Spike TV Is Getting A Huge Rebrand But What Happens To Its Programming
It’s a very crowded TV landscape out there these days, and several cable channels have taken, recently, to overhauling their brands in the hopes of finally getting into a niche that no other channel is filling and getting an increase in ratings in the process. Word came down today that Spike TV is getting in on the recent cable channel rebranding trend soon. But, what does that mean for its current lineup of shows? Unfortunately for fans of Lip Sync Battle, we don’t quite know yet.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Viacom owned, male centered cable network will be rebranded as the Paramount Network. An official announcement is expected to come sometime tomorrow, when Viacom will reveal its turnaround plan during the company’s quarterly earnings call. Right now, it looks like Spike TV chief Kevin Kay will remain in his position, and it doesn’t look like any other major personnel changes will be made either. The rebranding could begin as early as 2018.
Spike, which got its start as The Nashville Network in 1983 before being rebranded as The National Network in 2000 and then rebranded again as Spike in 2003, currently reaches about 98 million paid TV subscribers in the U.S. and Canada. The network’s lineup consists of programming that appeals to males in the 18-49 demographic, and features movies as well as reality shows, sporting events and other original programming.
Spike TV Is Ending And Whoever Tweets For Them Just Unleashed
Spike TV is ending as of Thursday, Jan. 18. The network Viacom started in 2003 as “The First Network for Men” is rebranding as the Paramount Network. According to the New York Times, Paramount Network sees itself as “televisions’s destination for premium entertainment and storytelling.”
Paramount’s new life begins Thursday with a live episode of the popular Spike TV show “Lip Sync Battle.” Paramount will also feature new shows like “Waco,” a miniseries starring Taylor Kitsch and Michael Shannon and “Yellowstone,” starring Kevin Costner. Spike was known for showing LOTS of episodes of “COPS,” and the NYT joked that there will be “many fewer showings” in the rebranding.
The network will devote about a third of its schedule to original programming, and give the rest of the time to TV shows and movies from the Viacom and Paramount vaults. They’re already adapting some of their own past movies for modern audiences, like the new “Heathers” series.
The self-described “Soon-to-be-ex-Viacom employee” who runs the Spike TV Twitter account decided to spend his/her/their last week tweeting out some funny and foul-mouthed last hurrahs. Some of the tweets are too f-bomb heavy to include, but here are most of them:
Welp, since I’m outta here anyway I might as well tell you all the things I’ve been holding in for the past 18 years. Brace yourself bros. Shit’s about to get real. #GoodbyeSpike#SpikeUnfiltered
Spike TV To Officially Become The Paramount Network In January
Viacom will transition the network into its new era on January 18, 2018.
Spike TVs days are numbered. The planned, previously announced rebranding of the network into the Paramount Network will officially take place on January 18, 2018.
Rebranded from TNN to Spike TV in the summer of 2003, Spike came onto the cable scene marketed as first television channel catered specifically toward men. Littered with callow adult-oriented cartoons, goofy competition series like MXC, and trashy reality TV, Spike TV certainly appeared to be aimed at boys more so than men. The network tried several times to upgrade the quality of its content by focusing on more ambitious, original programming, but parent company Viacom decided to rebrand once again to the Paramount Network in an effort to refocus the majority of its media business around six flagship brands .
The shakeup will find MTVs Shannara Chronicles moving to Paramount Network for its second season to help launch the new station. It will be joined by John Wells new series American Woman, which was previously set to air on Viacoms TVLand.
Also coming in January is the anticipated miniseries WACO, based on the siege and tragedy that befell the Branch Davidian cult in 1993, starring Michael Shannon, Taylor Kitsch, John Leguizamo, and Melissa Benoit, and Yellowstone, a historical drama starring Kevin Costner.
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Spike TV Does The Right Thing
Third time’s a charm? Maybe not in Spike TV’s case. The National Network, which had been the Nashville Network until 2000, wanted to change its name to something that would appeal more to male viewers. It came up with Spike TV, to be marketed as the first network for men. The new name was supposed to go into effect on June 16, 2003, and be followed by a televised launch party at the Playboy Mansion, but three days before the popping of champagne corks, film director Spike Lee won an injunction in the New York supreme court to block the change. Lee asserted that viewers would connect the television station with his name. The case was settled in TNN’s favor less than a month later, however, and the station has been Spike TV ever since.
Whatever Happened To Spike From Buffy The Vampire Slayer
At first, he was a feared villain. Then, he became a tenuous ally, and even a lover. In the end, he surprised us all by playing the part of selfless hero. Whatever part he did or did not play throughout the legendary, seven-season run of Joss Whedon’s iconic ’90s fantasy series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, however, Spike was easily among the most intriguing characters to ever enter the vampire-infested town of Sunnydale.
Played with an unrepentant mix of cocksure swagger, raw sexuality, and soul-searching pathos by a then relatively unknown James Marsters, the character also became one of the most beloved in the Buffy-verse. It was a long road to get Spike to that point, one that found the bleached-blonde bad boy of Buffy the Vampire Slayer change in ways no one could’ve conceived when he made his grand entrance early in the show’s second season.
That beyond-memorable moment came in Marsters’ 97th and final appearance as Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and while Spike remains one of the best-loved characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, some folks have lost track of the man who played him in the years since. Here’s what happened to Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
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What Happened To Spike TV
If youre wondering what happened to Spike TV, the channel has been rebranded to Paramount Network.
Owned by Viacom, Paramount Network broadcasts shows like Bar Rescue, Ink Master, and Lip Sync Battle, and with the launch is promoting upcoming shows like Waco , Heathers , Yellowstone , and American Woman . The networks Bellator MMA fight series will air Larkin vs. Gonzalez on Friday, Jan. 26.
The rebranded network still airs classic shows such as Cops, Friends, and Two and a Half Men.
Paramount Network can be found in HD on Comcast, DirecTV and Verizon and most major TV providers .
The National Network The New Tnn And Professional Wrestling
In 1999, TNN began to downplay its previous country lifestyle programming to appeal to a wider demographic, including younger viewers capitalizing on the success of RollerJam , TNN reached a three-year deal to broadcast a weekly television series from the Philadelphia-based wrestling promotion Extreme Championship Wrestling , which would air on Friday nights beginning in late-August 1999. Under the contract, ECW also agreed to revenue sharing with TNN for all of the promotion’s events and merchandising. These two programs would air as part of a Friday-night block themed around extreme sports programming, alongside Motor Madness and Championship Bull Riding a TNN executive described bull riding as being “the original extreme sport”.
In November 1999, TNN announced new programming and primetime theme blocks it planned to introduce in 2000, including Movie Monday , Action Wednesday, Friday Night Thrill Zone, Classic Country on Saturday nights, and TNN Outdoors on Sundays. The new schedule, along with new series such as the action drama 18 Wheels of Justice, collegiate bowling competition series Rockin’ Bowl, reruns of the Western anthology Dead Man’s Gun, and a new promotional campaign targeting younger viewers, were intended to introduce a broader audience to the network. Despite ECW reportedly driving a 200% increase in young male viewership in its timeslot, the promotion had a strained relationship with TNN’s managementwhich had also given the program little advertising.
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Spike TV Has Become The Paramount Network
Q: Now that Spike TV is not on Spectrum, what happened to all the cool car shows that were on that channel? C.H., Fayetteville
A:You did not say which shows you miss, C.H. Were guessing you are looking for the PowerNation series of how-to automotive TV shows. These are Truck Tech, Detroit Muscle, Engine Power and Xtreme Off Road.
Those shows are on the same channel, but the channel has a different name. Spike TV became the Paramount Network on Jan. 18.
A posting to PowerNations page on Facebook implied that the shows were in hiatus recently. But they returned to TV with new episodes Jan. 28.
According to The Fayetteville Observers weekly TV Week magazine , those shows air on Sunday mornings from 9 to 11 a.m. on channel 27 on Spectrum cable.
TV Week still lists channel 27 as Spike TV, but that is incorrect. It’s now the Paramount Network.
According to accounts in advertising and entertainment trade publications, the new Paramount Network will have a slew of new shows as it rebrands to try to boost its viewership. But it is keeping the shows that were successful on Spike TV.
The PowerNation website says two of PowerNations car shows also broadcast on the NBC Sports Network on Saturdays from 1 to 2 a.m. The website says all four shows are on the CBS Sports Network on Saturdays from 8 to 10 a.m.
Paul Woolverton
Does Spike TV Have An App
Publishers description. From Spike TV: The Spike app lets you watch your favorite Spike shows anytime, anywhere on your iPhone or iPad. Check out the latest episodes and behind-the-scenes clips of Lip Sync Battle, Ink Master and Bar Rescue, or step into the ring with Premier Boxing Champions and Bellator fights.
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‘lip Sync Battle’ To Host Star
Paramount looks to attract a wider audience with bold scripted and nonscripted series. Paramount premieres event drama Waco, dramatizing the events surrounding the standoff and siege of David Koreshs Branch Davidian compound in 1993, on Jan. 24. Heathers, a modern take on the 80s cult film, premieres March 7. Scripted half-hour dramedy American Woman, starring Alicia Silverstone and Mena Suvari, premieres June 7. And drama Yellowstone, starring Kevin Costner, debuts June 20.
Spike TV Will Officially Become Paramount Network In January 2018
Viacom has announced that the upcoming rebranding of Spike TV as the Paramount Network will officially happen on Thursday, January 18 at 9 PM ET, kicking off with a live one-hour episode of Lip Sync Battle from the Paramount lot in Hollywood.
Later in January, Paramount Network will premiere the landmark six-part event series, Waco, with an award-winning cast including Michael Shannon, Taylor Kitsch, John Leguizamo, and Melissa Benoist. On the heels of the 25th anniversary, the eye-opening and captivating series is based on the controversial and harrowing true story of the 1993 FBI siege of a religious sect that resulted in the deadly shoot out and fire.
The new original scripted series coming to Paramount Network in the first part of 2018 includes Yellowstone, starring world-renowned actor and Oscar winner Kevin Costner and written and directed by critically-acclaimed, Oscar-nominated screenwriter Taylor Sheridan American Woman, from award-winning producer John Wells, a single-camera comedy set in the 1970s amid the sexual revolution and the rise of feminism starring Alicia Silverstone and Mena Suvari and Heathers, an hour-long pitch-black comedy anthology set in the present day, based on the 1988 cult classic film of the same name.
Spike TV will have a new website, ParamountNetwork.com, launching today, alongside new social accounts: on Twitter and on Instagram and all other social platforms.
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James Marsters Also Became A Regular On Angel
Okay, so true Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans likely didn’t lose track of Spike or James Marsters until a couple of years after Buffy‘s series finale aired. That’s because Spike’s most noble sacrifice in that pulse-pounding finale wasn’t truly the end of the character’s unlife. In fact, Spike was brought back into the mortal realm not long after leaving it on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff series Angel. While Marsters had already appeared on Angel a couple of times since its 1999 premiere, he didn’t become a regular cast member on the series until after his Buffy days were behind him.
If you’re wondering exactly how Spike was brought back from his post-life state, you should know that there was a sort of magical amulet involved. You should know, as well, that Spike’s arrival as a full-time player in the world of Angel brought with it the same jolt of energy his arrival brought to Buffy a few years prior. It was a jolt much needed by a flagging Angel series that had, by season 4, become a bit stale and predictable. Some might even speculate that Marsters’ becoming a regular on Angel helped earn the series a fifth season on the air.
James Marsters Joined Team Marvel For Runaways
Smallville, however, was hardly James Marsters’ last bout with a comic book hero. The actor’s second go with the super-powered set actually saw him trade the DC banner for that of mighty Marvel in one of the company’s more egregiously overlooked small-screen ventures. Sprung from the oh-so fertile mind of one of modern comics’ most original creators, Brian K. Vaughan , the series in question is the tragically cancelled Marvel-Hulu team-up Runaways.
For those who missed out on Runaways in its three-season run on Hulu, the series follows a group of special teens who, upon discovering their parents are actually super-powered villains fronting a sinister organization called PRIDE, decide to leave home and form their own super team with the sole intent of bringing their troublemaking folks to justice. As you probably guessed, James Marsters was not one of the good guys on Runaways, playing papa to one of the titular teens . While Marsters’ Victor Stein was far from the worst of the worst on the series, he was, in fact, an evil, megalomaniacal genius who abused both his wife and son.
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The National Network The New Tnn And The Wwe Era
On September 25, 2000, Viacom sensed redundancy among its related TNN and CMT channel when it merged them into its MTV Networks unit. Hence, it decided to refocus TNN, and in the process the channel dramatically scaled back its country-western trappings and changed its name to The National Network.
The name change also triggered a significant programming change in an attempt to appeal to a broader audience than its original constituency of rural, or working-class, Southern United States whites. This change was catalyzed by Viacom’s acquisition of the rights to WWF programming, including its flagship show WWE RAW Is War. The Arena Football League had broadcast on the “New” TNN with Eli Gold as an announcer.
In 2001, TNN aired the first opening-round game of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament when organizers expanded the field to 65 teams it was produced by CBS Sports with CBS announcers. The game coverage moved to ESPN in 2002 and stayed there until 2010. As of 2011, it will be shown on a channel owned by Time Warner, possibly truTV, and will be produced by Turner Sports.
The channel was also one of three to air the XFL’s games . As part of its contract TNN had the rights to a late Sunday afternoon game each week except for the first week, when UPN aired the afternoon game instead.
Spike Lee Sued The Network Alleging That They Were Trying To Capitalize On His Name
Even before Spike TV officially launched in August 2003, the channel was embroiled in controversy. In June of that year, filmmaker Spike Lee sued the network for allegedly capitalizing on his image. According to Lee, the network’s name implied that he was in some way affiliated with them. After a sizable settlement, the filmmaker changed his perspective, and claimed that he didn’t think Spike TV was purposefully attempting to profit off his name. The settlement worked out well for both parties, as Lee signed up to work on future projects for MTV Networks in the process.
Even so, the lawsuit delayed the official launch of the channel by eight weeks, as it was originally scheduled to premiere in mid-June. This delay cost the network millions of dollars in lost revenue and rebranding expenses. Luckily, the very public legal battle offered quite a bit of publicity for both parties.
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First Kill: Netflix Releases Trailer For Supernatural Series
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Buffy ended with the love triangle between the eponymous slayer , Spike and Angel coming to a head. In the series finale, Buffys first love returned to Sunnydale to help her fight the last big evil and even asked her if there could ever be a future for them. Buffy told him perhaps at some point with Angel then leaving.