Change is coming to cable television

By AARON BARNHART

As appeal wanes and DVR usage rises, programming must evolve.

Cable TV is flying high. More original shows are on this summer than at any time in non-network history, led by TNT with eight different series including “The Closer,” “Saving Grace” and the new medical drama “Hawthorne.” More people are watching cable more hours per day than ever. “Jon & Kate Plus 8” on TLC is more popular than “I’m a Celebrity” on NBC in the same time slot.

Much like Jon and Kate’s marriage, however, there are questions about how long cable’s success can continue.

It’s only anecdotal now, but evidence is growing that people are paring back their cable subscriptions and going online to watch TV. We know that nearly 40 percent of households use DVRs, a worrisome trend to the advertisers who make most cable channels profitable. And recent high-profile busts, such as A&E’s “The Beast,” make some of us who sit in the critic’s chair wonder if viewers aren’t starting to overload on shows.

With that in mind, let’s look at two cable programs debuting this week. Both reflect more than just a shift in attitude for their respective channels. In both cases, there’s a tacit acknowledgement that rampant imitation has watered down some of cable’s appeal, and that to succeed, channels are going to have to break with their old ways. Funny thing, though: In both cases the old is being replaced by something equally derivative.

First, let’s look at MTV, which is dumping its long-running live interview show “TRL” in favor of a comedy-talk program hosted by British “presenter” Alexa Chung. “It’s On with Alexa Chung,” which premieres at noon Monday on MTV, is still under wraps as I write this, but its new host couldn’t be more different than Carson Daly, the career of bland, comedically challenged host of NBC’s “Last Call” whose career was launched by “TRL.”

It’s hard not to watch Chung on the old UK show she hosted called “Popwatch” and not think of Olivia Munn, the can-do co-host of G4’s “Attack of the Show!” Munn’s prowess at physical comedy and geek-friendly sexiness has made her that channel’s biggest star. Like Munn, who has modeled in Japan, Chung brings a touch of international flair, mostly through her fetching British accent. But one senses it is her comic timing that MTV is most interested in.

“It’s On” leads a slate of nine new MTV shows that are being promoted as “a directional shift geared toward the millennial generation.” Viewers ages 12-34 are MTV’s target audience, and the channel’s executives claim the youngest of this bunch are more “aspirational” and “optimistic” than their elders. As a result, MTV has decided its programs need to be less about rich people who backstab each other on the beach and more about the kind of person who actually watches MTV (which, plausibly, Chung might be).

At Cartoon Network, there’s a directional shift underway, too, but the top brass there aren’t going to any lengths to dress it up in the New Age marketing-speak of MTV. They just realize that showing only cartoons is a ratings downer. Specifically, Cartoon Network is getting its lunch eaten by the Discovery channel and Nickelodeon whenever those channels air live-action reality shows. Executives at Cartoon Network say they want more “diversity” in their lineup, because that sounds better than, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”

Hence “The Othersiders” (8 p.m. Wednesday), which is “Ghost Hunters” meets “The Bloodhound Gang” (if anyone remembers that old PBS show about crime-fighting teenagers); “Survive This” (8:30 p.m. Wednesday), an extreme cross between “Kid Nation” and Outward Bound with an “Amazing Race”-style soundtrack; “Brain Rush” (8 p.m. Saturday), an ambush game show filmed in an amusement park; and “Destroy Build Destroy” (8:30 p.m. Saturday), a blow-’em-up shows that looks like it lost its way to the Discovery channel and wound up on a kids’ channel instead. (Of course, that could also be said of “Survive This,” since it is hosted by Les Stroud, the nuts-and-berries guy on Discovery’s “Survivorman.”)

Cartoon Network got serious blowback from its reality-show announcement. Online reaction to “Othersiders,” the most shameless knockoff of the bunch (in particular, the copious use of night vision cameras), has been especially harsh. What cable executives understand, but viewers rarely do, is the fickleness of an audience with 200 channel choices.