• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, September 11, 2007

By the end of the month, a cable TV network will uncover new programming ground -- sophisticated, thought-provoking, and uplifting.

I give you: "The Secret History of the Bra."

This one-hour show is not from the likely suspects looking for controversy and spice -- MTV, Fox, or even the women's channel Lifetime. Oh, no. We are talking the earnest network brand -- the National Geographic Channel.

Nat Geo will, we guess, scale the mountainous annals of historical artifacts and bring the true history including the black bra, the bikini top, and the underwire brassiere.

Good reasons all. If successful, the network will move to the history of stockings, panties, high heels, and G-strings. With so many bras on TV already, it's perfect timing -- and begs some inquiry.

Why, just the other night MTV Network's "Video Music Awards" gave us a somewhat out-of-shape Britney Spears, not really lip-synching in a glittering black bra. Janet Jackson offered one-half of a bra-like costume during the Super Bowl of a few years back -- still the subject of debate and the courts.

Next step: the advertisers. Who will support the show? I'm thinking Victoria's Secret is a natural. With a lot of men watching, perhaps Nat Geo will sell out the entire series to, say, an automobile, telecommunications, or financial advertiser, in an effort to bring nonstop bra coverage to viewers commercial-free.

Bras already makes many appearances on prime-time network and cable TV dramas and comedies -- but not on too many documentary cable channels like The History Channel, Nat Geo, or Discovery Channel. All those networks still try to come up with "sexy" subject matter, as TV programmers would say: shark attacks, trucks riding on ice, and building big motorcycles.

Now we have something closer to the mark: a program focusing on an article of clothing, and what's underneath, that will grab leering men -- and yawning women.

Nat Geo: Welcome to the club .