The presentation of TNT’s new season lineup was held in the Oktyabr cinema on October 19. The general manager of TNT and Gazprom-Media Entertainment TV Arthur Dzhanibekyan announced the key premieres for the upcoming TV year. The channel’s actors and stars also talked about what the main entertainment television channel will look like in 2018.
More than 1,500 people gathered in the Oktyabr cinema for the main presentation of the year. Among the guests were representatives of advertisers, large advertising agencies, television and film industry, as well as the personalities and stars of TNT channel.
Arthur Dzhanibekyan told guests that for many years TNT has remained the absolute leader in TV viewing among the audience aged 14 to 44. He added that the entertainment content of the channel is equally popular in all media environments. In 2017, TNT became the first not only in terms of television viewing, but also in the digital sphere. In social networks alone, TNT projects get more than 36 million subscribers, according to studies by Russia’s National Association of Television and Radio Broadcasters. The total number of subscribers to TNT stars in Instagram is more than 100 million people.
“Right now TNT content is watched the most not only on TV, but also online. The vast majority of advertisers are speaking about the opportunity to reach out to their consumers through all our communication channels, so we were the first in Russia to offer and start successfully making television advertising sales through Big TV Rating. This is truly a very important step for us,” said Arthur Dzhanibekyan.
He also talked about the plans to develop the sub-holding Gazprom-Media Entertainment TV, which includes five entertainment channels: TNT, TV-3, Friday!, TNT4, 2x2. The total TV viewing share of the Entertainment TV channels among viewers aged 14 to 44 is 21%.
“In 2018, Gazprom-Media Entertainment TV launched a new entertainment channel for a family audience, specifically aimed at women - Super,” said Arthur Dzhanibekyan.
Premieres of the 2018 season
TNT’s general producer Vyacheslav Dusmukhametov presented the channel’s proven hits that will be continued in 2018. They include the reality shows Bitva Ekstrasensov (Psychic Challenge), Tantsy (Dances), The Bachelor, Dom-2; the comedy shows Comedy Club, Comedy Woman, StandUp, Comedy Battle, Love Is, Gde Logika? (Where is the Logic?), Otkritiy Mikrofon (Open Mike) and HB; the continuation of the cult series Olga, Realnye Patsany (Real Guys) and Univer. The TV channel will also show new seasons of the series Ostrov (The Island), Politseysky s Rublyovki (The Policeman from Rublyovka) and others. Shaking things up, TNT has changed its broadcast schedule for Thursdays. Instead of foreign film content TNT is showing projects of its own production, the show Studia SOYUZ where it holds 15.1% of the share and Improvizatsiya (Improvisation) where its share is 14.7%.
“TNT is staying true to itself. Next year, the viewers can expect to see the continuation of popular reality shows, comedy shows, new seasons of cult favourites, as well as some completely new shows and premieres of original comedy series. As the main entertainment channel, we will continue to search for new things and experiment, we will continue to look for new characters and human interest stories in big cities. “Big content” is not just a quality product, it is also stories about our viewers across the whole country, as told through the language and format of the TV channel,” said Vyacheslav Dusmukhametov.
Completely new shows will also appear on TNT in 2018. A well-known artist and producer TIMATI came on stage to present the large-scale singing contest Pesni (Songs). He explained that this is a new social elevator for talented people, after which the winners will sign real contracts with the biggest labels and will continue their collaboration with TNT channel. Two large music production centers, MALFA and Black Star, will take part in the reality show along with the musical producers Maxim Fadeev and TIMATI.
One of TNT’s most successful stand up comedians, Ruslan Bely, will launch a new show called Komik v Gorode (Comedian in the City). The show host will visit Russian cities and talk about them in a humorous genre.
New series
In 2018, alongside the cult favourites, TNT viewers will also see completely new comedy shows. The actors Aleksandr Robak and Pavel Derevyanko presented the TV series Domashny Arrest (Home Arrest), whose filming has already concluded. The series tells about a mayor of a small Russian city who finds himself under house arrest in an old communal apartment and tries to regain his power, money and ‘honest’ name. Pyotr Buslov directed the series, while the leading roles were played by Pavel Derevyanko, Aleksandr Robak, Anna Ukolova, Sergey Burunov, Svetlana Khodchenkova and Roman Madyanov.
TNT also presented the series Polyarny-17 and Konnaya Politsiya (Mounted Police). The first project tells the story of a former bandit who finds himself in the northern town Polyarny-17 where the daring 90s, so familiar to him, are still in full force. Mikhail Porechenkov plays the lead role. The second series is a story about a corrupt policeman who ends up in a mounted police regiment, in a world where people have an idealistic view of honour. The lead roles in the series were played by Arthur Smolyaninov, Aleksey Simonov, Stasya Miloslavskaya and Natalia Medvedeva.
Fyodor Bondarchuk told the guests of the TNT presentation about the TV series God Kultury (Year of Culture) in which he plays the lead role. There the plot revolves around a Moscow official from the Ministry of Education who is sent to the region to work in a peripheral educational institution. The main character is ordered to make the school one of the 100 best in the country. The filming of the series is almost complete.
Other projects presented at the event included the new series Dury (Idiots) and Zhuki (Bugs), as well as a new film, made together with Comedy Club Production, the comedy Zomboyashik (Zombie-Box), which brought together 30 of TNT’s stars. The film will be released in cinemas on January 25, 2018.