History Channel Programming: Where Have You Gone Joe Dimaggio?

As a fanatical American History buff from age 4, I distinctly remember the moment when I could now watch 24 hours of the History Channel.

After each commercial break, my girlfriend would return to find me with the remote flicking back and forth between her Valerie Bertinelli movie and my Civil War weaponry program. (AHEM, we know which one was more interesting!)

When it became obvious that she was not my historical counterpart, I found myself watching late night programming about the landing at Normandy or Hitler’s final days when I should have been sleeping. “I’ll come to bed right after the Russians burn the body, honey!” (not that she understood that) But ahhh, those were great times as a viewer. However, they are history as well.

Sadly, I don’t find myself watching the History Channel as much. My seemingly repetitive WWII programming has been replaced by reality shows about arctic truckers and lumberjacks and dinosaurs. And as if nothing is sacred, they even took away the words “The” and “Channel.” As a marketer, I fully understand why they’re blurring the programming lines and bringing in reality shows which others seem to love (to record ratings, I might add)…but I miss my American Presidents, my tear-jerker veterans’ interviews, and the repeated discussions about General Longstreet’s alleged insubordination.

What about merging the shows? “See the Ice Road Truckers fighting with the 10th Mountain Division in Italy…hosted by Sen. Bob Dole & Big Bear Swenson?” More seriously, can they create a History Channel 2 that still shows neverending war footage and old talkies of Calvin Coolidge? (historical humor there). Can they afford original programming like HBO’s “John Adams?”

There’s an obvious reason my channel has been given a facelift: more viewership. And despite my love for all things Presidential and war-like, driving a cold-weather 16-wheeler is seemingly bringing in more advertising dollars. Which begs the question, what about the diehard history fans? Are we not as powerful a segment as I’d like to believe? And, if so, do we just find our history elsewhere? Do we slink back to our 27-disk DVD sets about Minesweepers of the South Pacific and Shelby Foote novels? For now, History (no “The” and no “Channel”) is evolving. Perhaps I need to as well.

Jeff Griffith