Monday, December 3, 2007 at 10:00 am
NBC: Deadliest Network
Discovery Channel
The New York Times reports that NBC has struck a deal to acquire a ton of programming from outside producers including Thom Beers. You probably don't know who Beers is, but you very likely know his shows: he specializes in cable shows about people in extreeeeeeeeem circumstances, like Deadliest Catch and Ice Road Truckers. The shows will run in blocks of two or three hours, to begin most likeely in late 2008, depending, I suppose, on how soon Beers can find a group of men who mine diamonds in the desert with their bare hands, or collect teeth from live alligators for jewelry or something like that.
As the article notes, the move has nothing to do with the writers' strike, and also everything to do with it. It was in the works independently, but it and the strike both derive from the same meta-pressures in a business of smaller audiences and more platforms: namely, network TV is becoming more like cable is becoming more like Internet, and all of this militates figuring out new ways of making and paying for it.
I was generally aware of how popular Beers' series were, by the way, but I didn't know before reading this piece that Ice Road Truckers drew almost five million viewers for its finale. Clearly someone loves these shows, other than network executives looking for someone who can deliver an hour of primetime for a sixth of the cost of a scripted show. Is this good news to you?
About Tuned In
James Poniewozik writes TIME magazine's Tuned In column, about pop culture and society. Tuned In, the blog version, is about the stuff we used to call "TV," whether it's in your living room, on your computer or -- once the networks figure out the technology and line up the advertisers -- in your dreams themselves. Read more
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Monday, December 3, 2007 at 3:08 pm
@James - "Clearly someone loves these shows"
Guilty as charged. While I have my dramas and comedies that I watch, you'll find my TV tuned to various Discovery channels, History Channel, National Geographic, etc.
Dirty Jobs and Deadliest Catch are huge shows for Discovery. While Ice Road Truckers really has nothing to do with "history", I think the History Channel grabbed it for ratings after seeing what Deadliest Catch did for Discovery.
I guess I've reached that demographic that likes to be educated and entertained at the same time.
My favorite? Survivorman.
Monday, December 3, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Backing up Keith up there. I -love- those channels. Deadliest Catch was really really good, and Survivorman is excellent(Far better than Man vs Wild, imo).
Tuesday, December 4, 2007 at 9:47 am
@David - You may already know, but Bear on Man vs Wild has a whole crew along with him for his staged survival and goes back to a camp or hotel at night. Les goes into the wild alone with 60 lbs of camera equipment and films himself. He does have a safety crew reachable by radio. In my opinion, Bear does some extremely stupid and dangerous stuff just to add some excitement to the show. If you are in a survival situation, you don't jump off of cliffs into rivers.
Another favorite is Mythbusters on Discovery. Back in the day, my son and I used to watch alot of the old Junkyard Wars and Monster Garage together.