Paramount Network purpose?

[favoriteshow]

With the news that Friends was dumped on Paramount Network to the wee hours in the night, it made me wonder what is typically on this channel, and the purpose. Originally, I thought the re-branding from the last incarnation, Spike, to Paramount Network was Viacom's attempt to counter Warner's TBS, FX and NBCUniversal's USA, but it looks a lot weaker than TBS.

I looked at the schedule for Wednesday May 1:

Infomercials until 8am.
Bar Rescue reruns to 2:05pm
Two and Half Men (5 episodes)
Mom (6 episodes)
21 Jumpstreet (movie from 2012) @ 8pm
Shown again at 10:30pm.

To me, that is an incredibly weak schedule and no new original programming that day.

Why can't this channel merge with CMT though? I'd think Bar Rescue, one of its originals, would fit on CMT.

I get that TV Land is a more sitcom oriented. Logo is LGBT friendly, now like TV Land2 with classic shows with women leads, and other shows which are also gay friendly.

CMT is somewhat like the counter opposite of Logo's intended viewer, although Married With Children fits on both networks, and there is general entertainment there of course as well, as well as country videos in the morning. Also in the portfolio of channels is Comedy Central, which is home to adult animation, The Office and Parks and Recreation, and its signature show is the Daily Show.

Of the channels, it seems Paramount is the weakest (even worse than TV Land), and it feels a lot of these shows can be shifted to TV Land, CMT and Comedy Central.

Of course, if Viacom is making $1 per subscriber per month on each channel, it has no incentive to consolidate, and instead just create a new channel every two years. I'd wish there was more scrutiny into how Viacom is squatting on these channels though.

[stevea]

It's more of the same stuff that's on all their other channels. They're spread way too thin, but it seems to work for them.

You would think if they rebranded as this, they would tap the vast Paramount library of movies and TV shows.

[Tubehead]

i hadn't watch that network cents tnn showed repeats of the wonder years!!

[tenter]

I noticed Paramount network schedule according to zap2it, it looked like Friends airing occurs mostly very late Tues late night hours only

[eng51squad51]

That Channel was Great Before Viacom took it over and rename it Spike now The Paramount Network when it was called The Nashvile Network then it change names to The National Network

Classic TV shows and County music shows, Sports some NASCAR Races on it.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by eng51squad51

That Channel was Great Before Viacom took it over and rename it Spike now The Paramount Network when it was called The Nashvile Network then it change names to The National Network

Classic TV shows and County music shows, Sports some NASCAR Races on it.

SPIKE TV was a channel that existed in the darkest corners of your cable package; from Manswers to Joe Schmo, this is the first part of a retrospective series on the worst channel ever.

Part 2 ► COMING SOON

• 00:00 - Intro
• 03:26 - Manswers
• 14:00 - The SPIKE TV Manifesto
• 15:42 - The Joe Schmo Show

[James28]

Originally Posted by stevea

It's more of the same stuff that's on all their other channels. They're spread way too thin, but it seems to work for them.

You would think if they rebranded as this, they would tap the vast Paramount library of movies and TV shows.

I agree. I have never understood why the Paramount Network has never run any Paramount shows, like Cheers, Frasier, and Becker, and even JAG and NCIS. Two and a Half Men is not even a Paramount show (it's Warner Bros.). I've only ever seen Paramount movies being reran on the Paramount Network.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by TMC

Before there were these trash a** dating shows. There was Spike TV.