Development Alert: TNT Sports Expands To The United States Through TruTV, Impractical Jokers Moves To TBS

Warner Bros. Discovery is making cable network TruTV a regular home for sports, adding a weeknight sports block and shifting established franchise Impractical Jokers to TBS this summer.

A mix of live sports, original sports programming and ancillary sports content will start appearing on TruTV next Monday, March 11, under the banner “TNT Sports on TruTV.” The block will start at 6 p.m. ET and run through late night.

The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, aka March Madness, gets under way the following week. WBD, which shares in March Madness rights with Paramount, often makes use of TruTV as a home for early-round tournament games.

The push toward daily sports programming comes as WBD, Fox and Disney have embarked on a joint sports-focused streaming venture. The JV, scheduled to launch this fall, will bring 14 linear network feeds to subscribers via the internet. Apart from the NCAA tournament, TNT is known for its NBA coverage and TBS broadcasts Major League Baseball.

Impractical Jokers, a cornerstone TruTV property since its premiere in 2011, will move to TBS with a batch of new episodes this summer. During the transitional period, the series will continue to simulcast on both truTV and TBS through early April. Series from the TruTV library, including past seasons of Impractical Jokers, will air on TruTV prior to 6 p.m. each day. 

“We are constantly striving to create and deliver the best sports content and experiences to sports fans wherever they are, and this is an exciting opportunity to expand the reach of our premium TNT Sports programming with greater consistency throughout the year,” said Luis Silberwasser, Chairman and CEO, TNT Sports. “By creating a primetime block of sports programming on truTV, in addition to our existing premium live sports on TNT and TBS, we are now able to deliver a more comprehensive sports offering for our fans, while generating additional growth opportunities for our sports division and strategic business and league partners.”

The upcoming programming lineup will include select alternative presentations of live TNT Sports games; simulcasts of games appearing on TNT or TBS; a new 30-minute news and highlight show, TNT Sports Update, airing nightly at 6 p.m.; betting show The Line, airing weeknights at 6:30; NBA-centric show Handles airing in late night; and a House of Highlights show produced weekly as a TruTV exclusive. (WBD’s digital subsidiary Bleacher Report is known for its House of Highlights vertical.)

Also in store for the new sports block are movies and documentaries, including The Inside Story, which looks at TNT’s Inside the NBA studio show; in-season episodes of The Steam Room vodcast featuring Ernie Johnson and Charles Barkley, and special editions of Shaqtin’ a Fool, among other originally produced programming; and an upcoming schedule of MotoGP races.

TNT Novelas Expands To More Parts Of Latin America, Kills Off TBS

During the year, Turner Network Television, Inc. a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery had trademarked a new brand, TNT Novelas. The channel rolled out in place of TNT Series which had since then inherited a number of soap operas from Turkey and Colombia.

As seen through various pay-tv outlets, the general entertainment channel TBS similar to family brand Boomerang earlier in the year in parts of Europe is being phased out for a more productive brand, TNT Novelas.

Sources site the cutback of original programming on TNT, Cartoon Network and TBS in the United States as one of the contributing factors of TNT Novelas which is expected to takeover the TBS brand name across Latin America (including Brazil) from June 26.

Another being the newly launched Max streaming service in which Warner Bros. Discovery is prioritising the original programming and leaving brands like Cartoon Network to promote the existing batch of content from the streaming service.

In other developments, Warner Bros. Discovery has been phasing out TNT across Europe for Warner TV. Of course, the TNT brand name was revived as a sports channel in the UK on top of that these changes have yet to take affect in the African market.

TNets Strategy Comes Into Focus With Lower-Cost, Mass-Appeal Shows As New Chief Kathleen Finch Meets With Creative Community

There probably has been no other division of WarnerMedia more impacted by the Discovery merger than the TNets, which consist of TNT, TBS and TruTV. In the span of a couple of months after the transaction was completed, they got new leadership, with Discovery’s Kathleen Finch adding them to her portfolio, while the previous toppers exited: General Manager Brett Weitz, SVP Original Programming Adrienne O’Riain, and unscripted chief Corie Henson.

The new owners quickly scrapped or ended scripted series such as Chad, Snowpiercer and Kill the Orange Bear, cut a number of unscripted series such as the already completed The Big D, and let go a number of big-ticket development.

As the dust has started to settle, Finch, Chairman and Chief Content Officer, US Networks Group, Warner Bros. Discovery, recently made an outreach to talent agencies and producers, laying out her plans for what original programming on the TNets will look like going forward.

In response to a request for comment on that outreach and her message to the creative community, Finch issued a statement to Deadline.

“I’ve had some great meetings with agents and production partners to let them know that yes, we’re definitely open for business at TNT, TBS, and at all the brands that make up the WBD US Networks portfolio,” she said. “We’ve spent the past few months evaluating content, our audience make up, which audience groups we want to grow and what kinds of series we need to do that. The content teams are looking at both scripted and unscripted, and have already put some exciting projects into development. Once the deals are signed we’ll be able to share more, but for now the message we want to send to the production community is that we’re bullish on delivering great slates to the fans of these Top 10 networks.”

Finch would not comment further. But according to sources, on the scripted side the focus is on TNT, whose sole current series, Snowpiercer, recently wrapped production on its fourth and final season. On the unscripted side, TBS is believed to be more of the focus, with sibling network truTV leaning in to its Impractical Jokers franchise and spinoffs.***

Scripted Strategy

Snowpiercer, TNT’s post-apocalyptic drama starring Jennifer Connelly and Daveed Diggs, may be the last of the kind of high-end, prestige dramas with big stars and budgets (in the $7 million-$8 million an episode range) that the network has been doing since The Alienist in 2018. TNT is now looking for more cost-effective series that don’t go after A-list movie talent and would complement the tentpole sports/unscripted programming on TNT — as well as the rest of Warner Bros. Discovery’s suite of linear networks under Finch. That could include wrestling-themed shows, as AEW is a major draw on TNT, and scripted series that have the feel of some of the signature Discovery docu reality series like The Deadliest Catch. IP-based/genre series also are being explored, we hear.

Before taking the turn to big-budget, premium dramas under previous programming chief Kevin Reilly, TNT had success with original crime procedurals that complemented its roster of off-network crime dramas, most notably The Closer and its spinoff Major Crimes.

To keep costs low, we hear producers are being asked to find a studio that would handle international distribution, somewhat emulating the traditional indie financing model where international pre-sales bring in the funding needed to make a movie feasible and lower financial risk for its backers. TNets’ sister studio, Warner Bros. Television, which most recently produced TNT’s recently departed drama Animal Kingdom, is expected to continue to be a supplier with the right projects that fit the new business paradigm. As Finch noted, there are a handful of projects currently under consideration.

We hear that TNT was presented to the creative community as the sole scripted brand among the TNets, though Warner Bros. Discovery sources dispute that. TBS, which relies heavily on off-network sitcoms, mainly The Big Bang Theory, currently has two ongoing scripted series in hits Miracle Workers and the animated American Dad!

Unscripted Strategy

As for the unscripted side, TBS has a history of attracting big talent to unscripted such as John Cena co-hosting its reboot of Wipeout and NBA All-Star Dwyane Wade fronting its adaptation of British format The Cube.

In a stronger way than the scripted side, we hear agents and producers have been encouraged to remember that Warner Bros Discovery owns a movie studio, and to figure out if there can be any crossover, be it on talent or IP. For instance, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses, the Warner Bros-produced, Helen Mirren-fronted competition series, performed well for TBS and Cartoon Network.

It was also pointed out that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson acted as master of ceremonies for this summer’s Shark Week on the Discovery side.

However, one of the challenges remains budgets. The TNets have long had higher budgets for its slate of unscripted shows than the Discovery networks, partly down to bringing in higher carriage fees.

Similar to how the scripted side is looking at deficit financing via international distribution, their reality counterparts are looking for “Discovery-style dealmaking” on the unscripted side. In the past, this has meant selling full global and format rights to projects, with producers essentially operating on a work-for-hire basis.

There remains some confusion among unscripted agents and producers as to TNets’ messaging, with one source saying Finch’s comments have been “inconsistent” with remarks from some of its other network executives.

Industry insiders argue that the TNets will need to keep offering desirable originals rather than a slate of repeats of Discovery shows such as 90 Day Fiancé, for Warner Bros. Discovery to justify the significantly higher affiliate fees cable and satellite operators pay for them compared with the Discovery cable networks.

However, the TNets’ main attraction is sports. TNT and TBS boast NBA and Major League Baseball coverage, wrestling, and last year they closed a big, seven-year NHL deal. Additionally, TNT, TBS and TruTV share NCAA men’s basketball games. In today’s environment and proliferation of streaming, live sports is what drives premiums for linear networks, with entertainment considered an additive.

Warner Bros. Discovery Considering Running HBO, HBO Max Reruns on TNT, TBS As Low-Cost Programming Option

Warner Bros. Discovery is clearly looking under every stone to try and shake loose a few more dollars to eat into the $3 billion hole that CEO David Zaslav is trying to fill in, and the company is turning to its primary streaming service HBO Max for as much assistance as possible. The company’s latest tactic? Airing streaming and previously premium content on its linear cable channels to attract viewers to as many of its platforms as possible.

According to a new report from Business Insider, Zaslav sees cable channels TNT and TBS as important parts of his strategy to revolutionize WBD’s platforms. The cable channels draw a large audience thanks to their live sports programming, particularly the NBA. If the networks can keep those audiences watching non-sports content, that can help both the linear and streaming brands. So, why not have those networks put some of HBO’s most popular content in front of their eyes?

Second-run programming like “The Sopranos,” “The Flight Attendant,” “Succession,” and other HBO and HBO Max titles could soon become a permanent part of TNT and TBS’s programming schedule. The latter channel has already begun experimenting with one-off presentations called “Front Row on TBS,” which saw the first season of “The Flight Attendant” air ahead of Season 2’s premiere on HBO Max and Season 1 of “Titans” air on cable before the third season began.

This new plan would essentially see — around the valuable sports programming, of course — the Turner networks become a repository of reruns from HBO’s library of premium cable and streaming originals. WBD hopes that this will not only draw more attention to the cablers, but also encourage viewers to sign up for the streamer so that they can watch their favorite HBO programs on demand. While the corporate synergy makes sense, especially as a cheap way to fill cable air time, one unnamed former Warner executive is skeptical of the company essentially going backward when it comes to running the cable channels.

“Samantha Bee is gone, and all of the original programming. It’s reverting back to the old model of 20 years ago and becoming a network that is all reruns,” the former executive said of TBS. “At some point [WBD execs] have to make a decision with all the cable networks: Can they sustain all of them or do they consolidate?”

Warner’s hope for sustaining those channels is the live sports content they offer. TNT’s deal with the NBA runs through the 2024-25 season, and WBD definitely wants to renew that contract. TNT also airs NHL games, and TBS gets some MLB games, while both channels air the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. According to Insider, there is also discussion of making one of the channels a sports-focused network, combining all of WBD’s cable sports rights in one place and supplementing with other sports-themed programming.

While that would be a bigger swing for the company, the movement of HBO shows from being exclusively available via streaming to airing on linear cable channels is a bit of a trend-buster for WBD. More and more networks are choosing to do just the opposite; moving high-profile shows exclusively to streaming in hopes of boosting the profile of their respective streaming services.

That’s what Disney did when it moved “Dancing With The Stars” to Disney+ exclusively. Peacock is doing the same with the long-running soap opera “Days of Our Lives.” But those companies are also increasing their streaming budgets, while WBD is in the midst of a massive cutback.

“Our goal is to compete with the leading streaming services, not to win the spending war,” Zaslav said in the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call last year.

Leaning on established outlets like TNT and TBS as platforms for second-run premium programming may indeed help WBD, but it’s another in a long line of signs that the bottom line is much more important to the company than the customer’s experience.