Paramount Network
Paramount Network is an American basic cable television channel and the flagship property of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Skydance Corporation, who operates it through the MTV Entertainment Group. The network's headquarters are located at the Paramount Pictures studio lot in Los Angeles. The channel was originally founded by a partnership between radio station WSM and Westinghouse Broadcasting as The Nashville Network and began broadcasting on March 7, 1983.
It initially featured programming catering towards the culture of the Southern United States, including country music, variety shows, outdoors programming, and motor racing coverage. TNN was purchased by the Gaylord Entertainment Company in 1983. After Gaylord bought CMT in 1991, TNN's music programming was shifted to CMT, leaving TNN to focus on entertainment and lifestyle programming.
In 1995, TNN and CMT were acquired by Westinghouse, which was in turn acquired by Viacom in 1999. Under Viacom ownership, TNN would phase out country-influenced programming in favor of a general entertainment format appealing to Middle America. It was renamed The National Network in September 2000, coinciding with the network premiere of WWF Raw. In August 2003, TNN relaunched as Spike TV, which targeted a young adult male audience. From June 2006, the network's programming had a more explicit focus on the action genre, while in 2010, the network had an increased focus on original reality series. This culminated with a final rebrand in 2015 to emphasize gender-balanced series and a return to original scripted programming.
On January 18, 2018, the channel took its current name, aiming to align the network with its Paramount Pictures, and to position Spike as a flagship, "premium" channel. Paramount Network's most successful original program was Yellowstone—which quickly became its flagship series, and has spawned multiple spin-offs on Paramount+, the streaming service owned by its parent company Paramount Skydance Corporation. The network has also featured limited engagements of new Paramount+ original series by Yellowstone co-creator Taylor Sheridan, using Yellowstone as a lead-in.
Between 2020 and 2021, most of Paramount Network's original programming would either be cancelled, or moved to other Paramount Global outlets, as part of a proposed plan to relaunch the network with a focus on made-for-TV films. By January 2022, these plans had been scrapped due to the impact of COVID-19, and the success of the Yellowstone franchise; leaving it, and Spike holdover Bar Rescue, as the channel's only original, first-run programs., approximately 61.33 million pay television households in the United States received Paramount Network; down from 80.24 million in September 2018.
History
The Nashville Network (1983–2000)
The Nashville Network first launched on March 7, 1983; it was dedicated to the culture and lifestyle of country music and the Southern United States. It originally operated as a joint venture of WSM, Inc., at the time owned by National Life and Accident Insurance Company and Westinghouse Broadcasting.After Westinghouse successor CBS Corporation bought TNN outright, the channel began to phase out its previous country lifestyle format, and drifted to focus more on acquired films and television series to attract wider demographics. Its largest successes came with a "Friday Night Thrill Zone" block targeting young adult male viewers, featuring the roller derby series RollerJam, motorsports and bull riding shows, and a weekly television series from Extreme Championship Wrestling ; despite the program's success, ECW's management would have a strained relationship with TNN executives.
In September 2000, new owner Viacom brought TNN under its New York-based MTV Networks division and relaunched it as "The National Network", signifying a transition to a general entertainment format targeting Middle America. The relaunch coincided with the move of Monday Night Raw—the flagship weekly program of the World Wrestling Federation —to TNN from the rival USA Network.
In 2001, TNN began to add more off-network dramas and sitcoms such as Baywatch, CSI, and the Star Trek franchise among others. It also began to add new original series such as Small Shots and the hidden camera quiz show Oblivious, with a goal for at least 50% of TNN's output to be original programming by 2005. Some of The Nashville Network's former programming was picked up by sister channel CMT, while other classic TNN shows were picked up by Great American Country, including eventually the Grand Ole Opry, which was moved to CMT and eventually removed by Viacom after they did not renew their agreement to carry the series.
Spike (2003–2018)
In April 2003, MTV Networks announced that TNN would be relaunched as Spike TV on June 16. Promoted with the slogan "The First Network for Men", the relaunch would target young adult males aged 18–34—a demographic MTV Networks believed was being underserved by other cable networks. New original programming announced for the channel included the miniseries 10 Things Every Guy Should Experience, Ride with Funkmaster Flex, and a slate of adult animation series such as Gary the Rat, Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", and Stripperella. Other planned programming included interstitial segments on health, technology, finance, and automotive news in collaboration with Men's Health, CBS MarketWatch, and Stuff.Three days before the planned launch date, film director and actor Spike Lee won a New York Supreme Court injunction preventing Viacom from using the "Spike TV” name. Lee claimed that due to his well-known popularity in Hollywood, viewers would therefore assume that he was associated with the new channel. Lee stated in court papers that: "The media description of this change of name, as well as comments made to me and my wife, confirmed what was obvious—that Spike TV referred to Spike Lee." Spike Jones Jr., son of comic musician Spike Jones, became a party to the lawsuit as part of Viacom's defense to protect the rights to his father's name. Most of the new programming would premiere on the originally-planned date as a soft launch; at this time, the TNN name and logo were downplayed in favor of the "First Network for Men" tagline. The suit was settled on July 8, 2003, with Lee admitting that he did not believe that Spike TV was intentionally trying to trade upon his name.
On July 28, 2003, it was announced that Spike TV would officially launch on August 11—eight weeks later than initially scheduled. Its launch night programming featured two programs originally intended to air on June 16, including Party with Spike—a launch special filmed at the Playboy Mansion, and the series premiere of Most Extreme Elimination Challenge —a comedic dub of the Japanese game show Takeshi's Castle. Klasky Csupo's Immigrants and the John Leguizamo-produced Zilch & Zero were originally slated to run on Spike TV's animation block, but these plans never materialized and the former was released as a film instead. Later that year, Spike premiered the reality television parody The Joe Schmo Show, and held the inaugural Spike Video Game Awards.
On January 17, 2005, Spike TV premiered The Ultimate Fighter, a reality competition series following mixed martial arts fighters training and competing to earn a contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The series helped to raise the profile of the promotion, and would run on Spike for 14 seasons; in 2011, the series moved to Fox Sports after it acquired the U.S. television rights to UFC programming and events under a new, seven-year deal. That month, Spike also premiered the new video game news show Game Head, hosted by Geoff Keighley.
In March 2005, Viacom announced that it would not renew its contract with WWE when it expired in September 2005. Spike TV's new president Doug Herzog stated that the network was planning to invest more heavily in original programming and acquisitions to appeal to its target audience. The following month, it was announced that WWE Raw would return to USA Network. Spike TV subsequently reached an agreement with another wrestling promotion, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, which saw its flagship weekly program TNA Impact! move to the channel beginning on October 1, 2005.
"Get More Action"
In 2005, Viacom conducted research which found that word-of-mouth knowledge narrowly perceived Spike TV's programming as being predominantly "low-brow,” violent, and reliant on sex appeal. These findings led Viacom to pursue a rebrand in an effort to clarify the network's focus. At its upfront presentations in 2006, Viacom unveiled a new logo for the channel, with the new slogan "Get More Action.” The new brand was described as being "authentic" and "unapologetically" masculine, and emphasizing action as a core genre of programming for the network. The new branding would launch alongside the premiere of Blade: The Series in June 2006. An aspect of the rebranding were themed promos with integrated product placement, such as "Men of Action".On September 5, 2006, Spike premiered the documentary film Metal of Honor: The Ironworkers of 9/11 by filmmaker Rachel Maguire, which profiled the ironworkers' efforts in the attempts for rescue and recovery of the September 11 attacks at the World Trade Center site. The film proceeds through the ironworkers' dismantling of the fallen towers. On October 10, 2006, Spike aired the inaugural Scream Awards, an awards show honoring horror, science fiction, fantasy and comic book-based entertainment. In January 2007, Spike premiered their first and only anime series, Afro Samurai, starring Samuel L. Jackson.
In October 2007, Kevin Kay was appointed president of Spike after serving as executive vice president and general manager of the channel for the previous two years. The post had been vacant since December 2006. In January 2008, Spike ordered DEA, a reality series from Al Roker Productions following agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Detroit. Viacom also signed Geoff Keighley to an expanded development deal for video game-related programming on Spike and its platforms, including the rebranding of Game Head as GameTrailers ''TV with Geoff Keighley'', and Keighley taking on a consulting role for the Spike Video Game Awards and other gaming-related specials.
In 2009, Spike broadcast live Australian rugby league semifinal games from the National Rugby League and also showed the grand final, as part of efforts by David Niu to bring the National Rugby League USA to the United States. On June 1, 2010, Spike launched into the first crowd-sourced pilot episode contest with Scripped, a web-based screenwriting community.