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).
re-run documentaries.
They’re just interested in that period of history, okay?
“trash reality show that feature trash pickers sorting through trash”
Lmao. That’s painful.
No, that’s the new American dream… Oh wait You said painful yeah…
I remember when the criticism of the History channel was it was the “Hitler channel.” I’m old.
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking of before I went over and checked their line up. In the wee hours of the morning they have something called “paid documentaries” without any further detail. I’m very curious what that is. Is it an infomercial? Some unholy cross between an infomercial and a documentary? Are they selling imitation Nazi gold?
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:
Big list (pay attention to the ones marked “long form”): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_programs_broadcast_by_The_Weather_Channel
I certainly wasn’t. I guess the enshittification is complete.
Nope, you neglected the worst offender… SciFi, that they renamed to SyFy (and I pronounce “siffy” or “siffylis” now) that used to have good science fiction but decided WWE and ghost hunting was the way to go.
I still haven’t forgiven them for cancelling MST3K after only 3 seasons.
They went steaming: https://www.twitch.tv/mst3k?sr=a
I know, but the rest of the history of the show is kind of bleak. They had two Netflix seasons before Netflix shitcanned them, then crowdfunded a successful (and terrific IMO) 13th season. This year, they had another crowdfunder, but they did it outside of Kickstarter and put minimal effort in, so it failed. I have no idea if the show will continue at this point. There is Rifftrax and The Mads, but they aren’t really the same. I need my puppets at the bottom of the screen!
Or Dark Matter!
The full list of good shows they cancelled or cut off early is long and painful to read.
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
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.
American here. I stopped watching “TV” about 15 years ago, and have streamed just about everything ever since. I’m also exposed to a lot less advertising now and my life is better for it.
Watching television at family/friends house feels like traveling to a foreign country. It’s exactly like you describe. I don’t recognize any of it anymore.
TV shows produced in my country are reaching cringe-levels, especially the TV mag show KMJS. I lost my trust in watching TV. And noontime shows are spewing cringe and usually controversial remarks.
And the Pharma commercials?! It’s insane, if I want a pill I go to the doctor/pharmacy say I have a headache they will prescribe some shit and I will pick it up, why would I need a commercial for that?
For-profit healthcare.
Prescription medicine advertising is illegal elsewhere.
TLC is the 21st century version of the freak shows
Say what you will about the entertainment merits of Real Housewives and Kardashian shows, at least the stars of those shows signed up to have their drama exploited for ratings. The producers of shows like Hoarders and Intervention are morally bankrupt. TLC is basically an entire network devoted to turning people’s mental health and addiction crises into spectacle for cheap entertainment, and it’s absolutely disgusting.
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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
Television is shit
YouTube is shit
Social media is shit
Wait…
The fediverse is a Social Network not Social Media.
TV in good old 'murica sure got enshittified damn early.
Gen alpha: What are “TV channels?”
In all fairness reality shows are pretty much what we watch on YouTube too
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.
- Hollywood1 is so insular that they don’t even realize these people exist.
- Hollywood is so stuck in its ways that they refuse to believe these people could be successful running a larger production.
- 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.
I vote for the insular, navel gazing/ narcissistic reason.
Nickelodeon gave Fred their own TV show+movie and YouTube bankrolled some popular creators to make a few YouTube red originals, that’s about as far as I can think of
“History” channel - Ancient Aliens
The only reliable sources about history are preserved articles and respective reliable YouTube channels.
Isn’t the weather channel just mostly ads now?
Always has been.
Trash reality shows that feature clouds.
Yeah I remember when the cable tv folks pitched cable like there wouldn’t be ads, vs. public airways that had to be ad-supported because there wasn’t any subscription for it. When they turned cable into ad wasteland I felt that like the fucking betrayal it was
Cable execs: I see your point. In 2024 we’ll be introducing trash reality shows that feature the weather.
I’d watch me some Tornado Alley Trailer Park Wives.
They don’t even need to feature the weather. TLC stands for The Learning Channel and no one learns anything from their shows.
I legit always thought it was Tender Loving Care.
I mean, it was definitely a play on the acronym
That’s absolutely not true. I’ve learned that I may be messy sometimes, but at least I’m not walking through goat paths of garbage. I’ve learned that I may be a bit of a fuck up that enjoys recreational drugs, but at least I’m not walking on sunshine. And I’ve learned that I may be bit overweight, but at least I’m not bed-ridden and disappointing my doctor. I always feel better about myself after watching a TLC show.
I’ve definitely learned how exploitative it is to force people in terrible life situations, many suffering from mental illness and/or some sort of past trauma or are just in a bad spot all around, to broadcast their lives for all to see and gawk at.
Oh you have a severe eating disorder that is extremely dangerous to your health? What a Freaky Eater you are! You also clearly have your Strange Addiction so we can exploit you twice for the same effort! Oh you’re not even living paycheck to paycheck and are dumpster diving behind the grocery store to feed your family? We got an Extreme Cheapskate over here!
The only thing you learn from TLC is that you don’t want to watch TLC
Well, in fairness to them, I learned I don’t want no Scrubs. Which is good as I think that aired on ABC
A scrub is a guy that thinks he’s fine
