Just Why In The Hell Is The Travel Channel All Fucked Up?

[Dinger]

Food paradise type shows, bizzare food shows, man v. food, more food shows, ghose shows, etc., etc.

No Samantha Brown, no Vacation Home Seach, nothin? What the hell???

Does anyone here know why the "Travel" Channel did this??


On edit:
Oh, I see it was sold, and pukert muroch's name is in th mix (toward end of article).

http://www.rbr.com/tv-cable/tv_deals/18293.html

". . . “Combining the Travel Channel with Food Network and HGTV will make our fast-growing, young company the undisputed global leader in lifestyle programming. This collection of popular lifestyle networks will be in great demand worldwide and promises to create substantial long-term value for all of our stakeholders,” said SNI CEO Ken Lowe, who delayed his company’s Q3 earnings report and conference call by one day to Friday after making the big acquisition announcement."


No assholes, combining it fucked it up.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. And why can't I ever learn anything on the Learning Channel?

:shrug:

[madinmaryland]

3. And what does Ice Road Truckers have to do with history on the History Channel??

:wtf:

[LeftyMom]

13. You can learn what life is like for a fundamentalist dwarf with 19 kids and a cheating husband.

I think I may be mixing a few of those shows up. Maybe not. :shrug:

[Posteritatis]

14. Changing their name to just the acronym was probably so they could get away from that

I gave up on the place after it turned into The Childbirth Channel; I don't remember if it's still that or if it's the Miscellaneous Freak Show Channel now.

Gotta love homogenized TV markets. ;P

[Cash U Nutt]

2. It's Channel Decay

from wikipedia - "Channel drift, or network decay is the gradual transition of a television network away from its original programming focus to either target a newer more lucrative audience, or to broaden their viewership by including less niche programming."

The canonical example is MTV, which now has no music, just reality shows starring people who were too dim to make the casting call for "Idiocracy".

Most of the other specialty networks (History, Discovery etc) have gone down the same path.

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. Yes, that's it exactly. I would lump the news stations in there as well since half the time

they aren't even focusing on the news, and when they are they aren't often doing hard hitting pieces. x(

[Va Lefty]

10. "just reality shows starring people who were too dim to make the casting call for "Idiocracy"."

That's great!!
:rofl:

[2Design]

4. yes I used to like samatha brown now she is one at odd times - I dropped cable

it seems any interesting show is this way - the food crap ads were disgusting to the point I hated to watch - but obviously they must have a following - just like violence - they just eliminate a lot of people

[Parche]

5. Teacher Dinger

Exactly, just like the History channel shows those stupid reality shows now, and i thought
MTV was 'music tv' not reality shows 24hours a day...

:hi: :hug: :hug:

[Lucian]

7. I love Samantha Brown in Passport to Europe.

In Passport to Great Weekends...not so much.

[WinkyDink]

15. Ditto!

[Generic Brad]

8. Probably the same reason MTV & VH1 avoid showing music videos

Or the same reason the History channel devotes hours to UFO shows. They think more people watch when they have crap ass programming. It has the opposite effect on me. It's like viewer repellent.

[Ahpook]

9. The suits are off their head

Look at what used to be TechTV. Nerd paradise, i tell ya:) All they play now is COPS and some stupid show featuring rednecks arguing.

How is this remotely related to computers?


If it wasn't for TCM, Sundance or IFC it would be out of this house.

[UTUSN]

11. Remember "Globe Trekker/Lonely Planet"? Except for Samantha, it ain't "travel" not so much n/t

[hippywife]

12. We haven't had cable in this house ever

and I've lived here 13 years next month (when we married.) Sounds like I'm not missing a thing except throwing away my money.

[grasswire]

16. well Travel DOES have Anthony Bourdain

...and his shows are beautiful windows into exotic cultures.

But I hate most of the rest of the Travel Channel.

I am enjoying the novelty of the new cooking channel. It has been really interesting today.

And I like the foreign househunters shows, where you get to see the insides of homes all the world over. That Italian villa yesterday dated back to the Middle Ages. I relish those views.