TNA's Done on Destination America After September

[Con T.]

Per the Observer, after September, TNA will no longer be shown on Destination America.

Welp....been real, folks. Can't wait for the Death of TNA book.

 

[klunderbunker]

Is that official or just a rumor? I heard they had an out in September but that it was just a rumor.

 

[Con T.]

Is that official or just a rumor? I heard they had an out in September but that it was just a rumor.

It was in the latest Observer. Going to put in the long block of text in a bit, but the jist is, they're not announcing it now, and that while the ratings were good, it didn't justify the cost.

Will provide the full text soon.

 

[Starkist]

This shit blows.

Once something is damaged goods they always keep that stigma of being damaged. Just sucks.

 

[klunderbunker]

The problem is TNA has been damaged for years. Like, several years.

 

[Starkist]

Yes, I know. Still had some awesome wrestling on it. Maybe they can get on WGN or whatever station Smackdown used to be on.

 

[Nate DaMac]

Yes, I know. Still had some awesome wrestling on it. Maybe they can get on WGN or whatever station Smackdown used to be on.

If they could have gotten on those channels, they never would have went to Destination America. If they couldn't get on those channels when they averaged around a million viewers a week, no way they can get there with less than half of that.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

Meltzer.

The other question involves the move and the future of TNA on Destination America, and if there is no future, what happens next?

Just days before the move was announced, 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.

 

[Starkist]

If they could have gotten on those channels, they never would have went to Destination America. If they couldn't get on those channels when they averaged around a million viewers a week, no way they can get there with less than half of that.

Understandable for sure. Them stations probably don't want a wrestling show anyway.

 

[Dirk]

I feel like a pet died right now...

 

[nightmare]

If they could have gotten on those channels, they never would have went to Destination America. If they couldn't get on those channels when they averaged around a million viewers a week, no way they can get there with less than half of that.

Pretty much this. Add in the fact that they have no big name stars like in years past to help draw in viewers or ease the advertisers minds, that gives them less of a chance to attract a higher profile channel.


Sure they have a few talented guys, but their most high profile names include an Olympic hero on his final years in the ring & a painted up halfway functioning junkie. The rest are a mixed bag of the WWE Future Endeavored Club, some TNA faithful & a handful of indy guys who most casual fans have never heard of. Sure the KO division has been solid for years, but that isnt enough of a selling point.


They should jump ship for a better steady paycheck wherever they can, or hang up the boots. Dixie should just let the dream die & go back to whatever it is she did before she got bored and tried to play wrestling promoter.

 

[braveh]

I don't think this is true. des ame did not acquire impact for adrevenue.

Meltzer doesn't understand des ame's strategy.

he's been wrong before.

 

[braveh]

I'll believe it when I see it on tmz! they've been more trustworthy than Meltzer when it comes to wrestling news.

 

[OYDK]

Whatever execs that run Destination America that decided to give TNA a TV deal are real pieces of shit. They brought them in with little knowledge of the wrestling business and impossible expectations, and now are basically putting them out of business because they haven't met those expectations.

If this is true, it's a sad day. TNA might not have been gold but it was a decent alternative to WWE programming... hopefully they can dig their way out yet
again...

I understand that TNA needs to take a lot of the blame as well for some very poor management decisions, but DA should never have picked them up in the first place without knowing what they were getting themselves into. Did they expect TNA to bring all 1 million viewers from Spike? Or is the problem the programming that TNA offers? Either way, one could clearly see that DA were never willing to run with TNA from the beginning, and should be partially blamed for it's destruction.

 

[Shocky]

Time for Vince to buy that library and put TNA down. It's been fun, more frustrating than anything over the years, but TNA is too damaged at this point. Blame Russo, Bischoff, Hogan, or Carter, it doesn't matter at this point. Spike TV has proven its a failure as a wrestling network (why people are optimistic a potential deal with ROH or GFW is a positive is a whole other topic), and Destination America is just far too obscure of a network to garner any true following. No network support, lack of recognizable talent, and no proper wrestling minds running the business, far too many negatives to turn this thing around.

 

[Reflection]

Wrestlemania season has come and passed,
On slow news months TNA can never last.
Wake me up when September ends...

 

[One Punch Doug Crashin]

[YOUTUBE]D05AB8xs7qA[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Con T.]

TNAsylum has begun to do their mental gymnastics.

http://www.tnasylum.com/2015/05/having-fun-with-dirtsheets.html

The Russian judge, in particular, was impressed by this fan's inability to take reality, and scored him a 9.7. Still waiting on the score from the French judge

 

[Dan Severn's Moustache]

Destination America was not a long-term option for sustainability for the company to grow from a marketing standpoint. Which is very unfortunate, since the quality of TNA television has definitely been superior to WWE in recent months.

The only thing I can hope for is a light at the end of the tunnel, seeing as television quality has been on the rise and given the circumstances, the show has done very well on Destination America. But in the end, it all just comes down to numbers anyway.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

I assume Billy Corgan didn't come cheap and that Dixie would have had to go to DA for approval. The fact that this announcement came so quickly thereafter makes this really hard to believe. Oh well.

What was Dixie promising DA and what did they expect? Beyond ad revenue and ratings did any of DA's other programming increase their viewer ship. I give TNA credit, although I have only watched about 20 minutes of their programming since their move, the move did teach me that there is a network named DA and it is part of my cable package.

Maybe that is all that DA ever wanted from TNA in the first place.

 

[ABMorales787]

I'm not agreeing or disagreeing but how does a guy who spends 90 minutes on a live mic stuttering and going "I don't know" & "plans may change" know what a television company is doing and what a closed door meeting was about?

 

[Y 2 Jake]

I don't care. And that's a shame because TNA used to be an alternative worth watching.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

First off,



LULZ




second, itll be a blast watching all the Dixie Cups scrambling to come up with reasons why this isn't true, and why this wont be the final death throws of a death that has been drawn out far too long.


Im excited for the fact that this could majorly boost GFW. Bobby Lashley, Kurt Angle, Bobby Roode, James Storm and their womens division could draw decently if used properly and showed that the brand as a whole has solid direction and clue what the fuck they are doing.

 

[klunderbunker]

First off,



LULZ




second, itll be a blast watching all the Dixie Cups scrambling to come up with reasons why this isn't true, and why this wont be the final death throws of a death that has been drawn out far too long.


Im excited for the fact that this could majorly boost GFW. Bobby Lashley, Kurt Angle, Bobby Roode, James Storm and their womens division could draw decently if used properly and showed that the brand as a whole has solid direction and clue what the fuck they are doing.

To go along with this, Shane Douglas had a great line about Dixie on Austin's podcast a few weeks back (paraphrased):

"If you get hired to dig a ditch with me and I've been digging ditches for 30 years, I don't care how many business degrees you have, it makes sense to ask me about digging a ditch."

 

[Mighty NorCal]

I listened to it. I would say its profound, if one hundred other people hadn't said it about her/them already.

That's my big thing, their roster has plenty of talent and interesting characters. The leadership and creative team has zero chance of utilizing them or putting on a good show, both for their own incompetence, and their refusal to acknowledge their incompetence and ask those more knowledgeable for help.