TV networks trying to be more than they are

[Sephiroth]

Inspired by the Who Killed WCW series. This is just kind of an obscure part of that whole crazy story that has always amused me. Brad Siegel justifying cancelling WCW by effectively trying to portray Time Warner as too high class to be during such low brow entertainment, particularly when the ratings alone was all you needed to point to. And there are so many other examples; even today, USA is loathe to admit all they’ve got is WWE and reruns of SVU. The 2000’s-2010’s rebranding of “the NEW TNN!” when they had WWE, reruns of Star Trek, and a couple reality shows.or the Sci Fi Channel becoming SyFy “expand their range” when all it really did was make it the Ghost Hunters network. It’s like a midlife crisis on steroids. I get that times change and audience viewership habits change, but there is a point of-who are you kidding?

[OGBoardPoster2005]

As a kid who grew up in that time, TNT and TBS were better prior to the rebranding. Designating one for Drama and one for Comedy did it no favors and just made both networks bland.

The Nashville Network was better than Spike TV but I understand why TNN shifted away from that. The perfect balance was the brief period where it was called THe National Network. Now its just a directionless channel on the verge of death.

I'm in the minority that didn't like Adult Swim. It felt desperate and hated that it cut into the block of classic cartoons that built Cartoon Network.

[fw91]

MTV in general?

[Sephiroth]

Jun 25, 2024 7:19:43 GMT -5 fw91 said:

MTV in general?

If not for fear factor, Rogan might have just stayed a washed out sitcom actor. Damn them.

[Mozenrath]

CBS "Rural Purge" comes to mind, and is a stronger example than some others, even WCW, I feel. Getting good ratings does not necessarily mean getting the ad revenue that you want.

[karl100589]

Channel 5 in the UK went through a phase where they tried to position themselves as the home of American imports, and to their credit they did get the early seasons of Prison Break and House to name but a few. Recently though they've converted back to more tabloid content ala countdown shows and anything involving traffic cops and/or benefits.

[Feyrhausen]

Feels like 2 different things to me. TBS and TNT were trying to go for a niche, like Spike TV being a network for men or MTV being music television. That started to change when the networks realized that this limited growth. And since infinite growth and profits are the goal these days.

[agent817]

I recall G4 becoming more than a video game channel. Initially, you would see shows like "Judgment Day," "Blender," "X-Play," "Filter," "Cinematech," etc. Later on, they would air shows like "Cops" and "American Ninja Warrior."

When it was just a video game channel, that was how I would get most of my info for upcoming games. Keep this in mind, this was 2003-2004. YouTube wasn't a thing (at least not yet). The only ways to watch video game trailers or gameplay videos were through Windows Media Player, Real Player, or Quicktime Video.

[Dead2009]

Jun 25, 2024 9:25:14 GMT -5 agent817 said:

I recall G4 becoming more than a video game channel. Initially, you would see shows like "Judgment Day," "Blender," "X-Play," "Filter," "Cinematech," etc. Later on, they would air shows like "Cops" and "American Ninja Warrior."

When it was just a video game channel, that was how I would get most of my info for upcoming games. Keep this in mind, this was 2003-2004. YouTube wasn't a thing (at least not yet). The only ways to watch video game trailers or gameplay videos were through Windows Media Player, Real Player, or Quicktime Video.

At the end of the first run, that's ALL they were showing. Cops, Ninja Warrior and Cheaters. Then we all know what happened to the 2nd run.

[darbus alan]

Cartoon Network doing live action shows.

[Sephiroth]

Jun 25, 2024 5:09:51 GMT -5 OGBoardPoster2005 said:

As a kid who grew up in that time, TNT and TBS were better prior to the rebranding. Designating one for Drama and one for Comedy did it no favors and just made both networks bland.

The Nashville Network was better than Spike TV but I understand why TNN shifted away from that. The perfect balance was the brief period where it was called THe National Network. Now its just a directionless channel on the verge of death.

I'm in the minority that didn't like Adult Swim. It felt desperate and hated that it cut into the block of classic cartoons that built Cartoon Network.

And you can directly blame,e adult swim for Cartoon Network briefly becoming the anime channel. And the early success went to their heads, because some of the stuff they came up with in subsequent years was totally off the wall.

[legendkiller1985]

Vh1 went from a soft Adult Contemporary music videos to Classic Rock like in the late 90s thanks to shows like Pop Up Video/Behind the Music to the I Love The....type shows to random reality shows

[tafkaga]

This made me think of Nick at Nite, which was a staple in our household in the 90's. Dick Van Dyke Show, Mary Tyler Moore, Welcome Back Kotter, The Partridge Family... all reruns from the 60's and 70's. Starting wondering if they still have Nick at Nite, so I looked it up.

www.nickatnite.com/tv-schedule

5 hours of Spongebob reruns, followed by 5 hours of Friends? Wtf happened?

[Savage Gambino]

Jun 25, 2024 5:09:51 GMT -5 OGBoardPoster2005 said:

As a kid who grew up in that time, TNT and TBS were better prior to the rebranding. Designating one for Drama and one for Comedy did it no favors and just made both networks bland.

The Nashville Network was better than Spike TV but I understand why TNN shifted away from that. The perfect balance was the brief period where it was called THe National Network. Now its just a directionless channel on the verge of death.

I'm in the minority that didn't like Adult Swim. It felt desperate and hated that it cut into the block of classic cartoons that built Cartoon Network.

Doesn't help that TNT's idea of being "the place for drama" mostly just meant breaking up their marathon reruns of ER and Law and Order with knockoff versions of ER and Law and Order. Did anyone actually watch Monday Mornings? Who was the target audience for that?

I think the peak example of this is literally every channel David Zaslav ever got his hands on, but that would be more accurately described as "TV networks trying to be LESS than they are": The Learning Channel under him actively made you dumber, Arts and Entertainment became no art, just entertainment, and The History Channel decided the whole of ancient Africa was given to them by aliens. And that guy runs a major studio now.

[chrom]

Jun 25, 2024 12:07:08 GMT -5 tafkaga said:

This made me think of Nick at Nite, which was a staple in our household in the 90's. Dick Van Dyke Show, Mary Tyler Moore, Welcome Back Kotter, The Partridge Family... all reruns from the 60's and 70's. Starting wondering if they still have Nick at Nite, so I looked it up.

www.nickatnite.com/tv-schedule

5 hours of Spongebob reruns, followed by 5 hours of Friends? Wtf happened?

It slowly became The Friends and George Lopez show Block during the 00s and 10s

[agent817]

Jun 25, 2024 12:07:08 GMT -5 tafkaga said:

This made me think of Nick at Nite, which was a staple in our household in the 90's. Dick Van Dyke Show, Mary Tyler Moore, Welcome Back Kotter, The Partridge Family... all reruns from the 60's and 70's. Starting wondering if they still have Nick at Nite, so I looked it up.

www.nickatnite.com/tv-schedule

5 hours of Spongebob reruns, followed by 5 hours of Friends? Wtf happened?

It was also like that during the 2000s. I recall Nick at Nite bringing in reruns of "Full House," "Fresh Prince," "Family Matters," and "The Nanny." At the time, I thought, "Okay, I suppose 1990s shows are old enough to be shown now." Even at the end of the 2000s, they had started showing reruns of "Malcolm in the Middle," which is a 2000s show. This was in 2009, still in that decade, mind you.

Hell, in the 2010s, I recall Nick at Nite showing "Mom" repeats.

[Ultimo Gallos]

Bravo use to be the channel for plays and classical music and Twin Peaks reruns. Now It is reality tripe

TLC was the learning channel now it is reality tripe.

[MiLB Fan]

Remember when the Discovery Channel was about, you know, discovering things?

[cosmo]

Jun 25, 2024 13:45:08 GMT -5 Ultimo Gallos said:

Bravo use to be the channel for plays and classical music and Twin Peaks reruns. Now It is reality tripe

TLC was the learning channel now it is reality tripe.

There was a comic con not far from where I live, and they'd posted on Facebook that the entire cast of Vanderpump Rules would be there as guests. You had the occasional person who thought it was cool, but around 98% of the comments on that post were some version of "who the f*** are these people?"

Turns out it's an allegedly popular reality show on Bravo and almost nobody knew who they were. And they almost never had anyone at their booths to meet them, either.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

In Canada we had a channel called GustoTV, which had cooking shows from around the world, shows about home renovations, vacations in exotic places, the like.

Rebranded to CTV Life and started playing reruns of detective dramas and movies, with the cooking and stuff stuck in an 8-hour block on weekdays... the stuff I was interested in and now can't see because of work...