Source: GlobeandMail.com
TSN decides to anchor Mondays with NFL rather than renew deal with pro grapplers
JAMES CHRISTIE
Rather than continue to bounce its top wrestling show around its schedule like some kind of patsy, TSN has decided to break its stranglehold on WWE Raw.
Starting on Aug. 7, the popular World Wrestling Entertainment sport-entertainment hybrid will be making a spectacle of itself on a rival Canadian sports network, The Score.
TSN opted not to renew its 11-year association with the professional wrestling flagship when the opportunity came up to put Monday Night Football in its Monday night prime-time slot. The National Football League fixture was made available through TSN’s part-owner, the U.S.-based all-sport network ESPN.
Both shows will likely have an audience between 300,000 and 400,000 viewers, TSN president Phil King said.
“But [have] very distinct demographics,” according to Score senior vice-president David Errington.
Had TSN tried to keep WWE Raw, the show wouldn’t find air time on Mondays, when the matches and soap-opera storylines actually take place. Commitments to other sports, such as curling and hockey, might have been caused constant shifting that would frustrate fans and sponsors, King said.
“Wrestling has a large audience and good demographics,” King said. “It’s not like we wanted to see it leave. But we want top-of-the-lines sports, and the opportunity came up to have exclusive Monday Night Football because of ESPN. We moved on it, because otherwise a competitor would snap it up.
“We didn’t dump wrestling. They’ve been great partners. But we chose not to renew, rather than punt it around the schedule.”
In freeing-up WWE Raw, TSN also freed up some time for executives who had to respond to a regular flow of complaints to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council about sex and violence in the shows. This month, there was a scene of simulated oral sex.
“My regulatory folk had sighs of relief,” King said. “[WWE shows] get tagged as the bad boys. But there’s no swearing, no murders, no rapes that you could see in almost any TV drama. There’s lowbrow sexual humour, but you get that on Saturday Night Live.”
On the other hand, Errington said he was happy to acquire the “No. 1-rated specialty show in Canada.”
The Score already had a Friday night Smackdown wrestling broadcast “and we’ve had very few issues with that” along the lines of sex and violence complaints,” he said.
“If there are problems, we have the means to take something out of the program if we need to.”
