The Turner Networks – TBS, TNT and TruTV – have been going through quite the evolution over the last year or two.
TNT was in the headlines a lot last year after it emerged that Warner Bros. Discovery had lost the rights to the NBA and TBS has been going through its own changes.
But the former will have a “lot of hours to fill” and the latter has a number of new titles including sports-adjacent reality shows.
Jason Sarlanis, President of TNT, TBS, TruTV, ID & HLN, Linear and Streaming at Warner Bros. Discovery, opened up about the T-Nets’ unscripted strategy during a keynote session at the Realscreen event in Miami.
“It’s an evolution, frankly, you know, when I look at both TNT and TBS, they’re really coalitions of fan bases. On TBS, The Big Bang Theory fan base comes in every single night of the week. I used to be really jealous because… you’d work for 18 months or two years developing an original program, you work so hard on it, you put it into the universe, it goes up against Big Bang Theory and a show that is 20 years old out rates it every single night of the week,” he said.
For TBS, the network’s next big special is Foul Play, a prank show, first revealed by Deadline, that matches Anthony Davis, the former LA Laker who was involved in a massive trade that also featured Luka Doncic, with the Impractical Jokers crew. The special, which also features the likes of Mookie Betts, will launch on February 16.
Sarlanis said that the hope is that this backdoor pilot will lead to a full series. “We’re testing it behind the All Stars game this year, and I believe that should go to series personally. We’ll see how that does,” he said. “We’re definitely in a time where we’re analyzing the T-Nets strategy and making sure that we are setting it up for success. I think just giving it a little bit of time, letting Channing [Dungey], Brett [Paul] and Howard [Lee] come in so that we can make sure that whatever strategy we’re on, this reinforces that, given that those networks have a sports lean.”
He also wants more sports-adjacent unscripted programming. “When you look at the sports audience, there’s truly no audience like it on the planet. They come for whatever sport that they’re passionate about, and they very often leave the second that sport ends. So finding interesting adjacent programming that we think we can convert that audience into regular watchers of TNT or TBS is critical for us,” he added.
Sarah Silverman hosted Stupid Pet Tricks, based on the classic David Letterman segment, last year, and Sarlanis also hopes to do more of that, although it has not yet been renewed for a second season. “It was very easy to market to those Letterman fans, and the show was really, really funny. Not to mention, we had the ability to launch that off the back of Puppy Bowl,” he said. “We’re looking at that, the show did very nicely for us. As I said, we’re trying to recalibrate our lens with new leadership [but] there might be a path forward for that show as well.”
TBS is also leaning heavily into movies with its Friday Night Vibes. The series is hosted by journalist Nina Parker and comedian Kevin Fredericks and launched last year as a monthly run but with its upcoming fourth season will turn weekly. “We had such a blast doing this reboot, and we’re bringing that back in June as a new weekly version of the series. I just absolutely love it, and we’re looking for more of that of for sure,” he said.
Joking that the NBA deal was well above his pay grade, Sarlanis did note that the loss of the rights would open doors for unscripted producers. “There’s a lot of hours to fill. Also, the sports team are bringing in wildly different sporting events, which are going to come with different audiences to the network, and that’s an opportunity for us to convert those fans as well,” he said.
TNT previously had The Cube, hosted by former NBA star Dwyane Wade, and has a few more episodes of Wipeout, but is set to end after these air. Sarlanis admitted that these shows are expensive. “Those are very much in the realm of what we do. Wipeout is inherently comedic and a joy to watch. But I think what we’re what we’re looking at is being realistic in terms of the entire environment. We have to recalibrate,” he said.
