Tuned In

Dumbest Network Name Ever? Tell Me Tru

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Mark it on your calendars: as of January 1, 2008, Court TV will no longer exist. The legal channel is becoming “TruTV,” recognizing its shift of focus away from trial coverage to reality shows.

This Reuters article includes any number of risible TV-biz-isms, one of the choicest being the network’s explanation that it’s going after an audience it calls “real engagers.” (Yes, TV executives actually talk like this. Is it any wonder so much television is so well-written?) But I have to question the decision to change a well-recognized brand name simply because the network’s programming has, you know, nothing to do with its name anymore. That doesn’t seem to be a problem for the folks over at the History Channel. You think there were Ice Road Truckers at Omaha Beach?

Anyway, I want to turn a more pressing matter over to you: is TruTV the dumbest name ever devised for a network, or are there worse? Spike and The CW, the gauntlet has been thrown!