> I once said PAX would never last, and it didn't.
With a guy like Bud Paxson at the helm, it was doomed to fail. Even at the start, their station lineup was a bit sketchy. Boston, the 6th largest TV market, had two crummy affiliates (the pipsqueak Ch. 46 WBPX and the in-the-Boston-market-but-actually-in-New-Hampshire Ch. 60 WPXB) that covered the north but south (albeit poorly), providing no signal for cable-less residents in Boston. However, in 1999, PAX acquired well-run and well respected independent outlet 68 WABU from Boston University and canned it for 'PAX 68', along with satellite stations PAX 58/Cape Cod and PAX 21/New Hampshire, and finally got onto all of the area systems and had a respectable signal.
But Boston wasn't even the worst. Chicago had no affiliate at all until a few months before the network launch. But far worse than the signals is the programming...
There's just no audience for a quazi religious/secular station like this. The religious folks aren't going to watch Diagnosis Murder, and the secular folks are not going to watch old Diagnosis Murders.
What was there for kids programming? Lassie? Amazing Animal Stories? Ranger Rick? When Lizzie McGuire and SpongeBob are on at the same time, nobody in their right mind would watch PAX.
Then, Pax started cutting down their programming day. Not that they had anything good to begin with, but they just threw away their audience for more than half of the day. First, the mornings went, then the afternoons, and then with the Worship channel in the overnight hours, most stations were left with 5:00ish until 10:00pm, which was filled with bad game shows (Supermarket Sweep), old dramas (Early Edition, Diagnosis Murder), and stupid animal shows (Animal Tails, Miracle Pets). Pax tried a few shows (Sue Thomas F.B.Eye, Doc) which were the only things good on the network, but as expected, they only dealt with 'good' themes like a blind FBI agent and a credible doctor, though Sue Thomas did win critical acclaim from blind groups and was picked up in Canada by Global.
Then, there was the big 2004 season. Despite the rumors that Pax was canning their programming forever, PAX announced many new programs, although none of them were any good. They were all clones of other shows, although PAXized. There was American Idol (World's Most Talented Kids), The Biggest Loser (Cold Turkey), Whose Line Is It Anyway? (World Cup Comedy) and some others that I forgot.
Cold Turkey might have been interesting if it had connected to viewers. Many around the country are trying to lose weight. But watching people quit smoking just isn't very exhilerating. World Cup Comedy would have been funny if PAX would allow comedy to be, maybe, a little dirty. I mean, you couldn't even say 'butt' on World Cup Comedy. World's Most Talented Kids was canned on NBC, American Juniors was canned on FOX, so why would something like this work on PAX.
It's impossible to run an entirely clean network like PAX was trying these days. When Lassie was big, American society was very different. And, there were less choices, so you were pretty much stuck that show. And to boot, PAX added religion into the 'clean' programming mix, so if you were an atheist who liked Touched by an Angel, PAX didn't invite you in. The preachy/clean mix just doesn't work. As I said, you've got to be a little dirty in your humor. A show that PAX should have been modeling the network on is 'Everybody Loves Raymond'. No religion, mostly clean, with a joke here and there than only the adults understand. But they didn't. And soon, "i" will stand for infomercials.
Bud Paxson once said "Christian TV stinks". Well, Bud, I can't say you pulled off your attempt any better.
