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Destination America made the decision to cancel TNA Wrestling, with the time frame given at the end of the third quarter (roughly the last week of September, when the current television season ends). Key people at the Discovery Channel network were informed of the decision at that point.
The word internally was that while they considered the ratings good, the ratings were not good enough to justify the cost of the programming. The other problem was that so many regular station advertisers specifically did not want to advertise on the show.
It should be noted that when the word was sent out, it was stated specifically that TNA would remain on Friday nights, with original episodes, until that point, and informing people for the fall season plans for Friday nights. Just days later, they were moved to Wednesday.
The decision was meant to be kept secret, very much like Spike kept secret publicly last year its decision to drop TNA for months after the decision was made and reported. It doesn't serve the station or the promotion any good to publicly cancel the show this far in advance. The public acknowledgment was expected to come around the time the station listed its 2015-16 television season prime time lineup with the launch of up front advertising.
Those who were informed of the cancellation have not been told at this point anything different several days after the change of date was announced. But things obviously have changed, at least to the degree of moving days. So this story is very much ongoing.
What is known is that Destination America reacts quickly to ratings. After the 3/13 episode, when the Friday show's numbers dropped to a new low, the decision was made to cancel the Saturday morning programming with the idea that eliminating the replay would help the Friday number, which is the only number they cared about. And Friday numbers did increase somewhat after that point. Eventually, they've dropped almost all their TNA programming except as far as time fillers, because of the difficulty in selling ads, and canceled all first run programming with the exception of the two hours of Impact airing multiple times on Friday nights. For the 5/8 show, the hope was going almost live would help deliver a big number, and Destination America also purchased an ad in USA Today to promote the show, thinking the added advertising and live would lead to an increased rating. Instead, the first episode did the second lowest number ever, and the replay, which is thought to be for the West Coast viewers in their prime time, did the all-time record low. Granted, that was more due to the NBA playoffs and going against a Cleveland Cavaliers game than anything else, but clearly the live hype meant nothing. Days later, the original decision to cancel was made.
Dixie Carter at TNA was aware of the decision early last week although it doesn't appear that most of the talent knew anything since word of things like this would get around quickly and this had not. Her knowing may have played a part in the move to Wednesday, but that is uncertain. Carter didn't respond to any questions on the subject.
There were officials from the network in Nashville this week meeting with the creative team on plans going forward.
The problem with TNA at Destination America is the curse of pro wrestling, that even the good numbers don't mean what they should because advertisers won't pay anywhere near the value for those viewers as for other sports or entertainment.
What makes the business a catch-22 is WWE has created a production look of what people think pro wrestling is supposed to look like on TV. The cost to get anywhere near that look costs money, and it's impossible to make that back in traditional ways unless you are WWE. So the only answer is either to be owned by a network, like ROH, but even they are limited because the network hasn't heavily invested in production or the product, or find a network willing to pay for the product, like Spike did for all those years. For the USA Network, wrestling is valuable because they are battling for the label of being No. 1 in prime time cable, and starting in January, with five hours per week of prime time wrestling. Even if they can't sell that advertising at the rate of lower rated shows, they can sell advertisers on being the most watched prime time network. For Spike, they were at the time looking at building a channel for guys, and pro wrestling is guys entertainment with a very loyal viewership. Plus, with Spike, because of the programming they did, the hope was wrestling would bring an audience into the station that they could promote other shows, whether it be Bar Rescue or Bellator, off. With Destination America, whatever viewers TNA brings in, that viewership doesn't mesh nearly as well with the rest of the network's programming.
TNA had multiple suitors last year coming off Spike, although they ended up making a deal with a virtually unknown station with less than full national clearance. Even though the quality of the programming is better, it hasn't created new interest in the product. In the television industry, being canceled two straight years, which is still not a definite although those at the station have not been told anything new since official word was given of the cancellation, is not a good sign.
Destination America made the decision to cancel TNA Wrestling, with the time frame given at the end of the third quarter (roughly the last week of September, when the current television season ends). Key people at the Discovery Channel network were informed of the decision at that point.
The word internally was that while they considered the ratings good, the ratings were not good enough to justify the cost of the programming. The other problem was that so many regular station advertisers specifically did not want to advertise on the show.
It should be noted that when the word was sent out, it was stated specifically that TNA would remain on Friday nights, with original episodes, until that point, and informing people for the fall season plans for Friday nights. Just days later, they were moved to Wednesday.
The decision was meant to be kept secret, very much like Spike kept secret publicly last year its decision to drop TNA for months after the decision was made and reported. It doesn't serve the station or the promotion any good to publicly cancel the show this far in advance. The public acknowledgment was expected to come around the time the station listed its 2015-16 television season prime time lineup with the launch of up front advertising.
Those who were informed of the cancellation have not been told at this point anything different several days after the change of date was announced. But things obviously have changed, at least to the degree of moving days. So this story is very much ongoing.
What is known is that Destination America reacts quickly to ratings. After the 3/13 episode, when the Friday show's numbers dropped to a new low, the decision was made to cancel the Saturday morning programming with the idea that eliminating the replay would help the Friday number, which is the only number they cared about. And Friday numbers did increase somewhat after that point. Eventually, they've dropped almost all their TNA programming except as far as time fillers, because of the difficulty in selling ads, and canceled all first run programming with the exception of the two hours of Impact airing multiple times on Friday nights. For the 5/8 show, the hope was going almost live would help deliver a big number, and Destination America also purchased an ad in USA Today to promote the show, thinking the added advertising and live would lead to an increased rating. Instead, the first episode did the second lowest number ever, and the replay, which is thought to be for the West Coast viewers in their prime time, did the all-time record low. Granted, that was more due to the NBA playoffs and going against a Cleveland Cavaliers game than anything else, but clearly the live hype meant nothing. Days later, the original decision to cancel was made.
Dixie Carter at TNA was aware of the decision early last week although it doesn't appear that most of the talent knew anything since word of things like this would get around quickly and this had not. Her knowing may have played a part in the move to Wednesday, but that is uncertain. Carter didn't respond to any questions on the subject.
There were officials from the network in Nashville this week meeting with the creative team on plans going forward.
The problem with TNA at Destination America is the curse of pro wrestling, that even the good numbers don't mean what they should because advertisers won't pay anywhere near the value for those viewers as for other sports or entertainment.
What makes the business a catch-22 is WWE has created a production look of what people think pro wrestling is supposed to look like on TV. The cost to get anywhere near that look costs money, and it's impossible to make that back in traditional ways unless you are WWE. So the only answer is either to be owned by a network, like ROH, but even they are limited because the network hasn't heavily invested in production or the product, or find a network willing to pay for the product, like Spike did for all those years. For the USA Network, wrestling is valuable because they are battling for the label of being No. 1 in prime time cable, and starting in January, with five hours per week of prime time wrestling. Even if they can't sell that advertising at the rate of lower rated shows, they can sell advertisers on being the most watched prime time network. For Spike, they were at the time looking at building a channel for guys, and pro wrestling is guys entertainment with a very loyal viewership. Plus, with Spike, because of the programming they did, the hope was wrestling would bring an audience into the station that they could promote other shows, whether it be Bar Rescue or Bellator, off. With Destination America, whatever viewers TNA brings in, that viewership doesn't mesh nearly as well with the rest of the network's programming.
TNA had multiple suitors last year coming off Spike, although they ended up making a deal with a virtually unknown station with less than full national clearance. Even though the quality of the programming is better, it hasn't created new interest in the product. In the television industry, being canceled two straight years, which is still not a definite although those at the station have not been told anything new since official word was given of the cancellation, is not a good sign.
