TVSquad

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!

In The History Channel's Life After People (Tuesdays at 10pm Eastern), it's not looking at the world after a nuclear explosion, a war or any other disaster that wipes out humanity. It's far simpler than that. Humanity simply vanishes without a trace. And what's left is an exploration of our legacy, our buildings, everything we would leave behind, and how Mother Earth would reclaim what was once hers before we started carving it up.

The series is a spin-off of the documentary of the same name that became The History Channel's most watched program ever with 5.4 million viewers. While the sixth of ten episodes premieres tonight, as with many cable channels, the prior five are being shown pretty regularly. I just stumbled on it this week and have already caught each of them. Every episode focuses on a different thing we've left behind and moves us forward decades and even centuries, as we see how time and nature will slowly destroy everything we've built.

Everybody's been boo-hooing the ongoing decline in the ratings of the broadcast networks for years now. Each year their numbers erode and the news outlets go crazy trying to figure out what's going on. But there's been a quieter story building during that same timespan, and it really came to the forefront this year. While the major broadcast networks have seen a drop in viewers, the cable networks have been busting ratings records all year, culminating with USA not only having the best year of any cable channel in 2008, but having the best year in the history of cable television.

But what does that mean for television, in general? Is it just the continuing evolution of a drastically changing medium? Considering the state of the economy and its impact on the networks, it's definitely worth noting that someone on the airwaves is apparently doing something right, and it's these cable channels. Ironically, many of those same success stories in cable are sister stations to the broadcast networks, even going so far as to lend them shows during that pesky writer's strike. But how can it be that while the Big Four are going down, the cable networks are on the rise?