No More Man-Eating Snakes, Fake Sharks on the Discovery Channel

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
75,400
Kudos to Rich Ross, the new president of the Discovery Channel for his announcement of a course correction in the channel’s choice of programming. The Discovery Channel, like many cable channels, Discovery began drifting away from their original concepts several years ago in an attempt to gain new viewers and increased market share.

I don't think it's actually right for Discovery or Discovery Channel," Ross said of mockumentaries. "I think it's something that I think has in some ways run its course.
 
First the mermaids and then those 12 hot spots on earth that cause a dog, in one instance, to go crazy and attack a child turned me off to Discovery.
 
Praise the lord. The shit on there had become scripted ahows with actors posing as researchers and scientists, and only at the very end would there be some tiny soft-disclaimer about it being a "dramatization"
 
This was still not as big of a deviation as the learning channel showing garbage like Honey Boo Boo. Either way I am glad to hear that they will refocus their programming.
 
This was still not as big of a deviation as the learning channel showing garbage like Honey Boo Boo. Either way I am glad to hear that they will refocus their programming.

Please accuse my shock, but HBB on the Learning Channel?
I haven't had cable for decades and knew about the show but didn't know it was on that channel. What was educational about it?
 
Please accuse my shock, but HBB on the Learning Channel?
I haven't had cable for decades and knew about the show but didn't know it was on that channel. What was educational about it?

It teaches you that stupid people shouldn't breed.
 
I'd like to see more discovery, programs like David Beckham ' s "Into the Unknown". Put 2 guys on a dual sport bike and send them down the remote areas of South America like the Amazon.

/now if someone would only clean up the Animal Planet, I want to smash my TV every time I see Finding Bigfoot.
 
Pop culture reference of the day, "Jumping the Shark".

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark
 
Please accuse my shock, but HBB on the Learning Channel?
I haven't had cable for decades and knew about the show but didn't know it was on that channel. What was educational about it?

TLC hasn't stood for The Learning Channel in like 15 years. It's just TLC. Very similar to how A&E hasn't stood for Arts and Entertainment for at least a decade.
 
Raise your hand if you can still remember the Wild America intro jingle. Here's to hoping we're headed back in that direction.
 
the Eaten Alive snake special was terrible...total misrepresentation of what actually took place...good to see Discovery return to their roots
 
I stopped watching Discovery channel because of that crap. This and mythbuster going back to its roots might bring me back.
 
Ancient alien shit has got to go.

57946525.jpg
 
Only shows worth watching are on HBO and sometimes HSI (history international). The regular history channel sucks and only has shows that depict assholes picking through garbage to find something valuable, etc. Apparently it's only international audiences that are actually interested in learning anything. WTF is this country turning into? It's demoralizing knowing that most people find today's content on the traditionally educational channels as acceptable.
 
Now if only tlc would do the same, not much learning going on there.

what?!

you mean to say that didnt learn anything from watching a 450LB, 70-IQ hillbilly feed her 5 year old child 10,000 calories a day and enter her in beauty pageants?


oh I'm sorry, I thought this was Amurica...
 
So no more shows about fake shares or man eating snakes, but we'll still have fake reality shows where everything is invented (Moonshiners, Naked & Afraid, anything about the Amish, any show about surviving, and how many shows do you need about people in shitty snow conditions and how they get by?)

Meh, from cancelling shows like Dirty Jobs, to epic miniseries that have shitty American actors as voice over (Sigorney Weaver? Oprah? GTFO), and having every other show about building a motorcycle I've given up on the Discovery channel years ago. I still do laugh when I see the promos for their shows on other channels.
 
I used to love watching Discovery, Nat Geo, TLC (remember when they actually had shows about traveling around the world?).

Now it's a bunch of "fake" reality crap, finding bigfoot, finding lochness, all sorts of bullshit that you know isn't in the least bit real or interesting in any facet.
 
Good.

Maybe we can get some new information this Shark Week instead of the bullsh*t they've been feeding us the past few years.

I use to look forward to shark week. Learning what "we" have discovered about the species over the years, but the last few that I've seen were all mythological bullsh*t stories. I think I watched a total of two episodes this past Shark Week and they were the same thing I've seen before anyway.
 
I used to love watching Discovery, Nat Geo, TLC (remember when they actually had shows about traveling around the world?).

Now it's a bunch of "fake" reality crap, finding bigfoot, finding lochness, all sorts of bullshit that you know isn't in the least bit real or interesting in any facet.

Yeah. Some are so blatantly fake it's insulting (like the tow company ones). Moonshiners is a fine example of stupid. The whole premise of the show is insulting. You're telling me the cops are too stupid to subpoena the crew for locations/footage, the DA wouldn't use said footage, and/or charge the film crew with accessory?

Right.
 
About damn time. Used to be a channel I could watch all day but hardly ever flip over to it now.
 
Yep I agree. The only show thats it good right now is Gold Rush.

The last two years of shark week were completely lame. With all the CGI, it was fucking stupid.

Hope this new guy gets it back on track.
 
I am incredibly glad... you know, my father is an old man and he despises technology, and he used to believe the crap on the Discovery channel as a gospel. I didn't have the heart to tell him that his beloved channel was feeding him bullshit... to this day he believes that mermaids were actually found and the shit dragon show >.< >.< ... thankfully he only discussed them with me, but still >.<
 
Moonshiner's premise is totally stupid, they might as well have a show called "I grow pot".

It wouldn't be bad if it was portrayed as a demonstration of historical techniques, technology, and events, but they portray it as actual Moonshiners engaged in their weekly profession. If they were really engaged in criminal activity the law would tail grab their asses 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Fake ass shit.
 
One of the reasons I don't watch tv anymore is the amount of reality tv shoes that are on it. I have no desire to go through all the crap to find one good show, let alone see a commercial for one.
 
Naked and afraid has to gooooooooo!!!! IRC and afraid can stay.
 
I cut the cord because of all that crap. I enjoyed learning things, then it kept getting worse and worse. Then, I decided that one good show a week wasn't worth it, and got rid of it all...

Hopefully, they (and other networks) get their shit together. Might get me back. Otherwise, I'm good with what I have now.
 
Only shows worth watching are on HBO and sometimes HSI (history international). The regular history channel sucks and only has shows that depict assholes picking through garbage to find something valuable, etc. Apparently it's only international audiences that are actually interested in learning anything. WTF is this country turning into? It's demoralizing knowing that most people find today's content on the traditionally educational channels as acceptable.

I'm a huge history buff, but with The History Channel & H2/History International, I find there's only programming about history around 2 hours a week, and mostly between the hours of 9 am - 11 am on both channels combined. What pissed me off before all this Ancient Aliens garbage was that the History Channel's History seemed to be based on WW2. I'm glad Discovery is going to be something more, but a lot of channels need to reevaluate why they exist at all.

I swear, when HBO allows for an online only subscription, I'm cord cutting.
 
Does this apply to all their sister channels as well? Shows like the mermaid and Russian Yeti specials,Mountain Monsters and it's spin offs,hell,at least Finding Bigfoot doesn't resort to outright fakery like this crap.
 
Ancient alien shit has got to go.

The historical topics they discuss are still important to explore, regardless of how they came to be. Because no matter what, the finding will be dramatic.

As observers from the 20th century, "aliens" is our most logical way of explaining things more advanced then us. 100 years before that it would have been "divine intervention"...but who believes that anymore?

But it could be that humans back then had access to methods that we simply do not understand anymore. This is profound. Not just for the sake of unknown knowledge, but also the concept that knowledge of technology or even people could be lost. For the last couple hundred, the concept of lost (general) knowledge has been unheard of.

How shocking would it be to find out that there was an advanced race (like Atlantis) and that they did parish some how? How did this happen.....how could we prevent it from happening again? It would also GREATLY affect our concept of the timeline of human advancement. It's easy enough to think that there was an advanced race in the past, but how did they get to that point while still fitting into our accepted idea of how long man has been around?

Then there is the idea that they simply used a ton of people of a very long time. It's possible, but it is still foreign to man of the written history era to consider this. It would be a profound shift in the accepted idea of what is the human collective.

Objects and places depicted in movies like Chariots Of The Gods are 100% real. What is in debate is how they came to be. I think the "external forces" solution is less likely to be accurate (despite me being enthusiastic of it), BUT we should still try to figure why this stuff exists, because as I said the cause will be profound no matter what.

And that's why a show like Ancient Aliens is far more valid of a "Discovery Channel" program than the piles of reality television they have. Although I do think Dirty Jobs is a legitimately useful show....on the same level as "How It's Made".
 
I hope they keep gold rush. I actually like the show. Deadliest Catch is starting to hit its tiping point.
 
Now if only tlc would do the same, not much learning going on there.

It teaches you that stupid people shouldn't breed.

See somebody did learn something from TLC so the name does still fit. :)


I stopped watching Discovery channel because of that crap. This and mythbuster going back to its roots might bring me back.

Mythbuster is doing that. They are going back to just Adam and Jamie for the show and trying to get back to more of what they did early on.
 
Back
Top