Has anyone else noticed that Cartoon Network may be 'jumping the shark' and headed the way of the dodo and MTV? They have 2 new reality shows now Brainrush and ghosthunter's jr.(sorry the name elludes me at the moment) . I really like CN and hope these type of shows don't become a staple.
Cartoon network I should be tuning in for toons; just like Music television should be Music videos or at least music related material. What a world.....what a world.....

Every cable channel is now legally required to have some ghost show, apparently. Even the travel channel has one. And now TV Land has a reality show too! It's idiotic, but it must be what people are watching.

Unfortunately I don't think it's what people want to watched were just being forced into it. Let's face facts it's just so much cheaper to produce a tv show with handcams rather than with studios and actors.

I've heard that, like The Sci-Fi Channel, CN is going to be changing their name.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NetworkDecay

Fascinating wiki about the phenomenon.

go team venture!

It's getting to the point where none of the cable stations have any kind of uniqueness. Even my History (Int'l) Channels have been corrupted. I want some real niche stations - no wonder I'm watching less TV and more DVD / Blu-Ray.

there is always the porn channel. . .oh wait. . .they now have a few reality shows of their own. . .like really big brother vs hoes, DP survivor, and Paris hilton's my new BFF!

Just kiddding. Or am I?

You have to get into the top level "everything" packages ($$$) before you can find any real niche channels anymore. Sadly, most of the people who want those educational and specialty channels want them because they don't like what's on the hundreds of other channels.

My wife and I replaced Dish network with a $7.99 Netflix subscription, Hulu, and the occasional DVD box set. For all the complaining the cable/sat companies do about the internet, they are the ones who are pushing us there.

I have rabbit ears myself. I had cable at my last place, and apart from Galactica, Little People Big World, and the history channel, I really didnt need any of the channels. Now with digital broadcasting, most of the stations around here, chicagoland market, I get a lot more than before and better than cable!

It's called a hostile corporate overkill take over. All the networks and big stations are owned by big companies that only see $$$$$$$ not programing. They don't care what is being shown just as long as they make money off of it.

They won't keep making money though, that's the problem. Instead of investing in creating better channels, better shows, and better technology, they are making cuts and pushing the lowest common denominator even harder ("reality" tv). When that falls through, they'll come up with excuses. Then they'll go after Hulu and downloaders. When that doesn't work, they'll lobby for all kinds of laws and technology to lock down cable boxes and artificially prop up a failing business model.

I'd like to see over-the-air digital really take off. Where each major network broadcasts 2 or 3 of their subsidiary networks on the subchannels (5.1NBC/5.2SciFi/5.3USA). Then you can supplement those channels with internet streaming with a small box that does PVR and links up with services like Hulu, Netflix, or directly to each network, where you can build your own list of shows. Ads could be injected based on personal preference and demographics (Movies & restaurants instead of Ensure & tampons) and you could remove shows you don't like from network feeds (wrestling and ghosthunters maybe). Maybe you just customize your own on-demand channel which runs nothing but Doctor Who, Wheel of Fortune, WWII documentaries, Junkyard Wars and Good Eats all day.

am i the only one who thinks that there will be no commercials in the future? everyone either has dvds, or skips past them on their dvr's, they will eventually have to completely integrate products into shows. imagine a late night tv host wearing a nascar like outfit.

Imagine a channel where commercials take up the bottom half of the screen while the show is running...

Imagine that channel changing its name to "SyFy..."

sound like CNN Entertainment channel please disregard the ticker at the bottom. Honestly your idea isn't to far off track I'm sure that's a logical evolution for broadcasting. It will be more subliminal. With all the im-ing ,text ,pop-ups, etc. People are multitasking now faster than theirs brains can process.

lol@whona. actually, that made me think of fox. i hate it when pop-ups come up for new tv shows/tv movies. the funniest part of the simpson's movie is when they parodied that.

I especially hate it when the screen blocking ad makes sound that obscures the dialog of the show I'm trying to watch.

Part of the reason for the lower-third shenanigans is to increase the value of DVD releases compared to DVR recordings and downloaded versions.

Please, the biggest channel decline was AMC. American Movie Classics didn't use to run commercials at ALL.

It was the epitome of an awesome channel.

Now they run crappy horror movies, commercials and original programming (that supposedly is good, but a moot point overall)...

FMC is a good replacement though.

Commercials are becoming the show. Chuck is Subway. That's a large one, but take a look at some others and notice the product placement you may have missed before. Let me give a good one to start with...NCIS. If you just scratched your head then you probably never noticed every car scene seems to have a close up of their issued car...which happens to be a Dodge product placement. Check it out.

There may not be a spoon, but there sure as hell is a product placement, believe it.

I wish TV was as good as it was when I was a kid.

I don't mind product placement in some situations, but we're in trouble if it becomes the de facto advertising method. We'll be stuck watching shows that take place only in contemporary culture.