Last week, The Weather Channel unveiled a thrilling new prime-time show. It followed the journey of a devastating winter storm that slammed the U.S from New Mexico to the East coast, resulting in hazardous road conditions, fallen power lines and frigid wind chills of 30 below.
The reality show, which featured unscripted drama and a whole host of sensational situations, attracted a viewership nearly three times larger than the previous several weeks.
Okay, so maybe they didn’t have to do any casting, pay writers or listen to TV show pitches from a variety of aspiring young blizzards in order to find a winner. When it comes to selecting programming, The Weather Channel is pretty much in a league of its own. When real-life weather gets interesting, viewers naturally want to tune in to see the live coverage.
But is the network content with that role?
As it turns out, The Weather Channel was actually planning to launch a new line of original weather entertainment programming on the 31st of January. When the epic blizzard came about, however, those plans were temporarily shelved.
Although they remain committed to covering severe weather and emergency situations, network executives report that on normal days, original taped programming such as “Storm Riders” will get the best ratings.
Some viewers, however, don’t seem to be on board. In the comments section of a NY Times Media Decoder article, one reader said “I rarely watch the Weather Channel anymore – they hardly ever tell me the weather.”
Another commenter agreed that the network “has been dumbed down and gotten away from their best work, which is LIVE Weather. Stupid entertainment programming should not be allowed.”
What do you think The Weather Channel’s priority should be? Should they try to appeal to the hip, younger demographic with shows designed to entertain, not just inform?
Blizzard reality show, looking pretty ticklish!
Photo by WDRdesign
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on February 18th, 2011 at 2:46 pm
I’m sorry but I’m not likely to turn on the Weather Channel unless there is some kind of storm going on and I want to see houses falling into flooded rivers or cars sliding on sheer ice!
Walsh Reply:
February 25th, 2011 at 11:14 pm
Understandable. But what if they make a cool documentary about falling houses and sliding cars from a storm from ten years ago and play it during primetime?
on February 21st, 2011 at 4:01 pm
I think like anything that’s trying to survive (like the Radio) these channels have to come out with something to appeal to the hip and the young. With information available at a push of a button, they have to try harder to get more people to watch. So yes they should try to do both for the sake of survival.
Walsh Reply:
February 25th, 2011 at 11:10 pm
That’s a good point. There certainly isn’t going to be enough severe and emergency weather for around-the-clock coverage, so they’ll naturally have to turn to something else to fill up the rest of the day. We may bicker about them turning to reality shows, but any channel needs to make money to stay in business.
on February 22nd, 2011 at 3:49 pm
I don’t see why it can’t be a mix of both. Several stations employ similar tactics, where they will have serious types of broadcasting coupled with other types of less serious shows. For instance, the channel could have a section for reporting the weather, but also have open slots for shows that follow severe weather, or other more entertaining forms. That way, they can spread their demographic of viewers.
Walsh Reply:
February 25th, 2011 at 11:13 pm
Yeah, that’s definitely what they’re doing. I personally think that’s fine and actually a necessity for the network to stay afloat, but there are always going to be some “purists” who will criticize anything other than the channel’s main focus: to report the weather. These people likely would argue that reality TV is dumbing us down and should have no place here.
young-eun Reply:
February 28th, 2011 at 7:51 pm
who wants to watch the news report twenty-four hours a day, though? it makes no sense. its like mtv playing only music!! (in spite of its acronym for music television) if the weather channel wants to up its ante, it should definitely have a mix of all types of shows.