The great shake-up in cable television continues, with Discovery Warner Bros.TruTV is the latest channel to be revamped.
The channel, best known for its comedy and reality shows, will shift its prime time programming to new sports programming starting next Monday, March 11.
In the future, TruTV will offer exclusive live games (including games from the upcoming March Madness college basketball tournament and MotoGP races) as well as alternate broadcasts of NBA, MLB and NHL games on TNT and TBS. It will also simulcast some of these games.
Alternative broadcasts (like those from ESPN) Monday Night Football “Manningcast” or that of Amazon Perfect Guy Thursday Night Football option) have become very popular in recent years, as sports broadcasters seek to attract new, younger fans to their live events. Likewise, leagues support greater coverage of their games.
Additionally, TNT Sports will produce a series of studio sports programs, including a 30-minute sports news show. TNT Sports Update at 6 p.m., sports betting show Line at 6:30 p.m., and a late-night NBA-focused show called Handles.
Part of Strategic Programming Shift, TruTV's Biggest Hit: Hidden Camera Comedy Series Impractical jokers – will move to TBS starting this summer.
“We constantly strive 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, President and CEO of TNT Sports. By creating a block of primetime sports programming on truTV, in addition to our existing premium live sports on TNT and TBS, we are now able to provide a more comprehensive sports offering to our fans, while generating opportunities additional growth for our sports and strategic division. business and league partners.
Under former TruTV president Chris Linn, the network previously focused on comedy since 2013. Linn left the then-WarnerMedia-owned network in May 2019 as Kevin Reilly added oversight of the cabler before he too was expelled a year later. During his tenure, Linn rebranded Court TV as TruTV with series including At Home with Amy Sedaris, Impractical jokers, Adam ruins everything And Tacoma FD. TruTV previously had a slate of scripted series but phased them out earlier this year as part of the cabler's makeover under Warner Bros.' Kathleen Finch. Discovery, with the cancellation of Tacoma FD.
The shake-up at TruTV comes amid a larger shift in cable TV, with small and mid-sized channels facing something of a reckoning amid continued cord-cutting. More recently, a handful of Disney's cable channels, including Freeform and Disney Junior, have lost carriage on Charter Spectrum, raising questions about the future of their programming.