A few weeks ago, I was sitting with my sister, flipping through channels, when we came across a curious thing: TV Land was showing White Men Can’t Jump, the 1992 street-basketball movie starring Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson. What does this movie have to do with the theoretical mission of TV Land—to show reruns of beloved classic TV shows? Nothing, unless you take into account the fact that TV Land, like so many other basic-cable networks these days, is in the process of changing its image away from the original niche it was known for into something broader and, unfortunately, usually less interesting.
This isn’t a new phenomenon, but it seems to have accelerated since NBC bought Bravo in 2002 and slowly transformed it from a network full of cultural programming and indie movies into one that specializes in upscale reality shows and lifestyle porn (with the occasional indie movie late at night). Bravo’s ratings have climbed steadily since then, with popular shows like Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Project Runway and Top Chef. Clearly the shift away from highbrow programming paid off for them.
It was also—strangely, in this world of hundreds of channels catering to seemingly every possible niche—a shift away from Bravo’s original distinctive identity toward a broader, less defined one along the lines of generalist basic cable networks like USA and FX. That shift seems to be what’s driving, to a large degree, the current makeovers of other cable networks. TV Land has been working to broaden its horizons with more original programming (a little paradoxical for a network built on reruns), positioning itself as the network for the baby boomer generation. By embracing a broad demographic rather than a niche interest, TV Land is doing something similar to what TNN did in 2003 when it became Spike TV, going from targeting the relatively narrow audience of country music fans to the much wider group of men in general.
Some of these shifts are subtle and gradual, as with TV Land, but executives seem increasingly willing to chuck a network’s entire identity if things aren’t working out. The powers that be at Court TV have announced that the legal network will change its name, logo and programming focus come January, with less emphasis on courtroom documentation and a new focus on talk and reality shows—in other words, just like every other cable network.
These moves are in stark contrast to what we were led to believe would be the TV landscape of the future: one in which every superspecific hobby and interest had its very own channel. While channels still launch regularly to cater to narrow segments of the viewing public (recent start-ups from NBC Universal have included mystery-centric network Sleuth and horror channel Chiller), in order to remain viable almost all of them end up having to overhaul their programming to bring in more than just hardcore fans of their particular niche. Thus we have pro wrestling on Sci Fi, reality dating shows on MTV and, yes, basketball movies on TV Land. While there’s plenty of diversity on the fringes (that is, if you have digital cable or satellite), penetrating the mainstream still means doing your best to copy everyone else.