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The decline of the History Channel

C

carolinaradio

So, who else hates the recent direction that the History Channel...er, "History" has taken? I find these programs like Ax Men and Swamp People just unwatchable. What do they have to do with history? Top Shot? Top Gear? Ice Road Truckers? Their "nostalgic" series like Pawn Stars, American Restoration, and American Pickers (which there are enough shows like on TV) are the closest they get to "history." It really is sad. They still have occasional "new" specials, such as the one about the Titanic the other week, but I just find it depressing to see what they've become overall. Their daytime and evening schedules are usually pretty decent, with re-runs of documentaries and past series like Ancient Aliens and Modern Marvels.

They've gradually moved new episodes of their "history" based series, like Modern Marvels and Ancient Aliens over to H2, where I suspect they'll eventually relegate all of the true history-based programming so the main channel can be totally devoted to the reality series. Then there's Military History (not to be confused with Discovery's widely available Military Channel); neither Dish nor DirecTV carry it, and it's not on a lot of cable systems except for U-Verse and FiOS. It's been around forever, I don't know why it never got better distribution. They've kept their original focus and it looks pretty interesting. H2 looks pretty interesting as well, but unfortunately it's on a much higher tiered package than I have or can afford, so it's unlikely I'll be seeing it anytime soon either.
 
Agree that Ax Men and Swamp People aren't very watchable except to a rural and/or Southern audience, and the numbers don't seem to be all that great either. Ice Road Truckers is an interesting show in its own right as a reality show--but it really belongs as a centerpiece of a Reality Channel if such a thing existed on basic cable (and it probably should).

Pawn Stars, American Pickers and American Restoration make a lot more sense being featured on the History Channel because they are about artifacts of the past, each of which ends up telling a story the same way the articles priced on Antiques Roadshow do on PBS or BBC. Same with documentary series like Brad Meltzer's Decoded, which is about a different take on historical events and personalities. Surely all those shows, which draw better than Ax Men or Swamp People in the Nielsen numbers, aren't any more expensive to make than Swamp People.

Give us more of Brad Meltzer, the Harrisons, Rick Dale, Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz--and less of the gator hunters or the Art Bell/George Noory crowd and their ancient aliens fantasies--and History Channel would be a lot more watchable a lot more of the time.
 
"The History Channel. Where the Truth is History!"

as parodied by South Park ;D
 
Bob1370 said:
Agree that Ax Men and Swamp People aren't very watchable except to a rural and/or Southern audience, and the numbers don't seem to be all that great either...
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I like to point out something. Not all current day Southerners like myself are the stereotypical rednecks or hillbillies portrayed in those shows. Personally, I avoid those kinds of shows like the plague whenever they're on.

Bob1370 said:
Give us more of Brad Meltzer, the Harrisons, Rick Dale, Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz--and less of the gator hunters or the Art Bell/George Noory crowd and their ancient aliens fantasies--and History Channel would be a lot more watchable a lot more of the time.
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Wouldn't Brad Meltzer's show fall under the Bell/Noory crowd too? I've listened to Coast to Coast AM years before and they've discussed roughly the same kinds of topics that Decoded also covers. No, I don't mean the wild theories about ancient aliens.
 
I've noticed the same thing. With few exceptions, the kind of programming that once made up the History Channel is now on H2. The History Channel is just one of several cable channels (A&E and TLC are but two others that immediately come to mind) that have strayed far from their original focus, and not for the better. After a while, one reality show looks like another.
 
Yeah, why doesn't TLC drop the Toddlers and Tiaras show and go back to doing shows like "This Century" and "Return To Egypt?"
 
I don't care what network it is on but....
If the language you are speaking is English and we STILL need subtitles, you do not need to have a show promoting you.
I'm talking to you Swamp People
 
I wonder why the show "Duck Dynasty" (which I DETEST) was put on A&E instead of History? Especially since both are owned by A&E Nets. It seems a much better fit or History's...."rustic" approach compared to A&E's crime and storage unit focus.
I agree that these shows like Swamp People, Duck Dynasty, etc are somewhat insulting to the south and only show one side.

Swamp People is somehow the highest rated show on a lot of Thursdays. H2 is pretty much the old History Channel now, which I like, but I don't get it unfortunately. I could watch those history documentaries from their earlier years all day.

Speaking of TLC, I kinda hate they strayed from what they originally were (they were one of the earlier cable nets to go downhill), but they have some interesting stuff on with their "real life stories" focus. It's an odd hodgepodge, but some of the programs are interesting such as the addiction/obsession/hoarding shows and Undercover Boss Abroad. Their upcoming airline show looks interesting. Toddlers and Tiaras and Sister Wives, though...no thank you.
 
Are UFO's, Nostradamus, and end times gore and imaginary war scenarios history?
 
I totally agree that The History Channel has gone down the tube. It used to be really good but what they are showing now is not history at all. Some of these silly shows have been mentioned earlier in this thread, but most are far from the topic of history. Even History 2 is doing it, The Biography Channel went down hill several years ago. The Military Channel is about all that is left for history buffs. Pawn Stars is a sham...My friend in Vegas said those guys never even go to that store unless they are filming. I watched about 10 minutes of that silly Duck Brothers, or whatever it is called and it was so silly I turned to entire set off.
 
carolinaradio said:
Are UFO's, Nostradamus, and end times gore and imaginary war scenarios history?
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At least they have some intelligence, unlike Swamp People and Ax Men...
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I don't find anything wrong with those shows -- at least they're more real, entertaining and, yes, even intelligent, than shows such as "Jersey Shore". These shows are hardly historical, but I watch them regularly.
 
"History Channel", "Military Channel" and "TCM" used to be my favorite cable/sat services and I paid lots of dollars to providers to watch these few services.....but no more. Several years ago I noticed the History Channel was shortening its playlist and there were very few unaired programs. They could have chosen from lots of historical pieces such as CBS' "20th Century" which was excellent in its day.

Likewise the Military Channel. Although a niche service early on it dwindled into some sort of odd representation and also shortened its program offerings.

With these two services declining it didn't make sense for me to be paying over $60/mo. for TCM and I cut the cord. For the money I save on cable/sat I can purchase DVD's of many of the TCM movies and have a permanent copy.
 
azumanga said:
carolinaradio said:
Are UFO's, Nostradamus, and end times gore and imaginary war scenarios history?
Click to expand...

At least they have some intelligence, unlike Swamp People and Ax Men...
Click to expand...

I don't find anything wrong with those shows -- at least they're more real, entertaining and, yes, even intelligent, than shows such as "Jersey Shore". These shows are hardly historical, but I watch them regularly.
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I agree, they aren't as bad as these VH1/MTV/Style/E reality-type shows. It just bugs me that they're on the History Channel. A channel like Spike TV seems like a better fit for them, IMO.

Somebody mentioned the Biography Channel/bio earlier - that channel's decline doesn't surprise me. I loved the Biography series, and still do (although very few of the new bios are any good), but I don't know if an entire network could have been based around it in the long run. The channel didn't stay good very long. They seem to be a second tier ID plus A&E leftovers these days with no clear focus...
 
Pawn Stars, American Pickers, and American Restoration have me watching History more than ever. Although it could be considered more pop culture or retro history, they do have a historic element to them. I'll agree though that Swamp People and Ax Men don't make much sense in being there. But then the alien and psycho (er, psychic ::) ) shows have been on History for years and have never made any sense to me either.
 
I think it's just lazy programing. There's less creative writing and less historical fact checking involved when all you're doing is pointing the camera at someone who's chopping down a tree or cursing at the gator that got away.
 
carolinaradio said:
Somebody mentioned the Biography Channel/bio earlier - that channel's decline doesn't surprise me... They seem to be a second tier ID plus A&E leftovers these days with no clear focus...
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In recent weeks, I've seen promos on A&E for a Bio show called "Killer Kids", about children who were murderers. Apparently, Bio had some shows that were originally seen, or originally destined for, another sister channel, "C&I" (Crime and Investigation).
 
azumanga said:
carolinaradio said:
Somebody mentioned the Biography Channel/bio earlier - that channel's decline doesn't surprise me... They seem to be a second tier ID plus A&E leftovers these days with no clear focus...
Click to expand...

In recent weeks, I've seen promos on A&E for a Bio show called "Killer Kids", about children who were murderers. Apparently, Bio had some shows that were originally seen, or originally destined for, another sister channel, "C&I" (Crime and Investigation).
Click to expand...
I've been seeing that also.

Crime and Investigation is a HD-only channel so it's not on most of the more basic packages...I forget it even exists (it's in the same category as A+E's Lifetime Real Women and Military History, I guess, just "there"...). Their website lacks a full schedule but I see Nash Bridges, Cold Case Files and The First 48. Perhaps they should merge it with Bio's crime programming and replace Bio with C&I to be a more viable competitor to ID.

I have a gut feeling they're kind of phasing Biography out...it's really become out of place on the network that was created for it. If so, it'd be nice if another network could somehow get the rights to it, but that's unlikely I'm sure.
 
carolinaradio said:
I have a gut feeling they're kind of phasing Biography out...it's really become out of place on the network that was created for it. If so, it'd be nice if another network could somehow get the rights to it, but that's unlikely I'm sure.
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Since it's history-related (for the most part), why not move the show to H2?
 
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