Coming Soon From CMT: More Reality Garbage...

[DToTheJ]

... that has nothing to do with country music!

From a press release:

"CMT welcomes viewers to CMT ADVENTURE COUNTRY, a new night of original programming that includes two original series, GATOR 911 and DANGER COAST... each featuring ordinary people with not-so-ordinary jobs and capturing the excitement and suspense of these individuals who risk their lives daily to ensure the safety of others..."

Full story and press release:
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/03/0...country-with-gator-911-and-danger-coast/43736

 

[stilldustyvinyl]

That is another reason for me to stay with GAC. Even though they stopped televising the Opry, I think they serve up more music than CMT.

 

[Bengalsfan]

Long ago I removed CMT from my guides "favorite" list. I removed TV Land last month. I find it hard to believe that the reality craze is still going strong. I just can't stomach the fake reality anymore.

 

[MarcB]

No one watches CMT anymore. If Diamond Joe hadn't brought it up no one here would've known about it. Unfortuantely KICKS 105.5 the new Country station in Danbury, Connecticut runs the CMT Radio network 7PM-Midnite on Weeknights, so they're advertising the radio station on CMT on Comcast Danbury.

 

[DToTheJ]

Translation: No one watches CMT anymore... except for MarcB.

 

[imhomerjay]

Oh, well, if one person says "no one" watches it anymore, then it must be true.

 

[BRNout]

It's certainly a different crowd who is now watching CMT than before. Probably a heck of a lot of teenage girls and women in their 20s (neither group well represented on this board). Just as is the case with TV Land, ratings seem to be doing okay despite alienating their original audience.

The $1 MM question for Viacom is this: how thin can you slice the ratings for each of your nets when they're all going after basically similar crowds with this reality crapola? And, for how long will these audiences remain dumbed-down enough to watch this dreck?

I'mHJ is right in that someone is apparently watching this crap - just none of us. Personally, I think that the popularity of these shows is yet another sign of:

a) The impending apocalypse;
b) America's slide into second-class nation status; or
c) both.

 

[imhomerjay]

As a trade off from "My girl left me and took my dog and my old pickup" music videos, it doesn't seem like significant a sign of the end of days. ;D

The days of music videos on a 'linear' TV channel generating much in the way of ratings are simply over. They may still have some place as filler material, but that's it. Time waits for no man, including those who expect it to be 1990 forever. Maintaining that programming approach is a path to certain death, treading water for a while until the audience simply fades away entirely.

TV Land is going in large part for the group of viewers now in the age bracket that its original viewers were back when it started, i.e. the upper end of the 25-54 range. Hard as it may be to believe on this board, there are people--and apparently enough of them to find a money-making niche--in that cluster that accept...and enjoy..."reality" (or non-scripted or whatever) programs--they're just going to relate more to a "High-School Reunion" style show than "Jersey Shore."

 

[azumanga]

The days of music videos on a 'linear' TV channel generating much in the way of ratings are simply over. They may still have some place as filler material, but that's it. Time waits for no man, including those who expect it to be 1990 forever.

I know that CMT is changing with the times, but do they have to air more "reality" crap? Isn't there anything better worth showing, or are they pursuing the leastest of the common denominators?

 

[imhomerjay]

Simple--not everyone dislikes it; otherwise, it wouldn't be as popular as it is (no one is denying the cost aspect, but if, even for the lower cost, there wasn't an audience, it simply wouldn't be there as it is today).

Let's also try to have an honest discussion, besides reality (which appears to be what you call the "leastest" approach), they run a fair amount of scripted content, like movies, etc., and continue to air things that while not scripted are also not reality shows as commonly defined (a la comedy specials, etc.), in addition to several hours of music videos in the morning.

As for reality shows broadly defined, just like scripted shows, not all are the same. Jersey Shore, to reuse that example, is hardly the same as something like Amazing Race, any more than Homeboys in Outer Space was the same as I Love Lucy just because both were half-hour comedies. Pretending that it's all identical is simply, and demonstrably, a bogus argument. Like it, hate it or just don't care either way, there are different kinds of reality shows.

If you were in business and tasked with maximizing profits---as in putting food on your table and paying your mortgage depended on it--would you follow simple business logic that airing what a larger portion of your audience will watch while controlling your costs on the content acquisition side is the most likely way to make that happen?

 

[BRNout]

If you were in business and tasked with maximizing profits---as in putting food on your table and paying your mortgage depended on it--would you follow simple business logic that airing what a larger portion of your audience will watch while controlling your costs on the content acquisition side is the most likely way to make that happen?

I cannot argue with your logic here; however, Viacom is making a habit of chasing away much of their former P1 audience in an effort to attract a more transient (and different) audience for these types of shows. To me, it smacks of short-term gain versus long term success.

Look at how they've butched up TV Land. Surely you cannot argue that it's a better, more cohesive, more sensibly programmed channel now than it was in 2000? Again, how many channels have to vie for the same airhead audience that likes this crap. And, by and large, this stuff is CRAP.

The only exceptions that I have found are the Thom Beers-type "reality" shows that are indeed based in reality. Stuff like Ax Men, Deadliest Catch, American Loggers, Ice Road Truckers (though it's been slipping lately - ;D) At least those shows feature real people performing real jobs and you might just learn something. The rest is totally mindless fluff and is, by and large, staged.

"Lo Quicha, hand in your measuring tape...."

 

[bk77]

I wouldn't be surprised say that within 5 years Viacom will only be doing reality TV.

Actually I also wouldn't be surprised if we will see some bigshot at Viacom pulling a KHJ or WPGC. When those stations changed format away from the top 40 music that had made them famous, just before the format switch ( KHJ to country, WPGC to light easy listening ), either the GM ( maybe it was the PD ) had went before the mic telling their listners that since THEY are growing up then YOU should grow up as well and stop living in the past. I can see the same thing happening with one of the Viacom networks such as someone going in front of the camera on CMT or TV Land and saying that if you are into country music or old TV shows..then grow up !! Do you want to live for TODAY? Then its reality TV !!!..or something like that.

Not saying I myself agree with this but I can see it happening.

 

[Bengalsfan]

I wouldn't be surprised say that within 5 years Viacom will only be doing reality TV.

That's all well and good while the reality genre is hot. I'm sure we are all aware what happens when you put your eggs into one basket.

 

[imhomerjay]

The notion that they're moving to nothing but reality isn't supported by facts, including the fact that TV Land just ordered a scripted series. Maybe it will work, maybe not--but it shows that the interest is in trying to reach the audience, not just with one type of programming because...surprise...many people enjoy different genres.

As for someone going on camera and telling people anything...um, no, not going to happen. Don't place any bets on something like that.

Cohesive? I decided to take a look at their upcoming schedule, and save for the limited amount of original programming they do, it's all old TV shows. =Varying decades to be sure, but I don't define "cohesive" as meaning you must run everything coming only from a one-decade window.

The more repetitive nature of scheduling is hardly unique to TV Land, nor Viacom in general. Welcome to 2010--it's simply an economic reality, and a reality that so-called P1s aren't always going to be enough to sustain you.

You can still find Food Channel people who are mad they don't run how-to cooking shows 24x7; if they did, they'd sure make some hard-core P1s happy, but hardly enough to be as economically viable as with a broader audience. This isn't radio, and it isn't about TSL, it's about trying to build cume. Being stuck in a rigid mold means no chance of building your audience when the competition isn't just a couple of hundred other channels, it's pretty much infinite.

Do I like most "reality" shows? No, but you, yourself, made a distinction that you find. Others make a distinction for their own tastes, and your good stuff may be their crap. They co-exist, and isn't that better than having just one flavor?

It's a bit like the silly hyperbole that cable is nothing but reality, when networks like USA, TNT, FX and others produce many scripted shows, some of them among the more popular ones on TV. It's not entirely black-and-white--there are many things in between.

 

[mleach]

As for someone going on camera and telling people anything...um, no, not going to happen. Don't place any bets on something like that.

Comedy Central somewhat did this sort of thing back in the mid 1990's when they were in the transition of going from a network showing mostly vintage comedy shows such as the B&W 1960's version of Allan Funt's Candid Camera to original and more "modern" shows such as "Whose Line Is It Anyway".

Actually for many years I had on tape the one weekend during this transition when Comedy Central was airing CPO Sharkey and during one show Comedy Central kept flashing on the screen things like "..CPO Sharkey is OUTTA HERE...and so is LUCY too !!" and ".....once we are done we are yanking CPO Sharkey and the rest of the old crap from our schedule !!". Even the promos Comedy Central were airing during the CPO marathon were slamming the old showsthey were airing at the time ( Example: "..TAKE THAT..THAT GIRL !!!" ) .

Of course Comedy Central being, well Comedy Central, I guess this was all a joke since some of those old shows like That Girl and The Lucy Show did end up staying on Comedy Central for some time even after they aired those promos. I need to find that tape so I can upload it to You Tube of course knowing Viacom I am sure they will have it yanked quicker than one can say "TV Land".

 

[azumanga]

The only exceptions that I have found are the Thom Beers-type "reality" shows that are indeed based in reality. Stuff like Ax Men, Deadliest Catch, American Loggers, Ice Road Truckers (though it's been slipping lately - ;D) At least those shows feature real people performing real jobs and you might just learn something. The rest is totally mindless fluff and is, by and large, staged.

Ax Men, Deadliest Catch and their ilk slant more towards documentary-style programming than reality programming -- when I think "reality", I think of people doing crazy stunts, with the weaklings voted off.

I, of course, do enjoy Chef Ramsay's "Kitchen Nightmares" and "Hell's Kitchen" -- though on Thursday's (3/4) Nightmares, I don't understand why a restaurant with rotten food and filthy cabinets had stickers of approval by Zagat's on the door and an "A" grade by the health department.

I wouldn't be surprised say that within 5 years Viacom will only be doing reality TV.

With Fox Reality soon to give way to Nat Geo Wild, I won't be surprised if TV Land is converted into an all-reality channel.

 

[imhomerjay]

Yes, because going from a handful of shows occupying a small minority of the overall schedule to 24x7 is something logical to expect, especially when they have a scripted show in the works. :

 

[BRNout]

Ax Men, Deadliest Catch and their ilk slant more towards documentary-style programming than reality programming -- when I think "reality", I think of people doing crazy stunts, with the weaklings voted off.

I, of course, do enjoy Chef Ramsay's "Kitchen Nightmares" and "Hell's Kitchen" -- though on Thursday's (3/4) Nightmares, I don't understand why a restaurant with rotten food and filthy cabinets had stickers of approval by Zagat's on the door and an "A" grade by the health department.

That's probably why I like those shows. Although they have some annoying theatrics at times, they are pretty much "real". Yes, like a documentary. They're interesting. I like Kitchen Nightmares too, though I often find myself questioning how the formula of each episode is always about the same. Makes me wonder what 'really' happened.

The reality stuff is just so dumbed down. From the phony "luxury" on display on certain shows (like 'The Batchelor') to the little eliminations each week that they all build up to faux high drama, to the emotionally fragile (and often clearly troubled) "contestants" - it truly is formulaic crap. Even homer will probably agree that these programs are designed to appeal to uneducated younger women, best suited for those with sub-100 IQs.

Honestly, I don't care how many dumba$$es watch those shows, they are crap. Fundamentally.

 

[johnnyu]

I would never, ever watch a reality show.