Word: channelized
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...Even the demographically challenged Howard Stern, whose own audience is more Pat Benatar than Puff Daddy, realized he could score easy points by harping on the service's lack of videos. Yet despite the welling demand for more music on MTV, videos were the worst-rated programming on the channel. What the dilly...
This fall the cable channel took a deep breath and gave Bart what he wanted. Quick cuts, vapid veejays, silly game shows, Singled Out, the beach house--gone. In their place, the channel refocused its programming on music and news; showcased interviews with musicians broadcast live from a studio overlooking Times Square; and hired a new cast of serious, rock-minded jocks. To oversee the changes, it brought in Brian Graden, 34, the former Fox executive who commissioned the famously crude Christmas cartoon that became Comedy Central's hit, South Park. "There's more value on talent and substance...
...World so you were always seeing Puck pick his nose," she says. "We got rid of that." Even at the expense of losing ratings points. "We're not playing to win the ratings game," says McGrath. "Our value is in the checking-outness," which is MTV speak for the channel's role as the pre-eminent cultural barometer. Some of her bravado may stem from the fact that the network's ad revenues keep going up despite flat ratings, as advertisers queue to reach younger viewers...
Other shows divide up more or less along the lines of Channel Umptee-3 and Blue's Clues. Wimzie's House on PBS, which has received a lot of attention, is another program made by talented people that may be too manic for its intended viewers. Wimzie is half bird and half dragon. She lives with her parents, her grandmother and her little brother; and since her house is a day-care center, it is usually full of her friends. The show is sweet, but it is hard to follow. "Why does [it] have to be so cluttered?" asks Jerome...
Shows for preschoolers must appeal also to another demographic--the parents who end up watching them too. It's paradoxical, but the truly childish programs may actually be more appealing to adults than those that are lively and sophisticated. The rhythm, look and attitude of Channel Umptee-3, for example, are extremely familiar. You've seen all the moves a million times, and watching the show you enter a state of reflexive TV consciousness. The pace and tone of the more simplistic programs, on the other hand, is very unfamiliar, which makes them oddly fascinating. More effectively than a minimalist...