7 TV Channels That Forgot What They’re About

JF Sargent Ranker
Staff 119,079 views 7 items

A sad fact of Television is that at the end of the day, it’s not about producing stuff of artistic merit, it’s about making stuff that will grab the most viewers. This is why most “niche” television channels slowly but surely drift away from their original constituency and become about something else entirely. What, you want examples? Way ahead of you -- I’ve got seven of them. Because that’s how list articles work.

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6

Cartoon Network

What They Show

Whatever the hell they want, I guess? Cartoon Network, or "CN," has never been consistent with what they show. As someone at TVTropes wrote, the network "could spend as much as eighteen months showcasing live-action shows, only to go back to animation the next day as if nothing happened — and just when you get comfortable with that, it'll return to live-action." That whole page provides up-to-the-minute coverage on the Cartoon Network's status, which seems to change every week.

What Happened?

I just don't know. Maybe if I had been a little older when it was actually happening, I could've provided some insight, but sifting back through old promotional materials that involved Andrew WK promising to "show more than just cartoons" just leaves me confused and kinda wanting to take a nap.

It reminds me a lot of SyFy, both because it's similar and because I was literally just writing about it: There seem to be people involved -- big, important people -- who are embarrassed to work for a cartoon channel and want to fix that.

If you're offered a job as a network executive for a channel called "Cartoon Network" and one of your plans is to "get away from 'just cartoons,'" maybe you just shouldn't take the job.

Also, if your ideas involve Andrew WK, you should re-evaluate your... self.
7

Fox News

What They Show

Entertainment, opinion pieces, and, briefly, even some comedy. Despite the name, of all the 24-hour news networks on TV, Fox News is the least likely to be giving you actual news. According to that linked content analysis, 82% of news stories about the US Presidential Election included personal opinions from Fox's reporters, compared to the 27% at MSNBC and 7% on CNN.

What Happened?

Despite all their talk of "Fair and Balanced" and "We Report, You Decide," the fact is that from the very beginning, Fox News has been about not only pushing conservative views, but about making the news as pretty and as politically motivated as possible. In that video, former and current Fox employees make some pretty damning comments about the back-end workings of the network, the most damning of which has got to be this quote:
We weren't so much a news gathering organization, we were told, and more a way to promote a point of view.
There's no real way to argue this. You don't need to be ashamed of watching Fox News any more than you would be ashamed of watching Sci-Fi or the Cartoon Network, but if you think you're getting an accurate depiction of what's happening in the world from a Bill O'Reilly program, you're sorely mistaken. "Fair and Balanced" is the most absurdly false slogan since M&Ms told you they'd melt in your mouth, not all over your hand.