For Better or Werts : TV Worth Watching

TV TRICKS: Cable bait and switch

What's wrong with The Weather Channel giving the weather? Probably the same thing as MTV Music Television playing music. We don't learn much from The Learning Channel now that it's TLC, and American Movie Classics turned to original drama series when it became AMC.

The Weather Channel sadly joins the long list of cable channels essentially dissing their core viewership to appeal to new viewers by downplaying what made them famous.

Last week, TWC took aim at channel surfers with a Friday night movie showcase, hot on the heels of the celeb-happy morning show they started last spring.

At least the host of Wake Up With Al (weekdays at 6 a.m. ET, Weather) was/is a weatherman, even if Al Roker does spend his time chatting up the likes of Tina Fey and Jim Cramer (not coincidentally plugging projects on corporate siblings under the NBC umbrella).

Weather's Friday movie showcase tries to stay tangentially rooted, too, spotlighting films that feature snow, storms and other climactic crises.

Last week's movie kickoff was oceanic disaster flick The Perfect Storm. (Its debut was pretty stormy for TWC, too, judging by this report on ill-placed ad breaks.) This week's title is March of the Penguins (Friday at 8 p.m. ET, Weather), and next week, stretching the rules just a bit, it's the Stephen King suspenser Misery (Nov. 13 at 8 p.m. ET, Weather).

Which does take place in a snowy locale. But come on. What's next? The Wizard of Oz, because of that tornado?

Crazy me -- when I tune to The Weather Channel, I actually want to know what's up with the weather.

2 Comments

Mac said:

So, Diane, do they show a weather crawl during the movie, a la the news channels? "Clouds-coming from the left in blue states, or the right blue ones". It's amazing that virtually EVERY cable channel that has a stated mission eventually goes for the masses. At least the shopping channels are relentless in their desire to sell crap 24/7 (save a 36 hour period around Christmas). TBS,"very funny", has personality-free baseball and some movies void of smiles, some unintentionally. There's no reason to applaud anything on Bravo. One wonders if a channel set out to pander the most to the most might actually find a niche audience worth one's attention.
Our area (Lehigh Valley, Pa.) has a dedicated local weather channel, aligned with Accuweather. Does anyone else have these micro-market channels?

November 6, 2009 12:29 PM

Michael said:

"I actually want to know what's up with the weather."

Diane, there's an app for that! ;-)

November 8, 2009 4:01 PM

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Diane Werts has been glued to the tube since she can remember, growing up in a household where the TV came on first thing in the morning and stayed on till bedtime and beyond. She worked for the USA Film Festival, then for The Dallas Morning News writing about everything from Shakespeare to macrame art to rock music (and has the hearing loss to prove it). She moved to New York's Newsday to edit their glossy TV magazine, then returned to writing about television, specializing in its stranger permutations. She's a past president of the Television Critics Association.

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