Los Angeles, CA—At this week’s upfronts,
every major television network showcased its wares to the media, advertising,
and programming buyers from agencies and international broadcasters, but the
big story of the week is not what are the big procedural dramas on offer, but
the counterprogramming strategy of one brave broadcaster fed up with scandals
from TV’s reality fodder. The Teachable Moment Channel, best known as TMC,
presented its eleventh hour Hail Mary pass to save itself from circling the
drain of network death: rebranding.
“After years of relying on value-based,
moralizing fare, trying to change the world one episode, one series at a time,
and realizing that our standards and practices division could’ve been better at
performing due diligence before we green lit programs, we’ve come to understand that what our
audiences thrive on is scandal.,” advised Skip Morals, TMC president. “So, rather than come away
with egg on our face when our network stars less than savoury pasts are
exposed, we’re going to start by showing
what’s behind the curtain, divulging the proverbial Oz for what he really is.”
This fall, eyeballs on TMC will be
entertained with a variety of wholesome programming, with the following three
reality series being the broadcaster’s tentpole offerings:
First up is The Royals: A History of Inbreeding and Scandal, is TMC’s dark
horse—the network’s first foray into educational programming. In TMC’s newest
edutainment offering, viewers can expand their historical knowledge by watching
how the royals of Europe and Russia kept it all in the family, and play a fun
whodunit game to test their memory in the final five minutes of each episode.
Next, TMC is proud to present Girl Guides Gone Wild. Watch weekly as
the courtroom battle unfolds in which the Minnesota-based girl guides troupe of
10 twelve and thirteen year old girls, stand trial for running a secret drug
operation. Made infamous by their staggeringly impressive cookie sales, netting
them a whopping cool five million dollars last year, the Minnesota
Millionaires, as they are known, are accused of lacing their chocolate chip and
peanut butter delights with MDMA.
Last is 19
Sinners and Counting, TMC’s crown jewel that will depict a whole array of
nascent and recidivist reprobates living together in the Big House, where they
compete for reductions in their sentences.
The show will star some of network reality TV stars who’ve had the
biggest falls from D-list grace, and mixed in for fun will be some no-name
felons and hardened criminals to keep the would’ve been celebs on their toes.
Who will go home and who will have to serve out their jail term? The home
viewing audience will decide at the end of each episode by voting online.
Hoping to bring them back into the ratings
race, TMC believes that instead of presenting viewers with a buffet of
would-be-goods characters, only to discover that they are secretly pedophiles,
white-collar criminals, and wife beaters, they’re doubling down on supporting
the underdog look for a second chance. Redemption is the new black.
© 2015. Naomi Elana Zener. All Rights
Reserved.
