PBS and independent channels

[crt89]

I've wondered who PBS' core base is as far as viewers. When I was a kid, I watched the kid's programming every afternoon when I got home from school and in the mornings during the summer. Also the Saturday morning cooking and house shows.

These days, I mostly watch the British comedies.

I always felt like PBS was catering to a high-falutin base of intellectuals and wealthy people. Often the pledge ads between programs will say to include PBS in your will. Or they will have ads that congratulate certain endowments or charitable trusts for providing funding and the names sound like wealthy patriarchal families.

I know PBS also has a lot of political programming and news programs. I always felt like people were probably more likely to watch the network and cable news shows than the Newshour or Washington Week.

I would guess also that PBS focuses on an older audience, with their Lawrence Welk programming, and the fact that often the Pledge Drive programs feature older music from the 60s-70s such as The Carpenters.

I don't know who really watches the Pledge Drives, although I have seen my mom watch for a few minutes when channel surfing, but mostly because she recognizes the music. Then there's those peddlers of stuff like "The Whole Enchilada" or "Power of Now" that they get on to promote their book or product.

On another note, the independent channels like UPN/WB. Those seem to be mostly to the younger set. They used to show a lot of science fiction programming, but then moved on to shows like Moesha or Seventh Heaven. I admit some of current shows look interesting, but I never think to look at that channel since it's so low in the lineup.

I can recall that those channels sometimes air political shows and it seems I recently saw an ad for a morning show. I can't imagine who would watch WB affiliates for the news though, seems network would be much more likely. I can remember my grandmother used to watch some of their shows which I thought was strange as I couldn't imagine her watching a show for young people. But she has always liked TV-movies and stuff like some of the PBS series.

I recall as a kid getting lots of 'low channels', mainly the TBN network, which would air low budget kids programming on weekends with puppets, though they did end up with PBS' The Reppies.

And of course there was HSN which did air over the air for a while in the late 90s/early 00s. I used to watch them sometimes as I liked the blonde Mrs. Scanlon lady when she was on. I do watch QVC from time to time now if there's an interesting item for sale.

And what of the other independent channels that only show infomercials all day? What's the point of those? Are they just utilizing 'dead' channels that at one time had real programming?

Oh, and I almost forgot PAX. They mostly showed religious programming, and older more family-oriented programs at first, but later had their own programs like Early Edition. I mostly just watched them, because they got Diagnosis Murder for some reason, not sure how, as at that time it was still produced by CBS and not in syndication yet IIRC. And they would get lots of shows like Supermarket Sweep and others like Unsolved Mysteries and Candid Camera. They turned into ion television which used to have the slogan positively entertaining, but don't hear it called that anymore.