TNT (American TV network)
- This article is about the American TNT channel and its international offshoots. For other television services named "TNT", see TNT.
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (January 2009) |
| Headquarters | Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (Time Warner) |
Turner Network Television (TNT) is an American cable television channel created by media mogul Ted Turner and currently owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner. Since 2007, TNT has re-launched local versions of the channel in Spain, Germany and Turkey with more European countries in the pipeline.
History
1980s
TNT, as a cable service, was launched with a showing of the 1939 classic movie Gone with the Wind (which Ted Turner had acquired the rights to), on October 3, 1988. It was chosen because, it was said, it was Turner's favorite movie - it would also be the first program on sister channel Turner Classic Movies in 1994. Incidentally, the film had been premiered in Atlanta, Turner's hometown and the headquarters of Turner Broadcasting, as well as being the setting for Gone With the Wind.
TNT was, at least initially, a vehicle for older movies and television shows, but slowly began to add original programming and newer reruns. When TNT began broadcasting pre-1986 MGM films, it caused a controversy when they began colorizing many black and white classics.
1990s
In 1990, it obtained partial rights to the Sunday Night Football package for the National Football League, which it retained until 1997. The NFL on TNT consisted of three or four preseason games annually and of regular-season telecasts of the first half of each season. As has always been the case for cable broadcasts, TNT distributed their feed to local television stations in the market of the teams playing.
Starting in 1995, TNT was also the home of WCW Monday Nitro, the flagship show of the now defunct World Championship Wrestling, once regularly the highest rated weekly program on cable. The program defeated Monday Night Raw, the flagship show of the then-World Wrestling Federation, for 83 straight weeks until 1998.
It was also known for its late night programming, such as MonsterVision, which showcased B movies (including a Godzilla marathon at the end of every month), with occasional guest hosts Penn and Teller. MonsterVision eventually found a permanent host in cult personality and drive in movie aficionado Joe Bob Briggs. Every Saturday night, from 1995 to 2000, he would host a pair of horror films (such as Friday the 13th Part 2 and Wes Craven's New Nightmare) provide a running commentary, trivia, off-color jokes and a drive-in total. Also included in his host segments were jokes at the expense of Turner Network Television's Standards & Practices department for heavy censorship of the featured movies. This running joke culminated in a Friday the 13th all-night marathon during Halloween of 1998, where it was implied that Ted Turner was out to kill him.
Up until 1998, TNT would also show cartoons from the Turner library, such as The Flintstones, Scooby Doo, the DePatie-Freleng Pink Panther cartoons, Dexter's Laboratory, The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, among many others. The Rudy and Gogo World Famous Cartoon Show was also a TNT original show featuring classic Warner Bros., MGM, and Popeye shorts, hosted by marionettes and a nanny goat.
In the 1990s, TNT scheduled a lineup of shows for weekday afternoons including Due South, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and Babylon 5. In 1998, TNT took over production of the fifth and final season of Babylon 5 from the defunct Prime Time Entertainment Network. In 1999, TNT produced the Babylon 5 spinoff series Crusade but it was canceled before it ever aired, when TNT decided science fiction did not fit their brand identity.
During 2001, TNT had its then most successful original series, Witchblade, which ran for two seasons, ending its run in 2002.
"We Know Drama" era
On June 12, 2001, TNT relaunched itself, with a new logo (by Trollbäck + Company) and a new slogan, "We Know Drama", which emphasized the channel's new focus on programming with drama and energy, such as sports and network TV dramas like Angel, Law & Order, Charmed, NYPD Blue, ER, Without a Trace, Alias, Judging Amy, Las Vegas and Cold Case. It is in direct contrast to sister channel TBS, which shows more comedy related programming. In addition, NASCAR coverage moved to TNT from TBS starting in the 2001 season, as Ted Turner believed that it would fit more with TNT's new look and theme than TBS.
On January 1, 2003, TNT was technically replaced with a new channel called "TNT Plus", although it does not appear this was ever reflected in the channel's on-air identity. The apparent sole purpose of its establishment was to force rate renegotiations to help pay for TNT's new NBA and NASCAR contracts, well before the channel's rates were scheduled to come up for renewal with most cable and satellite providers. In theory, TNT Plus was to have been the sole carrier of Turner's NBA and NASCAR coverage from that point forward, while any providers still carrying the original TNT would have seen replacement programming instead.[1] Although it appears that Comcast did not immediately sign on for TNT Plus, there is no evidence of Turner actually pulling sports programming from the "original" TNT.[2]
In 2004, TNT became the first Turner channel to begin broadcasting in high definition. TNT is also one of the Turner-owned channels which now shows the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.
On December 7, 2008, TNT unveiled a new ad campaign with a newly stylized update of its logo, mainly in shiny silver (onscreen during programming and on the TNT website) but sometimes in gold. The campaign will continue to use the channel's tagline "We Know Drama" but with more of a focus on its original series and its plan to have three nights of original primetime programming starting in 2009.[3]
On November 6, 2009, TNT announced that it had obtained exclusive syndication rights for The Mentalist and would begin airing old episodes of the series starting in the fall of 2012.[4]
TNT HD
TNT HD is a 1080i high definition simulcast of TNT. TNT HD is criticized for its practice of airing a significant amount of 4:3 standard definition content stretched to 16:9 through a nonlinear process similar to the "panorama" setting on many HDTVs that some viewers have nicknamed Stretch-o-Vision; though other simulcasted HD cable channels have also fallen into this practice, TNT is usually cited since it was one of the first channels with an HD simulcast. The nonlinear stretching process leaves objects in the center of the screen with approximately their original aspect ratio; objects at the left and right edges are distorted. In addition to true HD content at 16:9, TNT HD also airs unstretched upconverted standard definition content in its original aspect ratio.
Widescreen movies
Below a list of some of the movies TNT HD provides in a non-stretched widescreen format and airs frequently. Movies will be noted if they were aired in their original aspect ratio (OAR).
- The Grudge (provided in OAR)
- Jerry Maguire (provided in OAR)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- Titanic (provided in OAR)
- Forrest Gump
Programming
Drama
TNT's success with original series includes the critically acclaimed The Closer, ad-supported cable's #1 series of all time; Saving Grace, which averages more than 5 million viewers along with Leverage; and Raising the Bar, which set a new ad-supported cable viewership record when it premiered on Labor Day 2008 (but has recently been canceled). Hawthorne premiered in the summer of 2009 to 3.85 million viewers, while Dark Blue premiered to under 3 million viewers. The channel also picked up Southland after it was canceled by NBC. In 2010, TNT premiered three new dramas; the light-hearted Men of a Certain Age, cop drama Memphis Beat, and police procedural Rizzoli & Isles. Rizzoli & Isles premiered in July 2010 and set a new ad-supported cable viewership record for a series premiere.[5]
Syndicated Series
TNT is home to several syndicated television series including Bones, CSI: NY, Numb3rs, Charmed, Law & Order, Angel, Las Vegas, Cold Case, and Supernatural.
ER has been pulled off rotation (11:00am EST) and replaced with another Supernatural.
Sports
TNT Sports (under the Turner Sports division) mainly consists of National Basketball Association games and NASCAR races. The NBA on TNT (with studio hosts Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley) dates back to 1988 and has aired, either by itself or in combination with a similar package on TBS Superstation, ever since. NASCAR came to TNT in 2001, carried over from TBS by their shared parent company. From 2001 to 2006, the race package was split with NBC; as of 2007, it stands alone, with six races telecast annually. Currently, TNT has the cable rights to the first two rounds of two of golf's major championships, The British Open and The PGA Championship.
TNT will air Major League Baseball postseason games in the event TBS' MLB coverage has a scheduling conflict (e.g. the end of one game overruns into the start time of another game).
TNT inherited the telecast of the 2001 UAW-GM Quality 500 NASCAR race at Lowe's Motor Speedway from NBC due to the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom.
TNT's coverage of the 2009 NBA playoffs earned the highest first-round ratings ever for a cable television channel.[6]
NCAA Tournament on TNT
On April 22, 2010, a monumental 14 year 10.8 billion dollar agreement was reached with TNT to receive joint broadcast rights along with CBS for the NCAA 'March Madness' college basketball tournament. Starting in the 2011 season, TNT will carry first and second round games of the tournament and beginning in 2016 CBS and TNT will alternate coverage of the Final Four weekend and broadcast of the championship game.[7]
Upcoming series/pilots
Franklin & Bash: A new law drama starring Breckin Meyer and Marc-Paul Gosselaar. Coming soon to TNT.
Falling Skies: Six months after a worldwide alien invasion, a group of everyday heroes must rise up to fight for their survival all while maintaining their humanity in the process. This project has been ordered to pilot and comes to TNT from DreamWorks Television and filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who will serve as executive producer along with DreamWorks Television heads Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank and screenwriter Robert Rodat. Rodat, who earned an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for Saving Private Ryan, is writing the script for the pilot from an idea he co-conceived with Spielberg. Premieres summer 2011.
In the recent news of NBC's cancellation its long-running legal drama, Law & Order; show creator Dick Wolf stated that, "The flagship series is in a medically induced coma, waiting for a live-saving medicine." Wolf's pressuring the series' producer NBC/Universal Media Studios to make a TNT deal for originals if an acceptable license fee can be bargained. Talks between the two will start up after upfronts.[8][9]
International
European, Australian, Latin American, Spanish and Asian versions of TNT were launched in the 1990s but were exclusively dedicated to movies, mainly from the MGM and Warner Brothers archives (The UK and Scandinavian TNT did show WCW Monday Nitro on Friday nights just four days after its US broadcast). The European, Australian and Asian versions of the channel eventually became Turner Classic Movies. The most known signal broadcast from TNT in Europe was(and still is) the signal feed in France, and used similar graphics to what the US signal feed was using at the time.
TCM is still operating and broadcasts MGM and Warner Brothers films like the old TNT used to. There is now also a TCM 2 in the United Kingdom which broadcasts films from MGM and Warner Brothers also.
Germany
In January 2009, a version of TNT launched in Germany as TNT Serie. The channel shows the German premiere of 30 Rock and Friday Night Lights, as well a wide variety of old and recent American drama and comedy, including Murder, She Wrote, Northern Exposure, Monk, Third Watch, Rescue Me, Six Feet Under, ER, The King of Queens, Everybody Loves Raymond and Caroline in the City. Shows on TNT Serie are broadcast with two audio channels, one with the original English soundtrack and one with a German-dubbed soundtrack.
In June 2009, the German version of TCM was relaunched as "TNT Film". After Boomerang (2006), Cartoon Network and TCM (both 2007) TNT Serie is the fourth German Turner channel.
Spain
TNT came back to the Spanish market in summer 2007, when it launched exclusively on pay tv platform Digital+ becoming the 6th Turner channel available in Spain after Turner Classic Movies, Turner Classic Movies Clásico (launched alongside the new TNT), Cartoon Network, Boomerang and CNN+, a joint-venture between Turner Broadcasting and the Spanish Sogecable.
Turkey
A local version of TNT in Turkey launched in March 2008.[10]
Satellite parameters
- Satellite : Turksat 3A
- Frequency : 11.804
- Polarization : Vertical
- Symbol Rate : 24.444
- Language : Turkish , English , Turkish Subtitles
References
- ^ R. Thomas Umstead, "TNT to ops: pay up for 'Plus'", Multichannel News, 21 October 2002
- ^ Linda Moss and R. Thomas Umstead, "TNT gets in HD game--TCM next?", Multichannel News, 12 January 2004
- ^ Lafayette, Jon. "New Promo Campaign Touts TNT's Dramatic Credentials". TVWeek. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
- ^ McDuffee, Debbie (November 6, 2009). "TNT: The little network with the smart decisions". CliqueClack TV. Retrieved November 6, 2009.
- ^ http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/07/13/tnt%e2%80%99s-rizzoli-isles-sets-record-with-cable%e2%80%99s-biggest-ad-supported-premiere-draws-7-6-million-viewers/56989
- ^ "TNT playoff coverage ratings set record". The Live Feed. May 5, 2009.
- ^ "CBS cuts in Turner on NCAA basketball tournament". Los Angeles Times. April 23, 2010.
- ^ Finke, Nikki (2010-05-17). "TOLDJA! 'Law & Order' Heading To TNT? Or Will Dick Wolf Howl At NBCU's Hardball?". Deadline. Retrieved 2010-05-23.
- ^ "NBC Cancels 'Law & Order'; Orders 'Law & Order: LA'; Renews 'Law & Order: SVU'" (Press release). NBC (posted on TVByTheNumbers.com). May 14, 2010. Retrieved May 15, 2010.
- ^ Will TNT be on Digiturk?, Medyatava
