Anna Daniels
The network that decided it wasn’t in need of The Tenderloins’ services: Spike TV, which you may recognize as a thing that no longer exists. Technically, it was rebranded in 2018 as Paramount Network, but for practical purposes, it may as well be a different network altogether; while Spike became infamous for airing such disposable dreck as The Joe Schmo Show and 1000 Ways to Die, Paramount is leaning away from that model in an attempt to position itself as a premium cabler on par with AMC and FX (via Variety).
It’s interesting to think what might have been had ol’ Spike not brushed off The Tenderloins, as Impractical Jokers was at the center of the metamorphosis of its eventual home, TruTV. The WarnerMedia-owned network began life in the early ’90s as Court TV, and the time of Jokers’ debut, it was still heavily invested in true crime and conventional reality series.
Impractical Jokers, along with The Carbonaro Effect, led the way for TruTV’s shift towards lighter, more comedic fare over the last five years or so — which, of course, would never have happened if the guys hadn’t first been dumped by Spike. In the end, it worked out for all involved parties; fans of Yellowstone, Paramount Network’s most popular series, can be thankful that The Tenderloins weren’t around to save Spike from its well-deserved fate on the trash heap of history, and devotees of TruTV’s comedic offerings can be thankful that the network isn’t still pumping out endless permutations of the seedy crime series that have thankfully fallen out of favor with the public in recent years.
On that note, TruTV has picked up Impractical Jokers for a ninth season, which is expected to debut later this year.
Written by: Looper
