TNA Impact!
| TNA Impact! | |
|---|---|
| File:Tnaimpact.jpg Current TNA iMPACT! logo | |
| Created by | Vince Russo Jeff Jarrett |
| Starring | See Total Nonstop Action Wrestling roster |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 133 (as of January 24, 2007) |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Multicamera setup |
| Running time | 1 hour per episode (44 minutes plus commercials) |
| Original release | |
| Network | Fox Sports Net (June 2004 – May 2005) Webcast, Sun Sports, regional TV networks (June 2005 – September 2005) Spike TV (October 2005 – Present) |
| Release | June 4, 2004 – Present |
TNA iMPACT! is a professional wrestling television program produced by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) and is TNA's main television program. TNA iMPACT! is filmed at the TNA iMPACT! Zone, Soundstage 21 at the Universal Studios Florida theme park, at Universal Orlando Resort in Orlando, Florida. Admission to tapings of the show is free, though paying guests of Universal Studios Florida are given seating priority. Tapings are held biweekly on Mondays.
It currently airs in the United States and Canada on Spike TV, throughout the United Kingdom and Europe on Bravo 2 and Eurosport, in Quebec on RDS, throughout Asia on ESPN Star Sports, in the Philippines on ABC, in South Korea on Cinema Networks, and throughout Africa on Click Boogie.
History
Fox Sports Net
In May 2004 TNA announced that they had negotiated a television deal with Fox Sports Net (FSN) where they would get a one hour timeslot on Fridays at 3:00 p.m. in most markets, putting TNA on unrestricted cable and satellite for the first time.
TNA began taping TNA iMPACT! that month and aired the first episode on June 4, 2004. iMPACT! was also syndicated throughout Canada (on TSN and RDS) and Europe (on The Wrestling Channel and, also later, both Eurosport and Bravo 2). Within a few months, TNA moved its pay-per-view programming from a weekly two-hour format to a monthly three-hour format. In December 2004, iMPACT! was moved to a 4:00 p.m. timeslot. TNA's contract with FSN expired in May 2005 and was not renegotiated, with the last episode airing on May 27, 2005. The series as a whole had averaged a 0.2 household rating.[1]
Webcast
TNA was left with no television deal and, therefore, had no means of promoting their monthly pay-per-views (although iMPACT! did continue to air on certain regional networks, replacing TNA Xplosion on those networks). On July 1, TNA began streaming iMPACT! from their website via RealPlayer, in addition to enabling downloads via BitTorrent. To save on production costs, four hours of iMPACT! were recorded in a day and made available throughout the subsequent month.[2]
Spike TV
At the same time, TNA began seeking a more profitable television outlet. TNA began negotiations with Spike TV for a Saturday night timeslot, a traditional wrestling timeslot dating back to the days of the Clash of the Champions and the Saturday Night's Main Event. On July 21, 2005, TNA announced that they had secured a deal with Spike TV and would begin airing iMPACT! on Saturdays at 11:00 p.m. ET starting October 1 (replacing WWE Velocity when WWE returned to the USA Network) as part of Spike TV's Slammin' Saturday Night block.[3]
When the FSN contract expired, TNA signed syndication contracts for iMPACT! on local TV channels in its most popular markets, including Florida sports channel Sun Sports. When iMPACT! moved to Spike TV, these syndication contracts were converted to contracts for TNA's syndicated show, TNA Xplosion. Beginning on September 27, TNA began taping two episodes every other Tuesday, airing them on the subsequent Saturday.[4] They are no longer paying for the timeslot, though Spike TV controls their advertising revenue.[5]
Because of citing viewership growth, iMPACT! was moved to Thursdays at 11:00 p.m. on April 13, 2006, with the programs collectively constituting Spike TV's Thursday Night Knockouts block, though they were to originally be upgraded to a 9 p.m. primetime slot.[6] This would lead to TNA taping iMPACT! on Mondays rather than Tuesdays starting on April 10.[7] The penultimate Saturday episode of iMPACT! on April 1, 2006 was televised opposite the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony on the USA Network, marking the first time that TNA and WWE programs aired head-to-head. This episode of iMPACT! scored their lowest rating since November 2005.
Starting in June 2006, episodes of TNA iMPACT! became available at the iTunes Music Store.[8] Unlike WWE, TNA has encouraged the posting of their videos on sites such as YouTube, going as far as to have official accounts on sites such as YouTube that post segments of past episodes of iMPACT! for public viewing.
iMPACT! would finally get the primetime slot of Thursday nights at 9:00 p.m. ET on November 16, 2006 with a two-hour special for their debut before returning to one-hour shows. The debut special scored a rating of 1.0, not as well as TNA officials hoped but a rating Spike TV is happy with.[9] The show remained strong with high ratings that Spike TV officials are happy with. It should be noted however, that many believe that the organization would have folded if not for the financial backing it recieves from Spike TV.
Content
iMPACT! generally features two to four matches in the space of the hour, as well as numerous interviews and angles interspersed between the matches. Due to the nature of the wrestling business, advertisements for merchandise and upcoming pay-per-view events often serve as bookmarks for the commercial segments.
When iMPACT! was on Fox Sports Net, most matches had a time limit of normally ten minutes. In the event of a time limit draw, the winner was determined by the TNA Championship Committee, a group consisting of three veteran wrestlers. Since being dropped from FSN, iMPACT! has discarded the time limit concept. They still have three to five matches per show.
Commentators
- See also: Total Nonstop Action Wrestling roster
Mike Tenay is the iMPACT! play-by-play commentator and Don West is the color analyst. Jeremy Borash, Christy Hemme and Leticia Cline handle interview duties.
Spanish commentary was originally provided by Armando Quintero and "Moody" Jack Melendez. In May 2006, Konnan took over for Armando Quintero. Recently, Konnan's Latin American Exchange stable has added some angles to iMPACT! in connection with the Spanish commentary, including a "strike" during a match on May 25 during which Konnan and Moody Jack refused to provide commentary and declaring the Spanish announce table "off limits" to "gringos".
The French language version of iMPACT! on RDS is hosted (from a studio) by Marc Blondin and Pierre-Carl Ouellette. Both Bravo 2 and TWC Fight! have retained Mike Tenay and Don West as TNA announcers, Harry Weber and Christian Bruns (German version) and Axel (Portuguese version) among others. The Hindi version shown on STAR Sports takes place in its ESPN Star Sports studios.
See also
References
- ^ "2004 Television Ratings". Retrieved 2007-01-08.
- ^ "Impact! Taping Results from Orlando, FL for the next four weeks". 2005-07-20. Retrieved 2007-01-09.
- ^ "TNA 'Impact' to call Spike TV home". 2005-07-24. Retrieved 2006-11-18.
- ^ "More on TNA's new television deal with Spike TV; debut & taping schedule". 2005-07-21. Retrieved 2007-01-09.
- ^ "Notes on TNA's debut on Spike TV in October, advertising situation, more". 2005-08-11. Retrieved 2007-01-09.
- ^ "Spike TV Press Release: TNA Moving To Primetime". 2006-02-06. Retrieved 2006-11-18.
- ^ "TNA Changes iMPACT! Taping To Mondays". 2006-03-21. Retrieved 2007-01-01.
- ^ "No Surrender Note, iMPACT!/ITunes, & More". 2006-07-03. Retrieved 2007-01-01.
- ^ "Spike TV Happy With TNA iMPACT! Primetime Rating, More". 2006-11-18. Retrieved 2006-11-18.