Trutv Keeps Pushing New Comedy Brand Forward
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TruTV Keeps Pushing New Comedy Brand Forward 07.31.2017 Ten years after announcing that former cable network Court TV would be relaunched as truTV, eight months have now passed since rebranding in December 2016 from tagline "Not Reality. Actuality" to "Funny Because It's Tru." RELATED: TruTV Taps And/Or for Rebrand Shifting to a comedy focus was risky. Corporate cousin TBS, after all, held that title and parent company Turner Entertainment did not want to cannibalize its own audience. TruTV needed to develop its own signature brand, something TBS also was seeking. Fortunately, there seems to be room for both TBS and truTV, not to mention competitors such as Comedy Central, FXX and IFC. Overall, the initial results for this "hipper" truTV have been promising; particularly the network's decline in median age this season from 43 to 33 years old and its six-year old defining sketch comedy Impractical Jokers. Next season, that shsow hits the 200-episode mark. "Impractical Jokers is our base, a genuine comical and authentic escape from the everyday drama and politics of today," truTV President Chris Linn told Daily Brief at the Television Critics Association summer press tour following individual panels on new series The Chris Gethard Show and At Home with Amy Sedaris. RELATED: Amy Sedaris Describes Her Home-Making Show at TCA "When we realized there was a limited window for advertisers in our earlier line-up of conflict-type reality, we decided to build our schedule around the strategy of showing personalities, and situations, we can all relate to. Viewership on the linear platform is pivotal, but so was reaction we saw to the show at Comic-Con this week." RELATED: 'Impractical Jokers' Brings Brand Partnership to SDCC Block Party "We also cut our promotional and advertising time per show by three minutes last October, raising the content to 24:30 per half-hour, which gives us more time to focus on the subject matter and the advertiser a better chance to stand out with less commercial clutter," he added. "In this case I think less is more." Upcoming at truTV Launching in late night on Thursday, Aug. 3, each week of The Chris Gethard Show, which formerly aired on Fusion, will feature Gethard hosting a live panel of comedic-themed personalities participating in games, stunts and banter. The first episode will feature appearances by - guess who? - Joseph "Joe" Gatto, James "Murr" Murray, Brian "Q" Quinn, and Salvatore "Sal" Vulcano - of Impractical Jokers. "I am honestly not sure what exactly will surface each week," said Linn. "But I think Chris Gethard will fit right into our focus on these unique comedic personalities. And why not give him a boost with the help of the Impractical Jokers?" At Home with Amy Sedaris, which opens this fall, will showcase the comedian in a combination of variety and talk tailored to her imaginary characters (like international wine lady and southern woman Patty) and her homemaking skills. "Once again, I think you can expect the unexpected here," noted Linn. "This is not your traditional show on a network that defines itself as being untraditional. As a work in progress, we define ourselves as we go along.".