Oh yeah… CourtTV is dead. It has ceased to be. Or it least it will.

Four months after alerting media buyers that a re-branding was in store for Court TV, Turner executives on Wednesday officially announced that the network’s new moniker will be truTV, effective January 1.

As part of the re-branding initiative, the network will also be given a new look and an updated logo and will expand its lineup of original programming. According to Steve Koonin, president of Turner Entertainment Networks, and Marc Juris, the network’s general manager, the name change is meant to reflect the non-fiction themes that run through truTV’s trial coverage, as well as its prime-time roster of series such as Forensic Files and Haunting Evidence.

“[Our] success … can be attributed in a big way to the fact that we have built strong brands that resonate with viewers,” said Koonin. “With this new name, truTV joins its sister networks TNT, TBS and TCM [Turner Classic Movies] in establishing itself a solid, identifiable brand, paving the way for continued growth.”

24 hours of COPS reruns? Oh it’s tru, I tell you. It’s so tru.

I guess they stopped being primarily about the courts a long time ago, so this isn’t really a surprise, but damn if that isn’t an awful name.

via LR