WWE Network Weekly Schedule

[goodhelmet]

http://placetobenation.com/good-will-wrest...wwe-tv-network/

On the latest podcast, we looked at the WWE Network. I asked the question... What would your weekly programming schedule look like?

Do you load it up with classic shows? Do you release entire "seasons" of the old territories? Do you cut up the shows and show individual matches? Do you go strong with reality based programming and create additional wrestling shows exclusive to the network? If you were the program director for the new network, what is going to be shown on your channel?

[soup23]

I thought the idea brought up to play old footage like Nitro during Raw and Smackdown's live airings was genius. I would run those straight through.

 

Otherwise here is a couple of ideas I had in mind:

 

1. Mash Up nights - Have 1 ladder match followed by a 1970's NWA title match followed by and ECW brawl etc. This keeps the viewer entertained and not burnt out on watching 1 style.

 

2. Saturday Night's Main Event - Showcasing a big feud with the matches from the feud and perhaps either a roundtable discussion or some analysis from the competitors.

 

3. Also liked the idea of 1 reality night. Get Legends House, Total Divas, and any other reality programming out of the way in 1 night.

 

4. 30 for 30 type wrestling documentaries. Find interesting topics and give a good overall documentary on them. Even WWE approved topics like Andre or the Rock N WRestling era would be interesting to watch.

 

5. Late night territories or old school PPV's. I think the key is when you are aiming to catch the mindless viewer who cant sleep, to play up nostalgia.

[bradhindsight]

4. 30 for 30 type wrestling documentaries. Find interesting topics and give a good overall documentary on them. Even WWE approved topics like Andre or the Rock N WRestling era would be interesting to watch.

Heck, they have how many already-produced documentaries from their DVDs? They could easily cycle them in two hour blocks, mixing in legends roundtables, etc.

[goodhelmet]

I think that is one of the questions... Do you just recycle the material or do you create new TV specific docs?

[soup23]

I wouldn't be opposed to recycled material but I guess I was thinking about a more focused range with the documentaries they could do. Like instead of the Pick your Poison doc of Jake, they could do a specific one on his 1991 heel turn, Do one on Flairs run in 1992, 1993 etc.

[JNLister]

It would be amazing if they just turned it into a jukebox. They stick a database up of everything in their digital library, you go on the site and click a tape/segment you'd like to see, they schedule the requests in order during certain slots (eg outside of the peak time that has regular programming) and you get an e-mail alert telling you when your choice will be airing.

[Migs]

I think you're fine recycling material. Although I also think the network aspect could free their documentary teams from being tied to DVD sales. There might be a documentary opportunity to do something that a lot of people would watch (the story behind Wrestlemania 3, maybe?) that might not translate into a lot of DVD sales.

 

I think full seasons of old TV shows is probably a good bet to bring in some steady viewership. If you get someone hooked on a show, they will come back and watch the next one. One improvement they could make, that hasn't been done on 24/7 so far, is to show old PPVs/big events that the shows are building to. (i.e. if you're showing ECW from 1997, show Barely Legal when you get to that point in the TV run).

 

The more serialized TV (ECW, the Monday Night Wars) might also do very well in blocks; catch someone on a Saturday afternoon and they find themselves watching 6 episodes in a row. Its a way that networks that air reality TV shows have done well in getting rerun value out of the shows.

 

Frankly, I'm not expecting a lot of creativity here. My baseline assumption is that this will be 24/7 with original programming mixed in.

[Matt D]

It would be amazing if they just turned it into a jukebox. They stick a database up of everything in their digital library, you go on the site and click a tape/segment you'd like to see, they schedule the requests in order during certain slots (eg outside of the peak time that has regular programming) and you get an e-mail alert telling you when your choice will be airing.

My gut says this would never happen, at least not the "everything" bit, in part because WWE wants to be the entity that tells us what we want to see. They control the horizontal.

[Stiva]

What BBC4 in the UK does with Top of the Pops is airs an old episode once a week which corresponded to the week in the year it was aired. So, 2013 has been TOTP 78, if that makes any sense. I'd do that with Raw from its inception in 93, one episode a week with it starting Jan 14. That would obviously be under the provision that they have a ton of extra stuff so that they can get away with one retro ep a week of course.

 

I'd also have 1 or 2 hour slots where current guys on the roster pick some of their favourite matches (featuring them or otherwise) and basically get to talk about wrestling they love for 5 mins or so before showing the match in full. I imagine Punk having fun with that.

 

A weekly reality show centered around the Performance Center and the methods of the teachers and some talking head stuff with the students.

 

Vince McMahon soapbox hour.

 

I'd love some kind of documentary about Jim Johnston and the genesis behind some of the best theme songs down the years.

 

Do they film all the house shows?

 

Rock N Wrestling every Saturday morning.

 

I like having big blocks of B-shows. Saturday afternoon block of Jakked or Velocity would be awesome after I'd finished watching Rock n Wrestling. Hell, I'd totally commission more silly shit aimed at younger kids. The Adventures of Rey Mysterio going against the villainous schemes of Alberto Del Rio.

 

Around things like Xmas, Halloween etc, you could easily throw together clips of Santa getting stunnered or Papa Shango Halloween Hour or something.

 

This is an awesome thread idea.

[mookeighana]

TRL = Total Request Live = Livewire show (call in & chat)

 

PPV Week

Monday: TRL - RAW pre-show, RAW post-show

Tuesday: TRL; Monday Night WARS

Wednesday: TRL; NXT

Thursday: TRL; Reality TV night

Friday: SMACKDOWN pre-show, SMACKDOWN post-show

Saturday: Kid's WWE programming

Sunday: AM - JBL's money report, Replay of a classic PPV (themed to the month)

 

PPV NonWeek

Monday: TRL - RAW pre-show, RAW post-show

Tuesday: TRL; PPV HYPE SHOW

Wednesday: TRL; NXT

Thursday: TRL; Reality TV night

Friday: SMACKDOWN pre-show, SMACKDOWN post-show

Saturday: Kid's WWE programming; PPV HYPE SHOW

Sunday: AM - HULK HOGAN PASTAMANIA, PPV pre-show to PPV to PPV post-show

 

Monday Overnights = MONDAY NIGHT WARS

Tuesday Overnights = DVD DOCUMENTARY

Wednesday Overnights = 80s NIGHT

Thursday Overnights = TERRITORY THURSDAY

Friday Overnights = Rough & Tough (ECW or other blood 'n' guts)

Saturday Overnights = Unaired House Show footage

Sunday Overnights = Vince McMahon + Leather Chair + Bottle of Scotch

[jdw]

One thing I always suggest to people when blocking these out is to take a look at how some of the following channels program:

 

* Food Network

* Discovery

* low end sporting (which would now be ESPU, and these early days of NBCSN and Fox Sports 1)

 

The value in this is to see how the block out:

 

* infomercial time

* Primetime

* re-air of Primetime

* balance of weekday schedule

* weekend schedule

 

The most important reason to do this is understand that you don't have to come up with 24 hours of programing a day.

 

Discovery does infomercials from 3am - 9am ET on weekdays. Food appears to do it from 5am -9:30am on weekdays. When I looked at NBCSN recently, they were 3:00am - 7:00am on weekdays. So right off the bat, you can knock off 4-6 hours a day of programing because you're selling it to infomercials.

 

Then you look at the Primetime.

 

Here's Food for tonight:

 

6:00 PM Food Network's 20th Birthday Party

7:00 PM Restaurant Divided "Against Da Grill"

8:00 PM Restaurant Express "Tantrum in Temecula"

9:00 PM Food Network's 20th Birthday Party

10:00 PM Restaurant Divided "Against Da Grill"

11:00 PM Restaurant Express "Tantrum in Temecula"

 

Here's Discovery, next Tuesday to pick a day when they have a fully "new" primetime:

 

8:00 PM Moonshiners: Outlaw Cuts "A Shiner in Kentucky" (new)

9:00 PM Moonshiners "Swamp Shiners" (new)

10:00 PM Porter Ridge "Car Crush Party" (new)

10:30 PM Porter Ridge "Porter Ridge Bear Fair" (new)

11:00 PM Moonshiners "Swamp Shiners"

12:00 AM Porter Ridge "Car Crush Party"

12:30 AM Porter Ridge "Porter Ridge Bear Fair"

1:00 AM Moonshiners: Outlaw Cuts "A Shiner in Kentucky"

 

I've rounded the times, since Discovery is one of those annoying channels that will start new programs a minute or two before an hour, or ended it a minute or two behind a normal time slot.

 

Anyway, you see what they're doing? Both have 3 hours of "new" programing, or anchor programing in Primetime... then instantly re-runs in. Those three hours knock off 6 hours of programing.

 

There's a big chunk of the day: 6 hours of infomercial + 3 hours of PT + 3 hours of PT Re-run.

 

Wait... big chunk of the day is an underestimate: it's half the day, 12 out of 24 hours.

 

Then look at how they fill the non-PT, and fill it up:

 

9:00 AM I (Almost) Got Away With It "Got to Run With My Buddy"

10:00 AM Disappeared "Danger at Dusk"

11:00 AM Wicked Attraction "Lesbians and the Little Man"

12:00 PM Sins & Secrets "Newry"

1:00 PM Deadliest Catch "Greenhorns"

2:00 PM Porter Ridge "Anything Tows"

2:30 PM Porter Ridge "The Heat Is On"

3:00 PM Moonshiners "Adios, Mr. Still"

4:00 PM Moonshiners "Moonshine Treasure Hunt"

5:00 PM Moonshiners "Last Shiner Standing"

6:00 PM Moonshiners "Hat in Hand"

7:00 PM Moonshiners "Time to Shine"

[...]

2:03 AM Moonshiners "Time to Shine"

 

Since Porter Ridge and Moonshiners is the anchor in Primetime, they run a slew of those shows leading into PT, with the one leading into PT (likely last week's episode) re-running after PT.

 

Those things earlier in the day? Deadliest Catch is one of their long running hits. I (Almost) Got Away With It is something they done a million of.

 

On other words, Discovery (and Food) aren't running 24 hours of "new" (or First Run On The Network) material a day. Far, far far from it.

 

Beyond that, look at their weekend lineups, where they'll often due a Marathon of some show. I don't know how many times I've flow to or from back east where I stumble upon a Mythbusters marathon that help makes the flight go fast.

 

* * * * *

 

The WWE is in much better shape. They have a slew of shows they can "strip" into hour slots to fill up daytime / non-PT programing. Old Raw, Nitro, Thunder, SmackDown, Worldwide, WCCW, etc, etc. This is stuff that costs very little money in new "costs", especially since a lot of work was already done on them for 24/7. Do the math on how many hours of Raw have been produced over the years (including commercials), and how splitting it into 1 hour blocks (including commercials), and how many 5-days a week, 52 weeks a year it would take to run through that. Given Raw is now taping 3 hours of "new" content a week, basically it would be ages before WWE Network would need to "restart" their daily Raw block airing at 12-1pm.

 

So...

 

Work backwards:

 

* how much infomercial time a day

 

I'd stick with 6 hours at launch just to let people at the network focus on just 18 hours of slots to fill. While it's easy to fill up a lot of hours with old programing, it's probably better to start with stuff like Raw to see how it draws, and how much work you need to do to get it on the air.

 

* How big of a "Primetime" / Anchor block

 

8-11? 7-11? etc.

 

I get that primetime is officially 8-11. But some channels will focus on the 7pm hour to get a jump, and do business while throwing away the 10-11 if it doesn't demo well for them. The big point is whether you're looking at 3 or 4 hours of anchor material

 

* Brand New Material

 

This is beyond "First Run" material. Having PPV Thursday's anchoring your Thursdays, airing a whole PPV... that's first run on the network. New Material would be like moving SmackDown to the Network every Friday... or doing a live House Show every Saturday.

 

So how much New material do you want a week. This is the shit that's going to take the most work, cost the most money... potentially get the best ratings, but also if it's something that bombs (say no one wants to watch Divas) is going to have cost you a lot to produce a freaking bomb.

 

There is no way in hell the WWF is going to be able to roll out 21 hours of "new" material a week: 3 hours a day. For example, here is what's listed as "new" for Food from Sat-Fri next week:

 

Saturday

10:00 AM The Pioneer Woman "Turkey Day Leftovers"

10:30 AM Trisha's Southern Kitchen "No Fuss Thanksgiving"

8:00 PM Cupcake Wars "Match.Com"

 

Sunday

10:00 AM Guy's Big Bite "Grateful Duck"

10:30 AM Southern at Heart "Southern Comforts"

11:00 AM The Pioneer Woman "Old Friends, New Friends"

11:30 AM Farmhouse Rules "Fall Feast on the Farm"

8:00 PM Guy's Grocery Games "Feisty Fiesta"

9:00 PM Restaurant Express "Express: Impossible"

10:00 PM On the Rocks "Motor City Meltdown"

 

Monday

10:00 PM Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives "All Kinds of Gobble Gobble"

 

Tuesday

10:00 PM Chopped "Cloche Call"

 

Wednesday

9:00 PM Restaurant: Impossible "Restaurant More Impossible"

10:00 PM Restaurant: Impossible "Soul Searching"

 

Thursday

10:00 PM Restaurant Divided "Phamous Phil's"

 

That's 11 hours of New content. In 7 days.

 

I'm sure there are weeks where it's more. There likely are weeks where it's less.

 

So don't think that you need to come up with 21 hours of New Productions every week. Certainly not at first.

 

* Episodes per Season

 

Okay... if you've got SmackDown eventually on the Network, that obviously is a 52 week season. But within cable, very few shows even run the 22-24 episode seasons that the Major Networks do.

 

Mythbusters has been around for ages, and does tend to do longer seasons:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MythBusters_episodes

 

This is standard for scripted TV:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mad_Men_episodes

 

Some will go 16, some will go 12.

 

But one thing you see is some of these split to 2 "seasons" per year, and get their 20+ that way:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Duck_Dynasty_episodes

 

UFC does two of these a year, about 12 episodes + The Finale:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ultimate_...vs._Team_Sonnen

 

So if you're thinking about a WWE: Behind The Music type show, you don't need to product 52 of those a year. You don't even need to do 24 of them. You want to build up a rotation of the shows. The positive thing about doing 12 of them is that if it's a total bomb, you've only invested in 12. If it's a hit, then you can roll out a "new season" in the second half of the year.

 

So...

 

Think like a Network. And to think like a Network, study up on how they do it. The WWE has a massive advantage because of their massive Library. It makes filling up non-primetime hours easy, especially when you're trying to fill as many brainless hours (i.e. ones that don't take a lot of effort) early so that you can focus more on PT and other elements of the Network. Their negative is that they don't have a lot of obvious New Content, and honestly... a WWE SportCenter type show of 1 hour every night isn't going to draw consistently. So New Content is going to have to be a slow process, and instead you'll need to look at Old Content that can be treated as more than just re-running Raw. Things like old PPV's, DVD features, DVD's themselves, House Shows (old or new), etc. to fill up most of the 21 hours a week of primetime. More than that, you've seen from Food that even after years of being on the air, and being one of the most successful niche channels in the country, 11 hours of New Content next week. It ends up being a hell of a lot less than you think.

 

WWE Network's model isn't ESPN or NBCSN or even dead Fox Soccer Channel. It's those other niches channels. Need enough in Primetime to get people to tune in with higher than test pattern numbers. But it's not like the WWE is going to fill it up with the amount of New Content that ESPN does in a year. That's impossible.

 

John

[goodhelmet]

Interesting. on the podcast, I mentioned infomercials and they squashed that right off the bat if it was going to be a premium channel.

 

The model I argued for was VH1.

[Exposer]

It depends on who the audience is or would be at a given time. For kids, early morning programming on the weekends. During the week, maybe early morning programs would be something like "Raw Recap" at 8 AM Tuesdays. The primetime shows could be something like documentaries of wrestlers, big cards, tag teams, or companies/territories. It would be similar to NFL Network's "A Football Life" series. Really, I think they could do a good amount of similar type shows like NFL Network. I could possibly envision something like "WWE Total Access" with special interviews, vignettes, and maybe a match from Superstars.

[mookeighana]

Interesting. on the podcast, I mentioned infomercials and they squashed that right off the bat if it was going to be a premium channel.

 

The model I argued for was VH1.

Yeah - I cannot fathom that a premium channel $15/month WWE NETWORK would have any infomercials. I liked Goodhelmet's idea for looking at VH1-esque - a mix of new shows (often talking about old stuff) and replaying taking old content.

[topropepodcast]

I wonder, especially given that Raw replays on Mun2 and the Hulu Plus deal, if WWE would have access to all of their shows to reair basically immediately, or what kind of delay there would be.

 

I'm also kind of assuming, that just not to split the audience, while the network wouldn't go dead during national airings of Raw, SmackDown, and Main Event, they'd also probably program light.

 

So my guess would be, as far as prime time goes...

 

Monday

7:30-8:00 - 30 minute Raw preview

8-11:15 - Reruns

11:15-12:15 - Talking Dead-esque show for Raw

 

Tuesday

8:00-9:00 - Talking Raw repeat

9:00-9:30 - Legends House

9:30-10:00 - Total Divas repeats

 

Wednesday

9:00-10:00 - NXT

 

Thursday

I think this is the night that you run your bigger documentaries for the first time, or show highly anticipated older events. Even if you don't see Impact as competition, you still probably fuck with them if you can.

 

Then, I think Sundays are dedicated to PPVs. If you're airing lower-level PPVs on the network, you can do an expanded preview, a post-show, etc.

 

I honestly expect very little first-run programming, beyond things that are cheap to make like recap shows. Lots of reruns, lots of stuff you already have in the can that the audience might not have seen.

 

I also tend to think that, if it is a pay channel, you won't see infomercials.

[mookeighana]

I wonder, especially given that Raw replays on Mun2 and the Hulu Plus deal, if WWE would have access to all of their shows to reair basically immediately, or what kind of delay there would be.

Yeah, this was something that I was really wondering about as well. I might have mentioned it on the podcast - I really am curious how long the delay would be between whomever gets first airing rights (let's say NBCU) and when WWE NETWORK would be allowed to replay the whole shebang.

[jdw]

Interesting. on the podcast, I mentioned infomercials and they squashed that right off the bat if it was going to be a premium channel.

 

The model I argued for was VH1.

Yeah - I cannot fathom that a premium channel $15/month WWE NETWORK would have any infomercials. I liked Goodhelmet's idea for looking at VH1-esque - a mix of new shows (often talking about old stuff) and replaying taking old content.

 

I can't fathom a $15/month WWE Network being successful, even transitioning PPV over to it. But that's also likely because I have always had a different model in mind.

 

John

[Stuttsy]

I think that is one of the questions... Do you just recycle the material or do you create new TV specific docs?

 

I do a mix of both. I definitely re-air ECW at 11 PM or midnight, WCW Saturday at 6:05, Superstars/Challenge/All American Wrestling in the mornings all pretty much untouched.

 

But I also produce more shows LIKE Vintage Collection where Renee Young or Joey Styles or Mean Gene or Michael Hayes or whoever (you'd need a good mix of hosts for rotation) are at a desk introducing older footage and putting it into a broader context.

 

Also I make use of Vintage Collection and MSG Classics A LOT as filler programming during the day.

 

Definitely some 30 for 30 style documentaries on subjects that wouldn't normally get a full proper DVD release like the Paul Heyman story.

 

 

One thing I think no one else has really mentioned yet is the feature articles and little countdown web videos they've been doing on wwe.com for a year or two now. Virtually all of them would make great full length specials as programming for the network and would be evergreen, you could show them in the middle of the day, on weekends, etc. Sorta like how ESPN Classics will show their countdown shows on weekend afternoons in multiple hour blocks. Just a sampling of the articles they've published in the past year:

 

 

10 Best Traditional Survivor Series Matches, Greatest Masked Tag-Teams, Forgotten ECW Favorites, 10 Superstars Who Should've Been World Champion, 10 Most Monstrous Tag-Teams, 10 Greatest to Never Wrestle for WWE, Superstars Who Should've Been Bigger, Rank'd Worst Gimmick Matches, Rank'd One Hit Wonders, Rank'd Most Revealing Unmaskings, Rank'd Most Impersonations, Rank'd Summerslam Shockers, etc.

 

 

All of those could EASILY be a 2 hour or more program produced for the network. And I am sure there are dozens more.

[Loss]

I think they will aim to be interactive on the network also. Don't discount that factor. I could see a show where they bring wrestlers on and take fan questions from Twitter.

[Exposer]

I think they will aim to be interactive on the network also. Don't discount that factor. I could see a show where they bring wrestlers on and take fan questions from Twitter.

They do that on NFL Network too. I think it could be very similar to that.

[fakeplastictrees]

Some original Programming ideas:

 

Wrestler Rehab ( Like VH1's Celebrity Rehab, this features former WWE/ECW/WCW talent)

Yoga with Trish Stratus

Pilates and Yoga For Men with DDP

WCW 2000 (MST3K style)

"Comic View" type of show. Every night at 10pm. Get someone like Arnez J to host.

 

WWE should also look into bringing back shows people feel should not have been cancelled and still has a shit ton of fans (i.e. Arrested Development). I would like to see WWE have their own "Adult Swim" block of programming ala Cartoon Network. They can start off with something like Duckman, Dr. Katz, The Cleveland Show, and Ren & Stimpy. Toss in some WWE 80's cartoon at the end just to keep everyone on their feet...and boom!

 

and of course there are the WWE films that would be shown. I think WWE should keep the original programming to a minimum and the majority of the shows listed (aside from the rehab) can be done from WWE studios. Investing in re-runs that are NOT pro wrestling related would be smart. WWE should be to 'wrestling' what MTV is to music videos at this point. Keep the 'E' in mind and put less focus on the second 'W'. Everything NOT named WWE (Mid-South, Memphis, World Class, Memphis, etc.) should be kept in the early morning hours (1-5pm block) on the weekdays.

[victory]

I always kind of fantasized about them having Saturday called " Old School Saturday Wrestling" where they would show all the 80's syndicated shows from the territories in order every Saturday.

 

Example:

 

12 pm - WWF Championship Wrestling

1 pm - WCCW

2 pm - AWA All Star Wrestling

3 pm - JCP Worldwide

4 pm - Mid-South

5 pm - Stampede

6 pm -CWF

7 pm - WWF Primetime or a WWF House show

After that maybe a Clash or a SNME then just recycle it to the morning.

[efrim]

I'd be really interested in a show that basically does director's commentary for important matches. Get a good host that can ask a wrestler some more probing questions about the specifics and do a set-up interview/match/wrap-up interview format.

 

A great idea I heard somewhere else (can't recall where) is a tough enough show but for past their prime wrestlers. Guys that have either turned their life around, or who have retired but think they have one more good run in them. I think that could be a top flight reality competition show.

[fakeplastictrees]

I can see a show like that getting really sad and pathetic as a lot of the guys are broken down and NEED the money. So coming back for the cameras and hamming it up for a while only to get cut could lead to some Benoit-like situations. I hope not, but I've seen too many bad reactions of people not being apart of pro wrestling one-way-or-another. I don't want to see it play out on my TV.

 

How many pillow fights, lingerie contests, bikini pose downs, pudding matches, etc. does WWE have in their library? Surely enough to create a late night show featuring ONLY these things? All they would need is a host, some sleazy voice-over guy, and added commentary from comedians, 'experts', and the performers themselves (ala 1000 ways to die). So much content they could put in that 30 minute timeslot.

[goodhelmet]

My favorite idea and something wrestling fans would eat up would be the VH1 model. Remember the 80s or Remember the 90s... Year by year with celebs and wrestlers commenting on famous moments from around the country. Best matches of Mnia, Summerslam, Starrcade, etc with commentary and clips of the matches.