| Spike | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Launched | March 7, 1983 |
| Owned by | MTV Networks (Viacom) |
| Headquarters | 
New York City |
| Formerly called | The Nashville Network, The National Network, The New TNN, Spike TV |
| Website | Official Site |
| Availability | |
| Satellite | |
| DirecTV | Channel 325 |
| Dish Network | Channel 168 |
| ExpressVu | Channel 628 |
| Star Choice | Channel 584 |
| Cable | |
| Available on most cable systems | Check local listings |
Spike is an American cable network designed to cater to a young adult male demographic. The network began as The Nashville Network (TNN), founded by Gaylord Entertainment Company and Group W Satellite Communications on March 7, 1983. In 2000, after 17 years of country music-related programming, Viacom renamed the network The National Network and realigned it as a general interest network. TNN was renamed Spike TV in 2003 with its new focus, despite a brief lawsuit by filmmaker Spike Lee. By mid-2006, the on-screen name was shortened to simply "Spike." At one point during this period, it earned the colloquial title The Star Trek Channel due to its devoting an average of six hours per day to the franchise at one point, but this has waned somewhat. The network now airs a combination of original programming and reruns of network programming, including series from the CSI and Star Trek franchises, MXC, Game Head, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, and Ultimate Fighting Championship programming. It is part of MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom.
The Nashville Network (1983-2000)
The Nashville Network was based at the now-defunct Opryland USA theme park near Nashville, Tennessee. TNN initially focused on country music-related programming and eventually added reruns of country-themed network shows. TNN's flagship shows included Nashville Now and Grand Ole Opry Live, both of which were broadcast live from Opryland USA.[1][2]
The Gaylord era
Much of TNN's [1] programming during the Gaylord era was originally produced by Opryland Productions, also owned by Gaylord Entertainment.[3] Shows included variety shows, talk shows, game shows, outdoors shows, and lifestyle shows, all centered in some way around country music.[4] Some of TNN's popular on-air talent included local Nashville media personalties Ralph Emery[5], Dan Miller, Charlie Chase, and Lorianne Crook, as well as established stars such as country music singer Bill Anderson and actresses Florence Henderson and Dinah Shore. TNN even created stars, such as wily fisherman Bill Dance.[6]
TNN had two self-operating and self-promoting sub-divisions, TNN Outdoors and TNN Motor Sports.[7] TNN Outdoors was responsible for the programming of hunting and fishing shows. TNN Motor Sports was responsible for production of all the network's racing coverage, including NASCAR Winston Cup and smaller outfits such as USAC, NHRA, and ARCA. Motorcycle and speedboat racing was also broadcast. TNN Outdoors and TNN Motor Sports also marketed themselves, selling a variety of merchandise and branding themselves onto video games such as TNN Bass Tournament of Champions and TNN Outdoors '96.
In 1995, the motorsports operations were moved to Concord, North Carolina into the industrial park located at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where TNN had purchased controlling interest in World Sports Enterprises, a motorsports production company. Among TNN personalities from the motorsports operation were Mike Joy, Eli Gold, Buddy Baker, Neil Bonnett, Randy Pemberton, Ralph Sheheen, Dick Berggren, and Rick Benjamin.
The Westinghouse-CBS era
Westinghouse Electric Corporation, who at the time owned the CBS networks and had an existing relationship with TNN through its Group W division, purchased TNN and its sister network CMT outright in 1995 to form CBS Cable (along with a short-lived startup network entitled "Eye On People").
Most of the original entertainment-oriented programming ceased production, and the network began to rely more on TNN Outdoors and TNN Motor Sports for programming. The network's ties to CBS allowed it to pick up country-themed CBS dramas from the 1980s such as The Dukes of Hazzard and Dallas, neither of which had been seen on television since their original runs ended, and also allowed it to carry CBS Sports runover, which happened during a NASCAR Busch Series race at Texas Motor Speedway and also a PGA Tour event at Firestone Country Club.[1]
During this time, Ralph Emery retired from Nashville Now, TNN's flagship prime-time show which resembled the format of a late-night talk show that featured interviews and performances with the country stars of the day, as well as various comedy bits. Upon Emery's exit, the show was overhauled and renamed Music City Tonight (hosted by Lorianne Crook and Charlie Chase).[8] After a very short run, Crook and Chase left the show to launch a syndicated daytime show, Crook & Chase, which would eventually return to TNN after two years in the syndication market.[9] Music City Tonight was again overhauled to resemble its original Nashville Now format, but was rebranded as Prime Time Country. This version was originally hosted by actor Tom Wopat. He was later replaced with Christian singer/songwriter Gary Chapman, who enjoyed relative success with the show until its cancellation in 1999 as part of the MTV overhaul of the network.
In 1997, "The Nashville Network" moniker was dropped and the official title of the channel was shortened to the simpler TNN. Ownership shifted to Viacom in the late 1990s after its acquisition of CBS Corporation, Westinghouse's successor.[1] TNN and CMT were subsequently folded into Viacom's MTV Networks division.
The National Network/The New TNN (2000-2003)
In September 2000, Viacom sensed redundancy among its related TNN and CMT networks when it merged them into its MTV Networks unit. The decision was made to refocus TNN, and in the process, the channel dramatically scaled back its country-western trappings and changed its name to The National Network (also referred to as The New TNN).[1] [10]
During this time, the network's operations were moved from Nashville to New York. The name change also triggered a significant programming change in an attempt to appeal to a broader audience. This change was catalyzed by Viacom's acquisition of the rights to WWF programming, including its flagship show RAW Is War. In 2001, TNN added sitcoms like Diff'rent Strokes, The Wonder Years, as well as shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation.[10]
By that time, all country-western programming had been purged from TNN. Some of The Nashville Network's former programming was picked up by CMT. Other classic TNN shows were picked up by GAC. As time went on, the words "The National Network" were dropped from the official title. By late 2002, the network was known simply as "The New TNN", in an effort to further distance itself from its former identity as a country music-based network.
The subtle rebranding effort was, to a lesser extent, also attempting to help the network shed the identity of a channel based mostly on reruns of old programs, as it had been shortly after the flip to "The National Network." When re-branded The National Network, the company commonly used a logo written "The New TNN," which, written out, is The New The National Network, a pleonasm.
Spike TV lawsuit (June-August 2003)
In early 2003, another name change was announced. The new brand, Spike TV, was marketed as the first network for men. The name change was slated to coincide with an adult-oriented change in programming including original animated series Stripperella and Gary the Rat. Popular reruns such as Baywatch, V.I.P. and The A-Team, original specials such as The 100 Most Irresistible Women and imported programming such as MXC (a.k.a. Most Extreme Elimination Challenge).
Spike TV hired famous cartoonist John Kricfalusi and a new version of the classic
animated hit Ren and Stimpy returned with new episodes in a series known as
The name change was supposed to be official on June 16, 2003.[11] However, on June 13, film director Spike Lee won a New York Supreme Court injunction preventing the name change. Lee claimed that because of his well-known popularity in Hollywood, viewers would therefore assume that he was associated with the new network. [12] Lee stated in court papers that: "The media description of this change of name, as well as comments made to me and my wife, confirmed what was obvious--that Spike TV referred to Spike Lee."[13]
The network had planned an official launch of their new name at a star-studded, televised party at The Playboy Mansion in mid-June. But due to Lee's injunction, the special - titled Party With Spike - had to be heavily edited and the impact of the event was considerably muted.
During the lawsuit, even the name "TNN" was significantly scaled back, as logos and voice-overs referred to the network only as "The First Network for Men." Spike Jones Jr., son of comic musician Spike Jones, became a party of the lawsuit as part of Viacom's defense to protect the rights to his father's name.[14] Partly as a result of Jones' involvement, the suit was settled on July 8, 2003, and TNN was allowed to call itself Spike TV. In announcing the settlement, Lee admitted that he did not believe that the network intentionally tried to trade on his name.[15]
Lee's injunction had become the subject of ridicule in the media and talk shows, thus bringing free publicity to the fledgling network. The name change became official on August 11, 2003.[16]
Spike TV/Spike (2003-present)
Spike continues to operate as part of MTV Networks, owned by Viacom. It has scored some major coups in terms of its programming, receiving syndication rights to several Star Trek series (which was produced by another Viacom branch, Paramount Pictures), as well as most of the James Bond series of movies. It is also the cable home to CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and the cult TV favorite MXC, an overdubbed version of the Japanese series Takeshi's Castle.
In the Fall of 2003, Spike TV aired The Joe Schmo Show, a parody of reality television shows like Survivor and Big Brother. Its finale led to the network's highest ratings at the time, and a second season aired in the Summer of 2004. In November 2004, Spike TV purchased the cable/satellite syndication rights to CSI: New York for a record price of $1.9 million per episode. It joined the lineup on October 1, 2006.
Spike TV was mentioned in the Green Day song "Homecoming" on their 2004 American Idiot album; bassist Mike Dirnt sings, "I fell asleep while watching Spike TV/ After ten cups of coffee and you're still not here".
On November 18, 2004, they broadcast reruns of the Nickelodeon TV series SpongeBob SquarePants at midnight, to promote The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie that came out the next day. They did this almost all night, as did another MTV Networks channel, VH1.
In September 2005, all WWE (formerly the WWF) programming on Spike TV left the network as a result of acrimonious contractual matters between WWE and Viacom. WWE Raw moved back to its original cable home, NBC Universal's USA Network while WWE Sunday Night HEAT and WWE Velocity moved to WWE.com due to failure to gain a time slot for the shows in the United States. On October 1, 2005, wrestling promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling began airing its weekly program TNA iMPACT! in the Saturday night time slot formerly occupied by WWE Velocity. In WWE's last Monday Night Raw broadcast on the network, executives decided to censor WWE personalties whenever they tried to mention Raw's return to USA Network, scheduled for the following week. In what turned out to be a hectic night of sound suddenly vanishing, WWE's commentators finally succeeded in slipping the words "Next week on USA" past the censors at Spike TV, most likely due to Spike TV executives finally giving in. Note that another Viacom entity, UPN, was permitted to keep the WWE Smackdown! brand until The CW purchased the rights to that show in 2006.
On January 18, 2005, Spike TV debuted The Ultimate Fighter (TUF), an original reality show based around the sport of mixed martial arts which proved to be a surprise hit and is currently in its fifth season. Spike later extended their UFC coverage with a programming block dubbed UFC Unleashed.
In October 2005, Spike TV debuted Game Head with Geoff Keighley, a weekly video game show, and later followed up with Fresh Baked Videogames, making them both part of their “Slammin' Saturday Night” lineup.
Spike is also home to the annual Video Game Awards and the Spike Guys' Choice Awards.
Star Trek
Spike has devoted large chunks of its programming time to the Star Trek franchise, to varying degrees. It initially featured The Next Generation heavily before introducing Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in 2004 and Star Trek: Voyager in 2006. All of these introductions were accompanied by multi-day marathons at some point, the Next Generation one including appearances by celebrities such as Wil Wheaton. Deep Space Nine has since been relegated to late-night hours and The Next Generation scaled back somewhat. The promotion of the Trek franchises earned Spike the colloquial title The Star Trek Channel during this period because as much as one third (eight hours) of programming blocks were devoted to the franchise.
A notable omission during the period was Star Trek: Enterprise, which the channel passed on (Sci Fi proceeded to ease it into four-hour Monday night blocks). TV Land, G4 and MeTV meanwhile already share the rights to Star Trek: The Original Series, but Spike stated that there may not be sufficient episodes (only three seasons) to accommodate the kind of blocks it would like to air. With the phasing in of original programming and action-oriented shows, the Trek series have faded somewhat, with Deep Space Nine often preempted by wrestling and movies and rights to The Next Generation currently shared with G4.
As of late 2007, Spike still features an average of three to four hours of Trek on an average weekday.
"Get More Action"
After the Viacom/CBS Corporation split of 2005, Spike became a part of the "new" Viacom with its sibling networks in the MTV Networks family. In May 2006, the station was re-branded to accentuate its masculinity, including a new logo, dropping the second half of its network name (TV), and adding the "Get More Action" tagline.[17]
In June 2006, Spike debuted Blade: The Series, a TV series based on the Blade films. Rapper Kirk "Sticky Fingaz" Jones played Blade in the series. David S. Goyer, writer of all three Blade films (and director of the third Blade film), wrote the pilot and served as Executive Producer on the series. It was cancelled on September 28, 2006.
On September 5, 2006, the documentary film Metal of Honor: The Ironworkers of 9/11 by filmmaker Rachel Maguire, premiered on Spike. Metal of Honor is a documentary profiling the Ironworkers' efforts in the attempts for rescue and recovery on and after September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center site. The film proceeds through the Ironworkers' dismantling of the fallen towers.[18]
On October 10, 2006, Spike presented the Scream Awards, the first awards show honoring horror, science fiction, fantasy and comic books. At the 2007 Comic Con International the Spike TV booth was awarding tickets to the 2007 Scream Awards to the winners of their Scariest Costume Contest. In late 2006, Spike introduced the Late Night Strip consisting of original series that are sometimes inappropriate for daytime TV, with regular intermissions featuring women. The programming airs Thursdays and Fridays at 12:00 a.m., and includes MXC, Wild World of Spike, The Dudesons, Game Head.
Throughout the summer of 2007, starting on Father's Day that year (June 12) the network launched its first public service campaign, the "True Dads" national outreach campaign, whose spokesperson was former New York Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly, celebrating fathers who demonstrated active roles in their children's lives, through public service announcements on the network featuring both celebrity and ordinary fathers and websites such as Spike's own "True Dads" site[19], among other things.[20]
In April 2008, Spike will become the first basic cable network in the U.S. to air all six Star Wars movies on the same network, including holding premiere broadcast rights to Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Viacom beat out NBC Universal and Turner Broadcasting for the lucrative deal (worth up to $80 million, although most of the two network systems had previously aired some or all of the original trilogy).[21]
Though the programming is still aimed at the male demographic (age 18-35), Spike no longer makes the claim of "the first network for men". This is, in part, due both to the fact that there had been earlier forays into "male-only" television (such as MenTV in Canada) to the risk of losing its Canadian audiences due to risk of "duplication" (in terms of programming and target audience) according to CRTC regulations.
Spike programming
References
- ^ a b c d http://www.countrystandardtime.com/d/editorial.asp?xid=102
- ^ Stengel, Richard (1983-03-21), "Country Comes to Cable", 'TIME', <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,923376,00.html?iid=chix-sphere>
- ^ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9507E6DB1439F932A25750C0A965948260
- ^ Banks, Jack (1996). Monopoly Television: MTV's Quest to Control the Music. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 59. ISBN 0813318211.
- ^ http://www.cmaawards.com/2007/hof/default.asp
- ^ http://www.billdancefishing.com/line_from_bill.htm
- ^ http://www.wcsl.org/recent/2000/tnntribute.htm
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0818642/
- ^ http://www.crookandchase.com/Pages/GettoKnowCrookandChase.html
- ^ a b Downey, Kevin (2001-04-09). The new TNN: T&A, trekking and sleuths. Media Life Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-08-31.
- ^ Romano, Allison (2003-04-21). TNN Hopes Mainly Men Will Watch "Spike TV"s. Retrieved on 2007-08-31.
- ^ http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA305461.html
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/showbiz/2961726.stm
- ^ Romano, Allison (2003-06-30). Another Spike Stakes His Case. Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved on 2007-08-31.
- ^ Romano, Allison (2003-07-09). TNN, Lee resolve Spike fight. Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved on 2007-08-31.
- ^ Romano, Allison (2003-07-28). Spike to Start, Finally, Aug. 11. Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved on 2007-08-31.
- ^ PR Newswire (2006-03-22). Spike TV Launches Rebranding Campaign. Press release. Retrieved on 2007-08-31.
- ^ Heffernan, Virginia. Metal of Honor: Building on Ground Zero. The New York Times: September 5, 2006.
- ^ http://spike.ifilm.com/spike/truedads/
- ^ Spike TV (2007-06-12). Spike TV Celebrates Fatherhood with "True Dads" National Outreach Campaign. Press release. Retrieved on 2007-08-31.
- ^ Starwars.com (2005-11-03). Spike TV Acquires All Six Films of the Star Wars Saga. Press release. Retrieved on 2007-08-31.
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
