Or I guess the better question is why did Oxygen never happen?
When Oxygen was born in 1998 I was psyched. The founders were stellar: Geraldine Laybourne, Marcy Carsey, Tom Werner, Caryn Mandabach as well as Oprah. What could be better?
Well I have to say that my hopes for the network never really came to fruition. I remember at times watching reruns of Kate & Allie and Roseanne but I never really got into the original programming. Most of it was low brow and trite (even for me) but then when it morphed into the “girls gone bad channel,” and I just completely lost interest.
I’ve always wondered why Oxygen never got off the ground. It makes Lifetime seem like the greatest network ever and we know Lifetime’s track record is very mixed.
So why? I know the network wanted to attract a younger demographic and distinguish itself from other cable stations, but how can something that had such promise become a network that is know for Girls Behaving Badly and the Bad Girls Club.
What is it about these shows that make them successful? Is it the whole raunch culture thing? NBC Universal bought the network in 2007 to add to its female brands, and the impetus for the story this morning was the announcement of this year’s development slate at the annual TCA convention.
The current successful shows are: Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood and Dance Your Ass Off.
Those in development include: Fashion Drop, Hair Battle Spectacular, House of Glam, Russell Simmons Project, When Charlie Met Sarah, Jerseylicious and Jersey Couture.
As a person who watches a lot of TV, I can guarantee that I won’t watch a single one of these shows.
I know that NBC is in trouble, but yikes. What’s going on?
Oxygen Sounds Off on Development Slate (Variety)
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Yeah, what was the deal with Oprah losing interest? What were the inner workings that made her go off to launch her own (pun intended) network?
Melissa it’s all about what’s cheap to produce(all the reality nonsense) and what draws in the demo they want, which I am speculating is young women.
But if you look at cable television, Lifetime’s ratings have dropped a lot along with CNN and MSNBC as like the top 5 shows on cable.
I really enjoyed watching shows like Kate and Allie, Rosanne(that’s still on Oxygen I believe), The Golden Girls(which is now on Hallwark and WE), Grace Under Fire. WHat happened to Sisters?
I know folks talk about how much better Television is for women and relatively speaking perhaps that is true. But personally I am disappointed. I dislike Desperate Housewives with a passion for a number of reasons, mostly because I think most of the women are portrayed as shallow self absorbed obsessed individuals. It’s all about men under the surface.
I think my favorite female character on all of current television is Mariska Hargitay’s on L&O SVU. Here’s a women allowed to be smart, compete in the same world as the men do equally, and is not defined by a man.Yeah there’s her partner but IMO they have been portrayed symbiorically. I also love Kathryn Erbe’s character on L&O Criminal Intent, but sadly on that show they give her little to do. The CSI shows seem to overshadow the women. Even daytime I believe has become a world of shallow women and the men they support, compared to the groundbreaking atories they used to tell.
But I think it’s all about drawing viewers into that coveted demo. What I’d love to see is women being the ones to break the internet barrier, How about letting women be the group leading the pack into developing more original content for the internet. That’s where the future is right? And how about once Oprah’s show goes away, she be the one to lead the pack.
Sally word is Oprah is going to start another cable channel solely run by her once the talk show is gone. I have no idea if this is true or not but that’s the rumor here in Chicago.
I’m embarrassed to say I am addicted to THE BAD GIRLS CLUB…
Yes, Oprah is going to have the OWN network. I hope she’s a big success, because that’s a hard game. But she has been studying up on it for years, personally getting the advice of a lot of network leaders. It would be remarkable and I hope she’s learned the pitfalls. But I’m curious as to why her participation in Oxygen was so poor. True, she couldn’t really do a show without being in violation of her syndication deal, but there is programming she could have done. Oprah launched Rachel Ray, Dr. Oz, and Dr. Phil with her production company, plus a number of films and radio ventures. With Rosie o donnell coming on her show in February, you wander what may be going on there.
But either it sucked to work with Oxygen or Oprah quickly abandoned to pursue ownership of a whole network.
I’m bummed that Bonnie Hunt was cancelled. I hardly got to catch it, but it seemed a notch up from other talk shows.
Sally Oxygen was never really hers to form, lead, and guide with her vision. Too many hands in the pot. I suspect it was her foray into participating to gain knowledge and insight into some of the challenges involved in building and running a new station and I suspect she got out of it exactly what she wanted. I’m actually excited to see what direction she takes this. She’s one of the few women in this business who certainly has the clout, money, and power to make it happen and be successful. I’m excited about it.
Lifetime and Oxygen really piss me off because there’s so much great female-oriented programming out there especially on other cable networks. It baffles me how TNT can have stuff like The Closer and Saving Grace, USA can have stuff like In Plain Sight, and FX can have stuff like Damages, and yet two networks that are actually DEDICATED to women’s programming cannot come up with some quality television.
I thought Lifetime did ok(not great) for a time with original programming. I don’t know that they have the budget a USA, TNT, or even FX does but shows like Any Day Now and Strong Medicine and even The Division I enjoyed some of the time.
What I am pissed off about is that Rita Rocks, that terrible sitcom is coming back and Sherri Shephard, yes Sheri Shephard is getting a new sitcom on Lifetime called “Sheri”. Now I like smart sitcoms, neither of which these shows qualify as. Well I’ll reserve judgement on the second one until I actually see it.
It doesn’t take a huge budget to create quality programming, especially since female oriented shows tend to not need a lot of explosions and people getting shot and killed. I think it’s just them being afraid to take risks as a network–though Lifetime is much further on their way than Oxygen.
Also, Sherri isn’t “getting” a new sitcom, the entire first season has already aired. They’re waiting to hear back about a season two pick-up. :)
I guess I missed the whole first season. See how closely I’ve paid attention to Lifetime of recent.
When I read Lifetimes performance last year it was dismal. THey lost close to 20 percent of all their viewers. And like network TV, Lifetime has filled a good about of their airtime I am guessing with reality shows. It’s certainly less expensive than writing, producing, and airing original scripted content. Of course it could be why their ratings are terrible also.
can you interview Oxygen’s Development team to discuss their programming slate? It would be interesting to see the issue from their perspective and if there’s any attempt to move outside of the zone of promoting narcissism, celebrity and otherwise.
How sad that CBS is more female audience worthy with “the Good Wife” than Oxygen…and how incredibly sad is that slate. blech!
Russell Simmons? Realllllyyyyy!!!!!????!!!
GADS!
here’s a conscious dig at Russell Simmons from illdoc:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD6JVIYVuBk