Man, they were GLUED to that show. It almost pushed me into vegetarianism, but it certainly made me feel a lot better about what I do for a living.

Haven’t watched History Channel for months, for reasons abundantly discussed above. I’m thinking we need an Alternate History Channel, so we can watch gripping documentaries about a World War I pitting the Ottoman Empire against the Papal States.

Who am I kidding? It would be Sealion and CSA Victory wall-to-wall, probably hosted by Harry Turtledove.

Whoa boy, let me out.

Hey at least Black gold has a quasi-celebrity; Michelob McConoughey, Matt’s brother.

I knew when there is a show about frikkin’ dog groomers, we were pretty near rock bottom.

High-fives all around the board room ensue.

Not-coincidentally, Deadliest Catch and Ice Road Truckers just happen to be produced by the same guy – Thom Beers. (Who’s also responsible for Ax Men…ie: Deadliest Catch – IN TREES!, and Black Gold…ie: Deadliest Catch – IN OILFIELDS!)

Beside Discovery is all about learning new things. They can pull a stunt like that. Thats why Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, an Deadliest catch are so popular.

Hence, the History Channel, which once focused pretty heavily, if not exclusively, on WWII (not a bad choice, IMHO), eventually decides that research suggests that the all-important “Male age 18 – 35″ demographic is no longer interested in WWII. This, they reason, is why their channel, although generally well received, doesn’t do better when measured against other cable channels. And since they don’t capture a significant number of viewers in that key demographic, they aren’t able to charge premium rates for their advertising slots.

“How can we fix this?” their executives cry out in meetings.

“Find programming that appeals to the demographic we’re chasing!” comes the answer.

“What are these kids watching nowadays?”

“Discovery hit the ball out of the park with Deadliest Catch – let’s do a show like that…”

And thus, Ice Road Truckers was born.

At least the wrestling was “fiction…”

J.

AMEN! Since when is that scifi? There is a lot of other crap on that channel that has nothing to do with scifi. It used to be an interesting, now it’s mostly garbage.

You mean UFC? That’s not even wrestling. It’s a bar fight without the benefit of alcohol.

The civil war never ended, the south just switched to a carbohydrate-based offensive strategy.

Don’t be hating on MonsterQuest. They actually use science to destroy the crazies.

J.

History Channel : History :: MTV : Music :: Food Network : Food :: Cable News : News

Just wait: Watch the Food Network push Alton Brown out to put in a Guy F. [sic] who is “hip!’ because of 25-year-out-of-date hair and wearing his sunglasses backwards. Oy.

Or Alton will be sacrificed to Paula Deen’s offspring (not even Paula Deen herself).

For these schlumps they got rid of Mario Battali, Sara Moulton, David Rosengarten, Anthony Bourdain?

Here is the overarching theme for television: talking about lifeSTYLE is superior to talking about life.

HistorySTYLE is more important than history.
MusicSTYLE is more important than music.
FoodSTYLE is more important than food.

And, of course, if you watch cable “news”
newsSTYLE is more important than news…hence Chris Matthews.

Charlie Brooker is sorely needed here in the USA.

But then remember when TLC – The Learning Channel had stuff you might want to learn and DSC the Discovery Channel had stuff you might want to discover?