Spike Mans Up With Comedy Slate

After dipping a toe in the water with the occasional scripted-series effort, Spike TV is looking to make a bigger splash in 2011, sizing up a slate of six comedies and a one-hour drama designed to appeal to older male viewers. Although Spike has had limited success with scripted programming—despite averaging 1.8 million viewers over the course of eight episodes, the 2007 crime drama The Kill Point was not renewed, victim in part to a looming writers’ strike—president Kevin Kay said a shift in direction should help draw a more widespread audience.“We’re a younger, more male network, and part of our mandate going forward is to get a little older and a little broader,” Kay said, noting that the median age of Spike’s prime-time audience is 36. “We’re looking to be a little less edgy than we have been in the past, and to that end, we’ve green lighted a lineup of family and workplace comedies.”Among the new pilots in the hopper are an untitled half-hour comedy project about a harried sportswriter, which was brought to Spike by 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation director Beth McCarthy Miller, and Powerball, a single-camera comedy about a slacker who wins the lottery. Also on tap is an untitled sitcom about a team of Laguardia air-traffic controllers that’s being executive produced by reality kingpin Thom Beers (Deadliest Catch, Ice Road Truckers).One of the new comedies would be positioned as a complement to Blue Mountain State, Spike’s sole scripted effort since The Kill Shot wrapped. Season two of the raunchy college romp premiered to a series-high 1.09 million viewers on Oct. 20.“If all goes well, we’ll have one or two new scripted comedies on our air next year,” Kay said. “The ultimate goal would be to get to a place where we could program a regular comedy block or an entire night of original comedy.”The single drama on the slate is F.T.W., a one-hour pilot about an Atlanta beat cop who is recruited by the Department of Homeland Security to infiltrate a militia with links to a domestic terrorism operation. While Spike works to cast a wider net, its biggest draws remain the testosterone-fueled competition series The Ultimate Fighter and its Friday night wrestling showcase TNA: Impact. On Oct. 20, The Ultimate Fighter drew 1.68 million viewers, making it the most-watched show on Spike TV for that particular week. UFC bouts drew 1.54 million viewers on Saturday, Oct. 23, while the previous night’s installment of TNA: Impact scared up 1.51 million viewers. The network also draws a steady crowd with repeats of CSI and Beers’ docuseries, 1,000 Ways To Die.“We’ve kind of cornered the market on edgy so we’re taking a very conscious approach to sort of push beyond that,” Kay said. “There are the consumers who drive the ratings and the people who pay our bills and we want to make sure that both sides are comfortable with our content.”Kay notes that while Spike TV is overwhelmingly male, so-called “co-viewing” is an important consideration when planning new series content. “At nine and ten o’clock, if you’re a male viewer you never want to be in a situation where your girlfriend or your wife is telling you to turn the channel. So it’s important for us to program accordingly.” In the third quarter of 2010, Spike’s prime time deliveries fell 15 percent to 818,000 total viewers. The 18-34 demo took a 24 percent tumble versus the prior-year period, as the network averaged 199,000 members of that segment.

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Spike Mans Up With Comedy Slate

Anthony Crupi

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Anthony Crupi