It's a down market because those in charge don't bother to put on a great programs or don't know how. People are starved for something great!
You speak of making weekly, episodic television featuring at least thirty to forty minutes every two hours of men in tights grinding against each other is easy. You say the people in charge don't bother to put on great programs or don't know how? What makes you think that they're going to know how when suddenly they'd have to fill a whole network's worth of programming.
It was an interesting concept where the execution wasn't always good. But it could have been improved upon. Their best ReAction was right after Fourtune attacked the ECW guys. It worked in the context because it was exactly what the title say it was a reaction to something that had happened. When you do a ReAction when nothing happens, that's the problem.
Or, they didn't learn the lesson from Nitro that wrestling fans don't have a three hour attention span. The ratings cratered for the show after Impact went off the air, causing them to do main event overruns in the hope people would stay tuned. They got pissed that Impact ended later instead. Good programming? What does that matter if people don't want to watch it in the first place? It cost much more to produce than other shows Spike makes, like Jail, 1000 Ways to Die, and- yes, Manswers, which can be produced dirt cheap with extras that cost at most $1k for a shooting session, which depending on union contract can cover multiple episodes. Professional wrestling costs MUCH more to make, which is why you aren't seeing SpikeTV invest extra time into it.
Also most of the people on the net even if they hated Impact thought ReAtion most of the time delivered. The reactions and promos were better there and the insight was better.
"Most of", a way to qualify that people agree with your opinion without having to provide any evidence of it. I don't care if a show has better production or is more entertaining, in the context of whether forming a network based on that content would be a wise decision- I care if it makes money. If it did, we'd be watching ReAction still.
I don't know what they thought they had with ReAction but it was a mistake to cancel it. They should have used it better: do those shows only when sometime big happen as a you know post reaction. That should be the point. I think in general though Spike never really supported TNA well.
Again, you have the wrong idea of why a television show stays on the air. There's stuff I find entertaining that has no shot of ever being on television, because not enough other people find it entertaining to be profitable. SpikeTV tried pushing TNA/IW in 2009, and got exactly nowhere. They're much more expensive to produce than the reruns and cheap original shows that SpikeTV has been using, and they aren't delivering the higher ratings margin that a tentpole show should to justify those expenses. SpikeTV isn't investing in the future of professional wrestling- they're investing in the future of SpikeTV.
Spike has cancelled Deadliest Warriors. TNA and Bellator is the only time they have! You think they will continue having Manswers for long? It wouldn't be much of a stretch to show re-runs of wrestling programs. They already shows re-runs of other MMA and boxing shows.
Yes, Manswers will continue to be on SpikeTV for a long time to come. It doesn't have to be good television, it has to generate enough advertising revenue to guarantee profit over expense. (The litmus test for this isn't "does it generate profit period", but "does it generate more profit than another program would in its place?") SpikeTV obviously doesn't see that it would be profitable to further invest in TNA/IW. If they did, they would be expanding their wrestling offerings.
TNA/IW had every opportunity throughout 2009 and 2010 to prove they could carry the network. There were two separate national advertising campaigns, including a very heavy media buy in January 2009, when they started investing heavily in talent as well. They've moved ratings up 10% in that time. If- and I'm using your words here- SpikeTV isn't really supporting TNA/IW, and if the people producing professional wrestling don't know how to make good programming now, how can you think that SpikeTV would want to go to a professional wrestling focus featuring people that you don't think can make good television?
