TNA iMPACT!
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TNA iMPACT! is a professional wrestling television program produced by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). It currently airs on Spike TV in the United States and Canada, on Eurosport and The Wrestling Channel throughout the United Kingdom and Europe, and on RDS in Quebec (in French). iMPACT currently runs for approximately forty four minutes, with the remainder of the hour long timeslot used for advertisements.
History
In May 2004 TNA announced that they had negotiated a television deal with Fox Sports Net (FSN). TNA would pay FSN $30,000 a week (according to TNA matchmaker Scott D'Amore) in exchange for a one hour timeslot on Fridays between 3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. in most markets, putting TNA on unrestricted cable and satellite for the first time.TNA began taping TNA iMPACT! on Tuesdays in Soundstage 21 at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, and aired the first episode on June 4, 2004. iMPACT! was also syndicated throughout Canada (on TSN and RDS) and Europe (on The Wrestling Channel and, also later, Eurosport). Within a few months, TNA moved its pay-per-view programming from a weekly two-hour format to a monthly three-hour format. In December 2004, iMPACT! was moved to a 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. timeslot.
TNA's contract with FSN expired in May 2005, and was not renegotiated, with the last episode airing on May 27, 2005. The series as a whole had averaged a 0.2 household rating. TNA was left with no television deal and, ergo, no means of promoting their monthly pay-per-views (although iMPACT! did continue to air on certain regional networks, replacing TNA Xplosion on those networks). On July 1 TNA began streaming iMPACT! from their website via RealPlayer, in addition to enabling downloads via BitTorrent. To save on production costs, four hours of iMPACT! were recorded in a day and made available throughout the subsequent month.
At the same time, TNA began seeking a more profitable television outlet. TNA first began negotiations with Superstation WGN, with a proposed Monday evening timeslot running parallel to WWE RAW, but they could not come to an agreement. TNA then began negotiations with Spike TV for a Saturday night timeslot, a traditional wrestling timeslot dating back to the days of the Clash of the Champions and the Saturday Night's Main Event. On July 21, TNA announced that they had secured a deal with Spike TV, and would begin airing iMPACT! on October 1, 2005.
iMPACT! originally aired at 11:00 p.m. EST on Saturdays, the former timeslot of WWE Velocity, as part of Spike TV's Slammin' Saturday Night block (which also includes The Ultimate Fighter), and is repeated on Monday evenings at 12:00 a.m., immediately after WWE RAW (at the same time the regional network contracts reverted to airing TNA Xplosion). Beginning on September 27, TNA began taping two episodes every other Tuesday, airing them on the subsequent Saturday. They are no longer paying for the timeslot, though Spike TV controls their advertising revenue.
TNA signed syndication contracts for iMPACT! on local TV channels in its most popular markets, including Florida sports channel Sun Sports, to keep it going after the FSN contract expired. When iMPACT! moved to Spike TV, these syndication contracts were converted to contracts for TNA's syndicated show, TNA Xplosion.
On November 3, 2005, iMPACT! was aired as a special two-hour primetime show. The rating was a 0.9, considerably below the 1.4 that TNA and Spike TV hoped for. Some believe the rating was harmed by a commercial in the middle that spoiled Rhino losing the NWA World Heavyweight Championship to Jeff Jarrett later in the show. This did not, however, prevent TNA from holding future prime time specials. More were scheduled for December 8 and December 31.
On February 6, 2006, citing viewership growth for the program, Spike TV announced that iMPACT! would be upgraded to a regular weeknight primetime slot, Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. ET, starting on April 13, 2006. Encore broadcasts were to be moved to Saturdays at 11 p.m. ET. However, Spike TV later decided to award the 9:00 p.m. timeslot to The Ultimate Fighter, a reality television series produced by Ultimate Fighting Championship. iMPACT! was instead moved to Thursdays at 11:00 p.m., with the programs collectively constituting Spike TV's "Thursday Night Knockouts" block (which Spike TV had originally called "Full Contact Thursday" in its press release that announced the new block). TNA began taping iMPACT! on Mondays rather than Tuesdays on April 10, 2006.
Starting in June 2006, episodes of TNA iMPACT! beginning with May 25, 2006, became available at the iTunes Music Store.
Nielsen ratings
Content
iMPACT! generally features between two and four matches in the space of the hour, as well as interviews and angles. When iMPACT! was on FOX Sports Net, most matches had a time limit, normally ten minutes, and in the event of a time limit draw the winner was determined by the TNA Championship Committee, a group consisting of three veteran wrestlers. Since being dropped from FSN, iMPACT! has discarded the time limit concept, though they still have between three and five matches per show.The opening video package used until January 2006 showed, in order of first appearance, Chris Sabin, Jeff Hardy, Abyss, Jeff Jarrett, A.J. Styles, Rhino, Monty Brown, Christopher Daniels and Raven, along with quick flashes of footage from matches. In January 2006, a new video was released featuring Christian Cage, Brother Devon, Rhino (Goring Abyss through the iMPACT! Zone wall), Ron "The Truth" Killings, America's Most Wanted and Petey Williams using the Canadian Destroyer.
Commentators
Former World Championship Wrestling employee Mike Tenay, dubbed "The Professor" due to his vast knowledge of wrestling trivia, is the iMPACT! play-by-play commentator. The color analyst is Don West, the former host of The Sports Collectible Show.
Spanish commentary was originally provided by Armando Quintero and "Moody" Jack Melendez. In May 2006, Konnan took over for Armando Quintero. Recently, Konnan's Latin American Exchange stable has added some angles to iMPACT! in connection with the Spanish commentary, including a "strike" during a match on May 25 during which Konnan and Moody Jack refused to provide commentary.
The French language version of iMPACT! on RDS is hosted (from a studio) by Marc Blondin and Pierre-Carl Ouellette. iMPACT! on Eurosport is hosted by Marc Chavet and Richard Sawicka-Parr (English version), Harry Weber and Christian Bruns (German version) and Axel (Portuguese version) among others. The Hindi version shown on Star Sports takes place in its ESPN Star Sports studios.
References
External links
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