Cable execs: I see your point. In 2024 we'll be introducing trash reality shows that feature the weather.

Apparently, folks don't realize that even The Weather Channel has already dabbled in trash reality TV.

Some famous enough to have their own Wiki pages:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospectors_(TV_series)

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_Riders_(TV_series)

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_Thru_Hell

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyros_(TV_series)

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifeguard!_Southern_California

Big list (pay attention to the ones marked "long form"): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_programs_broadcast_by_The_Weather_Channel

Cable shifted to low information viewers across the board decades ago. Dumb people watch commercials I guess.

✨️enshitification✨️

Cartoon Network then: cartoons

Cartoon Network now: Teen Titans Go! on repeat

Enshittification IRL

Reality TV is cheaper to produce than scripted shows. Profit is the reason all they show is reality shows.

TV in the US is so weird. I mean, we've got all of that in Europe too (on some channels), but whenever I watch American TV, everything seems to be cranked up to 11. The aggressive of your news shows, the quantity of your advertisements, the weird rules from the middle ages (no swearing or nudity on certain channels), etc.

MTV has been all over those "reality" shows and candidate shows since at least the late 90s though.

Hey, I'm Bam Magera and this is Jackass Roomraiders where Xibit builds flat screens into your entire house for no reason after we had a hot girl go through all your embarrassing shit while you waited in a car of some kind outside watching together with your adversaries who go absolutely apeshit about anything that happens, also UV sperm detection light.
NEXT

Youtube in has done a remarkably good job carrying the torch of high quality documentaries and educational content beyond the realm of traditional media. Science, art, technology, history. It's all there, and much of it meets or exceeds the quality of anything the old guard of cable TV channels ever managed to produce.

I'm actually only now realizing that some of the most established channels have been reaching a wide audience with consistent and high quality content for the better part of a decade, and yet I can't think of any who have successfully broken into more "traditional" media such as television or or even streaming services. That seems exceptionally strange to me. I mean, last month there were headlines about Netflix giving $55 million to an unproven director who proceeded to blow it all on expensive cars instead of filming the show he was hired to make. Who decides to hire that guy over any number of youtube creators who have spent the last ten years cranking out a short video a week along with occasional longer form projects, all with a small crew on a shoestring budget. I can imagine three possible reasons for this. No idea which one(s) could be the real reason, or if there's something else entirely going on.

1. Hollywood^1^ is so insular that they don't even realize these people exist.
2. Hollywood is so stuck in its ways that they refuse to believe these people could be successful running a larger production.
3. Offers have been made, but those offers have been so restrictive that any number of youtubers have turned them down despite, one would assume, a large amount of money being on the table if they go along with it.

That last one in particular seems unlikely, but I do recall that the popular Primitive Technology channel went quiet for a year or more before abruptly coming back to life. Rumors swirled that he had been hired to turn the concept into a TV show, but the production company kept trying to change things and he eventually gave up and went back to doing it his way on youtube.

^1^ used here as shorthand for the more corporate and structured entertainment industry at large.

Wasn't Bravo originally for performing arts? I thought it used to show theater productions and stuff like that.

The Gold Diggers and Gold-Diggers caught me off guard, that's funny.

How is there possibly this much market for this shit?

Gen alpha: What are "TV channels?"

I used to love A&E when it was biographies and Lovejoy.

The major TV networks were so embarrassed by being outproduced in quality by these niche cable networks that they raised the level of their programing to match. LOL, no. They bought out all the niche cable TV channels and turned them into trash. Hurray Capitalism.

Edit: and in the streaming era, the same kind of thing happened to Pluto. They had some great, quirky programs. Like the train channel. Checked them out a couple weeks ago and they look completely different post buy out. All the tech and gaming content gone. No train channel. Bunch of channels that just run reruns of one show.

The history channel also has Nazi documentaries.

Edit: I just checked their line up, as I haven't been anywhere cable was playing for years. They're doing one show per day now, it's an all day marathon of either Ancient Aliens, Pawn Stars, The UnXplained (bigfoot, etc.), American Pickers (literally a reality show about trash) or Mountain Men (seems to be a reality show about some dudes in Alaska).

Reality shows have people I never want to meet, mostly.

The weather is pretty trash, but it's not the weather channel's fault :/

TLC is the 21st century version of the freak shows

Oh, don't worry, the same cancer is destroying fun on the internet, only worse because of the techniques they use to keep your attention that TV can't replicate because it's not an interactive medium.

Weather channel has trash shows about surviving weather events

And one show being split up across multiple streaming services with only a few seasons on each service is why i have a jellyfin server now

Cable also ruined streaming services

C-Span then: empty chairs

C-Span now: empty chairs

Welcome to Costco, I love you.

I love you weather channel, never change weather channel

Gold-diggers have it real good, two areas of influence

All their good content is moved to the streaming services. why make less money being bundled on cable when you can charge people whatever for the content and make way more? At least that’s why I think the content on cable is trash at the moment

Not that streaming is any better though.

I'm old enough to remember when discovery showed space stuff like, all the time. It was great!

It really changed in the 90s when congress pulled public funding for educational TV

Isn't the weather channel just mostly ads now?