Last week, Hallmark Channel announced it essentially gave Martha Stewart the keys to the store (if it's a Hallmark Store, I wonder if she can pick me up a Valentine's Day card for my wife), devoting 2 1/2 hours each midday to her talk show as well as other programs produced by her media company. Stewart and Hallmark will be partners in other aspects of the channel as well.
Don't get me wrong here. I shed no tears for the loss of 2.5 hours of current Hallmark programming. This is a channel best known for recycling cheesy TV movies and bumping hacked-up versions of classic TV shows around its schedule.
No, what got me was reading this in an "L.A. Times" piece on the announcement:
For Hallmark, which has built a strong audience in the 25-54 demographic with its movies, landing Stewart is a high-profile move that it hopes will broaden its appeal. While the channel gets decent ratings, it is not as strong in urban and wealthy markets as it is elsewhere. Stewart caters to an upscale audience that the channel hopes will translate to stronger advertising dollars.
Though I'm glad anytime a cable channel professes to program for grownups, I have to say...Hallmark Channel? Even Hallmark Channel is chasing "upscale" audiences now? Some channels just shouldn't do that. I realize this entity long ago gave up most pretense of providing family entertainment for its own sake, but it's kind of ridiculous for the outlet that gave us umpteen "Love Comes Softly" films to start chasing "upscale" demos.
Oh, yeah, then there's the whole partnering with an ex-con thing. Look, I don't watch Hallmark Channel with rose-colored glasses--in fact, if my TV suddenly got stuck on it, I'd take my contacts out so I didn't have to watch it--but I hate to see yet another cable channel abandon its mission statement.
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