Unfortunately, many of the “newz” websites that purport to provide readers with the “best” or “greatest” news on professional wrestling really do nothing more than copy and paste crap they read on other, equally shoddy websites. Over the last few days, one or two of these “newz” websites have been circulating a false headline stating: Destination America cancels TNA’s Saturday programming
This is completely false.
Over at WrestleView.com, the story that went along with this false headline stated the following:
Going forward, all TNA programming that had been airing on Saturday on Destination America has now been canceled by the network per a new report by Dave Meltzer. The “Unlocked” show hosted by Mike Tenay, which was originally airing on Saturday, had been shifted to Friday night airing before new episodes of Impact Wrestling.
Amazingly, this two sentence story contradicts itself from the first to the second sentence. I have no way of confirming or denying whether or not Meltzer used the term “canceled” in his update so I won’t discuss him or his reportage here. However, there are a few points to make about this report in general: First, this isn’t “news” nor is it any type of inside information. Anyone who watches Unlocked and TNA’s Greatest Matches has noticed that over the last few weeks Destination America moved the airing times of Unlocked and TNA’s Greatest Matches.
Second, in the television industry the term “canceled” means that a show is no longer producing new episodes and is no longer airing on a channel. Think about this in terms of network television – when the producers of Terra Nova (a show that used to air on FOX Television) were told that they were not being renewed for a second season, that means that show was effectively canceled. On the other hand, when the producers of Fringe (another old FOX show) were told that their show was moving from Thursday nights to Friday nights, the show wasn’t “canceled.” FOX just changed the day and time that the show aired.
Third, the second sentence of the story alludes to the point noted above – that Unlocked isn’t actually canceled, but instead airing on a different day of the week. I don’t know how the first sentence of that story or the headline could have been allowed to “go to print” when the second sentence of the story existed. Very odd.
Fourth and finally, simply checking the Destination America website reveals that the TNA’s Greatest Matches show has moved to airing at 3am EST and 4am EST on Saturday mornings. This fact refutes both the headline (this show wasn’t “canceled”) and the first sentence of the report.
Since the report above was posted, the team at WrestleView.com posted a clarification. The clarification noted that the shows haven’t been canceled, but have been moved to air at different times.
