Turner Network Television
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| TNT (Turner Network Television)
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Turner Network Television, usually referred to as TNT, is a cable TV network created by media mogul Ted Turner and launched with a showing of his favorite film, Gone with the Wind, on October 3, 1988. TNT airs NBA games as The NBA on TNT, NASCAR, and reruns of popular network television shows from the past, with a focus on dramatic programming.
TNT was also the home of WCW Monday Nitro, the flagship show of the now defunct World Championship Wrestling, once regularly the highest rated weekly program on cable. It carried National Football League games from 1990 to 1997, covering the first half of each season.
During 2001, TNT had it's most successful original series, Witchblade, which ran for two seasons, ending its run in 2002. The series starred Yancy Butler.
On June 12, 2001, TNT relaunched itself, with a new logo and tagline, "We Know Drama." It now focuses on sports and high-action movies with lots of drama and energy, and the "Primetime in the Daytime" weekday lineup featuring reruns of network TV dramas such as Law & Order, Charmed, NYPD Blue, ER, and Judging Amy. It is in direct contrast to sister network TBS, which shows more comedy related programming.
In 2004, TNT became the first Turner Network to begin broadcasting in High Definition.
[edit] International versions
A British and Indian version of TNT was launched in the 1990s but was exclusively dedicated to movies, mainly from the MGM and Warner Brothers archives. However the UK version of TNT was different to the Indian version in that it showed one, later two programes in addition to its movie content. These programes were from September 1995 WCW Monday Nitro shown at 9pm every Friday night and later in late 1998 WCW Thunder which was shown on Saturday nights at 9pm(in 1999 they began to show WCW Thunder directly after WCW Monday Nitro on Friday nights). The episodes of Monday Nitro were shown only 4 days after they were shown in the United States on the American TNT. WCW Thunder episodes were shown just 2 and later one day after their US airdates. In the UK the wrestling ratings war between WCW and the then WWF would take place on Friday nights not Mondays. This was due to Nitro being shown head to head with Raw(although Raw would from 1998 until Nitro's demise air an hour later than Nitro refecting a simiar move in the USA) as it was in the USA but on Fridays not Mondays. Despite the strong ratings for Nitro on TNT UK (3rd highest on UK satellite and cable behind Raw and certain Premiership Football games)it never once beat Raw in the UK ratings war. This was despite the fact that in the UK Raw aired(and still does)on a subscription channel where as Nitro aired on basic sky and cable channel packages(or basic cable as the USA term would be). Raw is now shown live in the UK at 2am every Monday night on Sky Sports 3 and although fans perfer this as often the feed contains uncensored footage(such as the Lita 'live sex' nipple slip that was censored on the USA Network feed and the airing of profanity that is bleeped on the USA Network)many fans who watched during the Friday night days do have an great fondness for those days as they enjoyed the atmosphere that came with watching on Fridays(coming home from a week of work/school to enjoy a Friday night of wrestling on two channels)and the channel surfing to Monday Nitro.
Prior to late 1997(mid 1998 in the UK) the channel was combined with Cartoon Network in Europe and India into a channel called TNT & Cartoon Network. Cartoon Network would air from 6:00am to 7:00pm when the station would change into TNT. This was later changed to 9:00pm in 1997. It was later renamed TNT UK(despite the fact it was shown in the rest of Europe and gave CET times for its programes before UK times), as Cartoon Network became its own 24 hour channel. TNT continued to run in the UK(and the rest of Europe) only, and became 24 hours consisting of shows, newer movies,and WCW programing but closed in mid-2000, due to licensing restrictions. In 2000 TNT went off the air and TCM appeared in its place. Monday Nitro continued to be shown for a limited time before it and WCW Thunder were forced off the network in order to make way for more movies. The programes had been TNT UKs biggest ratings winners despite the fact they never won a single battle in the 'Friday Night Wars' with rival Monday Night Raw shown on Sky Sports. However with the decline of WCW in America ratings dipped in the UK too and the rights to show WCWs programes where sold to rival station Bravo UK and thus TCM like TNT UK prior to 1995 became an movie only channel.
TCM is still operating and broadcasts MGM and Warner Brothers films like the old TNT used to. There is now also a TCM 2 which broadcasts films from MGM and Warner Brothers also.
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[edit] External links
fr:Turner Network Television it:Turner Network Television ja:Turner Network Television pt:Turner Network Television tl:TNT
