I can't even blame the cable networks for this anymore. The History Channel is expanding its repertoire of reality programs as a direct response to the record ratings they've seen with the ones they have now. What do we expect them to do when we don't show up to watch until they throw Ice Road Truckers and Pawn Stars at us? Apparently, we don't want history on the History Channel.They've heard us, which is why The History Channel is bringing us more reality, starting with a spi-off of the aforementioned Truckers. Extreme Trucking will travel the world looking for the most treacherous roadways anywhere, and the brave men and women who drive them.
We can also look forward to traveling the US with Pickers, as people hunt for rare artifacts. And we'll get down and dirty with a 61-year old feud at a North Carolina NASCAR track with Madhouse. Even more unusual is Sliced, a series where objects are cut in half so we can see what they look like. Hey, if they cut a tree in half we can look at the history of it!
All hope is not lost, however. The History Channel will be premiering such historic fare as World War II in HD and The People Speak, offering a celebrity-filled oral history of ... stuff. And the network's biggest production coming up is next year's America: The Story of Us. So, I guess the ratings success brought by reality helps fun ambitious historical projects like this.
Just so long as they keep some room on the network for those great historical documentaries. You can actually learn quite a bit on ... oh, maybe that's the problem. Learning on television.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-02-2009 @ 9:50AM
Justin said...
Ah yes. The poor life decisions network. I salute your nascar watching, doomsday fetishist demographic. Who needs History on the History channel? Commies. thats who. No if you excuse me, there is a show on about a Pawn shop followed by a "Everything in the Bible was Real" show.
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10-03-2009 @ 7:21PM
Chaya said...
I totally agree the channel lost its credibility ages ago especially when it decided to become the Hitler, pseudoscience, 2012, Nostradamus, bible-believing, UFO channel
10-02-2009 @ 10:23AM
cherries said...
I'll take Ice Road Truckers and Pawn Stars any day over the saturation of Hitler-themed programs that have been showing up on History lately. I am sometimes tempted to call it the "Hitler" Channel. I find these shows personally offensive, but I guess there's an audience for them or there wouldn't be quite so many of them.
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10-02-2009 @ 10:38AM
wulfn1 said...
HERE HERE!!!!
I couldn't agree more! I miss the days of real historical shows that History channel was famous for. I had stopped watching it because of the constant nazi bombardment and the fascination they developed for anything biblical (don't get me wrong, I do like to occasionally compare historical fact against biblical stories and legend) after the Davinci code became popular.
I admit to being a regular watcher of both the reality shows mentioned at the top of the article, but feel they'd be better placed on another of the discovery channels.
I probably won't watch the new trucking show (gawd it's like the logger issues Discovery is having!! lets see,.... they like trucks,... GIVE EM MORE!! )
But I might be interested in the split idea and the pickers idea (after all, I love watching "if walls could talk" and there used to be one on another channel called "house detectives " or something similar ) Though there seems to be more science than history in the split idea, it still sounds mildly intriguing.
10-02-2009 @ 10:47AM
Deezul said...
Anyone learning anything from Kate + 8 on The Learning Channel?
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10-02-2009 @ 11:40AM
CParis said...
The thing to remember is that viewers probably don't even know or care what "network" most of these show are on - they just go for the program content and know it's on channel X on the remote.
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10-02-2009 @ 2:59PM
VH1Stars.com said...
Pawn Stars is the only reality show that should be on the History Channel because everything that comes in there to pawn has a history behind it.
Pickers sounds interesting and fits into the history theme also.
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10-02-2009 @ 4:38PM
adrienne said...
The days of my watching The History Channel are long gone. The more crap like this that they put on the air, the less I care to watch them. I spend more time watching History International, and they're screwing that up too.
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12-22-2009 @ 6:15AM
ltrazordaddio said...
To those that berate the old THC by calling it the "HITLER" channel- be advised that at least they were being true to their name.
They were airring the type of programs that a "History" lover expects to see when they tune to a channel called HISTORY.
They have betrayed their faithful core audience of "History" lovers, for a change with the show audience of viewers who love mindless entertainment brain rot.
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