Network Decay - Television Tropes & Idioms
TMC
"Wow, that was a real moment. That's weird for MTV."
Joel McHale: Hey, ya know what else is weird for MTV? Showing a music
video.
The Soup
"It's unbelievable! The Cartoon Network is running live-action sitcoms
now! They're the Cartoon Network! They're supposed to run cartoons!
How can they get away with this?! It'd be like a news network running
stuff besides news!"
Jason Fox, Fox Trot
Many cable channels are created to fulfill a specific programming
niche. The Golf Channel shows golf, The History Channel shows history
programs, and so on. Some channels, however, are not as wedded to
their original concept as others. Meddling Executives look at the
Demographics to whom their channel appeals, and decide that, hey,
since the people watching their Speculative Fiction channel are mostly
18- to 31-year-old males, and Professional Wrestling is hot among that
demographic, surely no one would mind if we started showing
Professional Wrestling!
The fans of the original programming will mind, of course, but the
channel tends to keep going regardless. This may show up with only a
couple of odd programs in the schedule, but far too often, given
enough time, a channel will have pretty much abandoned its original
concept. Whether or not the former invariably leads to the latter is a
subject for debate.
Part of the cause seems to be the fact that the channel is originally
created to air shows that are "in the vault" of the company that
creates the channels, but soon, the channel's own executives discover
that original programming nets them more money, and the new stuff
slowly displaces the old. Reality Shows, as a genre where the cost to
produce is especially low, are common here. This may result in a new
"vault" channel, which slowly undergoes the same process. (Nicktoons
Network from Nickelodeon, for example.)
Note that one way to tell if this is happening is if the name of the
network is hidden behind an acronym. For example, The Nashville
Network referred to itself more and more as TNN (it eventually even
changed what it stood for to "The National Network") before becoming
Spike TV; similarly, you'd hardly know that TLC was ever called The
Learning Channel.
Some changes can be chalked up to the changing landscape of TV. As the
number of channels goes up, networks re-align themselves to try and
hold some of their market. That, or the parent companies who might own
seven or more cable channels each shuffle stuff for "synergy" or to
reduce redundancy. Competition with new media is prevalent as well, as
classic reruns give way to DVD box sets, music video channels give way
to You Tube and iPods, and info-dumping all-text channels give way to
the data display in a digital cable box or some new-fangled webernet
site. But most of the time, it's just good old-fashioned selling out
for ratings — whether it works or not.
Otherwise known as Viacom Syndrome.
In a slightly different vein, CNX began as a channel devoted to shows
that appealed to the American equivalent of shonen in the mornings and
afternoons, with uncensored anime and kung fu movies later at night.
However, its Toonami block, aimed at a younger audience, quickly
expanded to take over the entire channel; it has recently mutated into
CN Too, which is actually marketed as a second Cartoon Network.
Adult Swim, Cartoon Network's late night programming block, has also
shown signs of decay over the past few years, scheduling an increasing
amount of low-budget live-action material of questionable quality. In
recent time, the block come to be quite friendly in acknowledging
their decay with their sardonic bumps.
Don't forget Saved by the Bell on, yes, Adult Swim.
And, for a dark, dark era, they showed old cartoons starring Mr. T and
Chuck Norris. They're trying too hard to be "ironic"...
This shouldn't surprise anyone who remembers the original incarnation
of Space Ghost Coast To Coast.
Then there's Boomerang's recent airing of programs that only ended
their first runs within the last five years (such as Justice League
Unlimited), broadening their spectrum (and demographic) to "good
cartoons that they don't show anymore".
The Latin American version of Boomerang began just as the Spanish
version of the American original, but in mid-2006 the channel suddenly
changed image, lineup and direction. It's now filled with Mexican and
Australian kid and teen soaps and Sit Coms, which also shows kid-
related live-action movies and some of the cartoons that Cartoon
Network neither broadcasts nor produces, moving its original vintage
production to late nights. It has happened that both Boomerang and CN
have broadcast the same cartoons, the same day, within hours of
difference.
"Good cartoons that they don't show anymore"... wasn't this supposed
to be Cartoon Network in the first place?