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Reality TV Shapes Network Image

"Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" may have been off the air at Bravo for more than five years, but the cabler built their network around a show that no longer exists. "The five genres that ["Queer Eye"] embodied -- beauty, fashion, food, design, pop culture -- those are the tenets of what we are structuring the network and basing our content on," says network general manager Frances Berwick.

"We want to show A&E as offering engrossing, 'lean-forward' television," says Bob DeBitetto, president of A&E and Bio channels. His network has long had a hand in nonfiction programming, but he credits their 2-year-old motto, "real life drama," as what helped the network come into focus for viewers. Conversely, fine-tuning programming from "pure documentary service" to straight-up reality television has been part of Discovery Channel's evolution.

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