The History Channel - What happened?

[thejboy88]

When I was younger, I loved TV shows about history. The world wars, ancienty history, and anything in between was something I had a great passion for. So, naturally, the History channel was one of my most frequent sources for my favourite shows. As I got older however, I started to drift away from such shows and pretty much abandoned the channel.

I recently started to rekindle my interest in history and as such decided to go back and visit the old channel once more.

And what did I find?

Ice road truckers. Storage wars. Ax men. Deadliest roads. And a multitude of other shows that have virtually nothing to do with history.

What happened? This was supposed to be a channel devoted to talking about the past, and yet recently it seems to have been taken over by shows that don't have any place anywhere near the word "history".

What are you views on this?

 

[crimsonshrouds]

I think this is referred to as MTV syndrome. This is where network executives decide to cater to the widest audience possible with the cheapest programming. The thing is, Reality TV is the cheapest to make and devoured readily by the most bottom feeders.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I think The History Channel (or rather, the spirit of The History Channel) has moved on to channels like The Science Channel, Smithsonian Channel and...I think there's a third, fourth and, probably fifth...The History Channel itself however has kinda gone to Hell...History 2 might still be watchable I think...

 

[DefunctTheory]

There's really only one way to answer this.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

I think The History Channel (or rather, the spirit of The History Channel) has moved on to channels like The Science Channel, Smithsonian Channel and...I think there's a third, fourth and, probably fifth...The History Channel itself however has kinda gone to Hell...History 2 might still be watchable I think...

Yea, the Science Channel and History 2 are still watchable most of the time. Unfortunately History and TLC are not. I also refuse to watch Discovery after the Megalodon fiasco.

 

[Supernova1138]

Part of it is a ratings grab by aiming more towards the reality TV audience following the success of shows like Pawn Stars. Part of it is also that the Smithsonian Channel has exclusive access to all Smithsonian exhibits and resources, and is owned by a different company than the History Channel, so they have access to limited materials with which to make more historical programming. The end result is a massive case of Network Decay, wherein the channel becomes all about Ice Road Truckers, Lumberjacks, and Alien Conspiracy programs.

 

[Aris Khandr]

Spoiler: A Brief History of The History Channel

So with that out of the way, the image is pretty accurate. I used to marathon on The History Channel in the 99-02 range. Legitimately lost entire evenings/nights going from one interesting topic to the next. As with all television networks, ratings eventually win out. And while I would spend days watching just about anything on The History Channel of 1999, most people skipped right past it the way I skipped MTV. You don't get ratings, you don't make money. You don't make money, you don't stay on the air. So they altered the format to get ratings, despite undermining the name.

 

[cojo965]

I think The History Channel (or rather, the spirit of The History Channel) has moved on to channels like The Science Channel, Smithsonian Channel and...I think there's a third, fourth and, probably fifth...The History Channel itself however has kinda gone to Hell...History 2 might still be watchable I think...

Yea, the Science Channel and History 2 are still watchable most of the time. Unfortunately History and TLC are not. I also refuse to watch Discovery after the Megalodon fiasco.

Megalodon fiasco, what?

 

[Vausch]

I think The History Channel (or rather, the spirit of The History Channel) has moved on to channels like The Science Channel, Smithsonian Channel and...I think there's a third, fourth and, probably fifth...The History Channel itself however has kinda gone to Hell...History 2 might still be watchable I think...

Yea, the Science Channel and History 2 are still watchable most of the time. Unfortunately History and TLC are not. I also refuse to watch Discovery after the Megalodon fiasco.

Megalodon fiasco, what?

Discovery ran a fake documentary in which they said the Megaladon was still alive and did it all straight faced, never once saying the thing was fake. It was similar to Animal Planet's Mermaids documentary.

Unfortunately, after said documentary they did a poll and over 60% of their viewers still thought Megaladon was alive and in the oceans.

OP: Reality TV took over, it became more profitable to showcase stupidity to appeal to the lowest common denominator, and Mythbusters became the only show of any scientific value since they actually follow the scientific formula. As for History, they ran out of things to say about Hitler and forgot there were other periods of history before and after the 1940s.

 

[Something Amyss]

I think this is referred to as MTV syndrome. This is where network executives decide to cater to the widest audience possible with the cheapest programming. The thing is, Reality TV is the cheapest to make and devoured readily by the most bottom feeders.

Exactly. Ratings basically trumps everything else. Which is why the SciFi Channel keeps trying to ditch science fiction, the History Channel is doing away with history (except Hitler and Nostradamus, those seem to still be popular), and a lot of the science channels just blow shit up.

I think that was the moie that was portrayed as a documentary except for a tiny disclaimer flashed for .5 seconds at the end.

 

[piinyouri]

Network decay.
To be fair though, before they started this new campaign, the History Channels alias was 'The Hitler Channel', and for good reason.
They didn't need to turn into what it is now, but they sure as hell needed to realize history is more than WWII.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

The really scary thing about it is that people who don't know any better will watch a show like "Discovery" and "History" and assume it is legit. They see all these shows that are exploring psuedoscience and fictional documentaries. There are people who don't know it isn't backed up by any real evidence or fact. They take away from this, that it is true. It is a bit misleading. I've had to correct people several times on information they got from watching shows on those channels.

 

[madwarper]

Megalodon fiasco, what?

They lead their Shark week with a "documentary" about megalodon sighting, then put up a poll asking its viewers whether they thought it was real, then mocked those who didn't see the 3 second disclaimer that the "documentary" was fake.

Then again, anyone who thinks the Discovery Channel, that brings you the Amish Mafia, has any integrity deserve being mocked.

 

[lacktheknack]

Same thing happened to the Canadian Discovery channel. The only good shows they still have on there are Mythbusters, Cash Cab, and, oddly enough, "Canada's Worst Driver".

I don't get it either, because an episode Mythbusters offers more interesting stuff and entertainment than an entire season of Bering Sea Gold.

 

[WongKy]

Pawn Stars started all of this

 

[Darren716]

For me the new history channel is the Military Channel since it has a lot of interesting things about wars as its name implies but also other stuff fro time to time when they aren't showing World War II in Colour for the tenth time that day. As for the History Channel I watch it from time to time if old Pawn Stars or American Pickers are on since those shows actually do show some interesting history with the items they feature inbetween the forced reality skits that I feel have taken up way too much of the latter seasons.

 

[RJ 17]

Then again, anyone who thinks the Discovery Channel, that brings you the Amish Mafia, has any integrity deserve being mocked.

I still get a REALLY good laugh every time I see a commercial for that show. It sounds like some fake, made-up show that you'd see in a satire movie like Idiocracy or something.

 

[Snotnarok]

Reality shows are cheap and moron alien conspiracy theorists are probably cheaper.
It's amazing they show that trash when there's already been countless videos disproving them and on top of that showing how things like the pyramids were made and the explanation is FAR easier to swallow than, ALIENS DID IT.

 

[thiosk]

Don't even get me started on "The Learning Channel"

This is what used to be on the learning channel.

WATCH THE WHOLE SERIES IF YOU LOVE LEARNING (its one of the best documentary series... ever)