN]

Given the proposed new name for the channel, "Spike TV," I don't hold out much hope.

Tell me about it... it sounds like the channel is for the tractor pull, monster truck, pro-wrestling sect.... not that there's anything wrong with that.

Well, I could do without the tractor pull, monster truck, and pro-wrestling stuff, but I don't mind Car & Driver TV stuff (even though it's usually severely lacking in content and full of commercials; almost an infomercial) or the more moderate truck stuff (e.g. OEM pickup and SUV tests). It just sounds like they're going even farther down the line of the TNG Commercials where one TNN Network doofus with the buz-cut asks the other "Would you "do her? Huh?" (gesturing toward a poster of a buxum Klingon woman, can't remember the sisters' names).

 

[PsionTen]

(gesturing toward a poster of a buxum Klingon woman, can't remember the sisters' names).

Aww, the Duras Sisters....

 

[MartinRoth]

it sounds like the channel is for the tractor pull, monster truck, pro-wrestling sect.... not that there's anything wrong with that.

According to Mediaweek's "Programming Insider":

The renamed network has entered into a partnership with CBS MarketWatch and magazines Men's Health and Stuff to produce lifestyle reports on topics including health, fitness, finance, automotive, news and technology. Set to debut in third quarter 2003, these hosted reports will include Men's Health Minutes, CBS MarketWatch, Zero to 60 and A Guy and His Stuff. New series on Spike TV will include Ride With Funkmaster Flex, Top 10 Things Every Guy Should Experience, The Eight-Minute Workout Challenge, Crash Test, Ultimate Vacation Sweepstakes and The Scene.

As for the rest of their plans, here's more Spike TV amusement from Reuters

Sounds positively... typical...

("Worst case of testosterone poisoning I've ever encountered" )

 

[PsionTen]

Stan Lee's Striperella? I can't believe Stan "The Man" Lee is resorting to stuff like this. Say it ain't so true believer.

Excelsior!

 

[G Kar of the Kha Ri]

New episodes of Ren & Stimpy?! I... am speechless. They have my support! For how long, I cannot say!

Of course, I could care less about the rest. Heck, I don't even watch WWE Raw is Triple H anymore because they've made one bad move after another, and about the only enjoyment I get out of wrestling now is by visiting WrestleCrap.com to see what new crap has cropped up in the WWE.

*shakes his fist in the air*

Also, they seem to have the biggest identify crisis of any network I've ever seen. Even Sci-Fi doesn't change their minds about their target audience THIS much.

 

[ElScorcho]

But will they lose that crap on the bottom of the screen?
Please?

 

[CelleDuSoleil]

Also, they seem to have the biggest identify crisis of any network I've ever seen. Even Sci-Fi doesn't change their minds about their target audience THIS much.

Well said! If I were someone who watched and liked TNN as it was, I'd be feeling dissed and extremely pissed. Don't these teevee "people" (and I use the term loosely) realize that everytime they go and destroy something that appealed to a specific group of people in favour of something with greater (they hope) mass appeal, they risk completely alienating the first group of people? Once the audience leaves, they very rarely come back.

As for their target-audience to-be Men. Pul-eeze. Men aren't interested in what's on -- they're interested in what else is on. There is no channel that can hold them for long. Not in large enough numbers to appease the marketers, anyway.

As for that name ... oye! Do I really need to whip out the Freud on this one

 

[gkarfan]

Oh, well--if it were a channel devoted to Spike off Cowboy Bebop, or even Spike of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I'd watch!

Spike TV...All Spike, All the Time...Spiegel, That Is!

Tammy

PS--Spiegel is Spike from Cowboy Bebop's last name.

 

[G Kar of the Kha Ri]

Eh. Oh well. TNN didn't bother me much before their last change because I never bothered watching it, and it therefore had no real effect on me. Then WWF(E) Raw moved from USA to TNN, so I started watching TNN more often. But GOD how that old "Pop" campaign PISSED ME OFF. I HATED that more than nearly ANYTHING else at the time, just because it MADE NO SENSE. I had, up to that point, never heard anyone refer to anything as being "pop".... well, at least not in the way they seemed to do it. And those commercials still haunt me.... Specifically the one with that geeky guy with the wrist brace thing on that squealed out something to the effect of "It's The National Network now?! I didn't know THAAAAAAT!!!!!!!!!" GOD. Everytime I heard him, I wanted him dead, right then and there....

And those godawful Godfather Uncut commercials too. All those idiots in some club dancing around like idiots, and then they all stop to quote lines from the movie in a fashion that makes them sound like either emotionless androids or.... well, some kind of alien hive-mind. I don't know. It just made me become temporarily violent.

And although I have a lot of love for the character of Spike Spiegel, the name Spike TV sounds SO STUPID. SO. STUPID.

And I'm stopping right now. I don't want to think about this anymore. To quote Zhou Tai's death scene saying thing from Dynasty Warriors 4...

"The... End."