I love "Don't Sleep", BET's answer to "Nightline" and "The Daily Show", so there's no surprise it's struggling to find an audience. But here's a very interesting article that tries to explain why.

Debra Lee argues that the audience didn't show up. This article gives a good explanation as to why.

http://www.washingtonpost..._blog.html

"A disproportionate chunk of the BET audience might consist of people who either enjoy brain dead programming or only look to BET to give them brain dead programming,”

I don't watch BET period so I wouldn't know if this show is worth a watch. But with all the other programs on there i'm not shocked at all this show isn't doing well.

babybugz said:

I don't watch BET period so I wouldn't know if this show is worth a watch. But with all the other programs on there i'm not shocked at all this show isn't doing well.

I was about to post "who gives two fucks?"

Are they really surprised its not doing well? Like others, I don't watch BET so I haven't seen the show, but if it's like a "Nightline" or whatever...then how does that even mesh with the other shitty programming shows that BET shows on a daily basis? You can't put one intelligent show on expecting it to get an audience when all the other shows aired on the network are for idiots.

it's all deliberate

all of this deterioration has occured at such an excellerated pace

TV ONE has slipped a small notch too, all it takes is for one shady program to impact everything else....

before the walls come a tumblin down

Who still cares about BET is the bigger question?

Good article...thanks for posting.

The only reason that BET is even making this half hearted attempt at offering some grown folks programming is because TVone is eating their lunch.

TVone may not be the be all and end all of programming, but at least they are making a respectable effort with programs such as UnSung, Washington Watch, Find Our Missing, Divine Restoration, Life After, Save My Son and Living With Soul, to name a few.

BET lost their adult audience by serving up a steady diet of garbage for over a decade because they thought they would still get support no matter what but now they see how wrong they were about that, especially now that people have more choices.

TJ Holmes is former CNN anchor and a credible journalist as far as I know. Don't Sleep has potential and I would like to support him but BET is gonna have to bring it a whole lot better if they expect to win back the audience they turned their backs on several years ago.

babynoz said:

Good article...thanks for posting.

The only reason that BET is even making this half hearted attempt at offering some grown folks programming is because TVone is eating their lunch.

TVone may not be the be all and end all of programming, but at least they are making a respectable effort with programs such as UnSung, Washington Watch, Find Our Missing, Divine Restoration, Life After, Save My Son and Living With Soul, to name a few.

BET lost their adult audience by serving up a steady diet of garbage for over a decade because they thought they would still get support no matter what but now they see how wrong they were about that, especially now that people have more choices.

TJ Holmes is former CNN anchor and a credible journalist as far as I know. Don't Sleep has potential and I would like to support him but BET is gonna have to bring it a whole lot better if they expect to win back the audience they turned their backs on several years ago.

No one's studying BET these days except little kids and soon they're gonna get tired of it and watch the MTV stations that still play music. BET is a failure of a channel these days and yes TV One is chewing its ass apart.

Timmy84 said:

babynoz said:

Good article...thanks for posting.

The only reason that BET is even making this half hearted attempt at offering some grown folks programming is because TVone is eating their lunch.

TVone may not be the be all and end all of programming, but at least they are making a respectable effort with programs such as UnSung, Washington Watch, Find Our Missing, Divine Restoration, Life After, Save My Son and Living With Soul, to name a few.

BET lost their adult audience by serving up a steady diet of garbage for over a decade because they thought they would still get support no matter what but now they see how wrong they were about that, especially now that people have more choices.

TJ Holmes is former CNN anchor and a credible journalist as far as I know. Don't Sleep has potential and I would like to support him but BET is gonna have to bring it a whole lot better if they expect to win back the audience they turned their backs on several years ago.

No one's studying BET these days except little kids and soon they're gonna get tired of it and watch the MTV stations that still play music. BET is a failure of a channel these days and yes TV One is chewing its ass apart.

And they have the gall to blame the viewers? Hell, they gave mature viewers their ass to kiss a looong time ago and now we're supposed to come crawling back because of one show?

I really would like to support TJ but if I were him I wouldn't have even gone for that deal in the first place...a half hour in the 11pm time slot, really? Then after one month they expanded to one hour but only one night, (Wed)...wtf?

BET ain't doing nothing but playing games and they're gonna blame everybody but themselves when the show tanks.

babynoz said:

Timmy84 said:

No one's studying BET these days except little kids and soon they're gonna get tired of it and watch the MTV stations that still play music. BET is a failure of a channel these days and yes TV One is chewing its ass apart.

And they have the gall to blame the viewers? Hell, they gave mature viewers their ass to kiss a looong time ago and now we're supposed to come crawling back because of one show?

I really would like to support TJ but if I were him I wouldn't have even gone for that deal in the first place...a half hour in the 11pm time slot, really? Then after one month they expanded to one hour but only one night, (Wed)...wtf?

BET ain't doing nothing but playing games and they're gonna blame everybody but themselves when the show tanks.

BET is starting to change people. They don't show videos all day, but at least have sitcoms on like My Wife and Kids, Bernie Mac SHow and Jamie Foxx Show.

They have some new original programing starting up next month in Real Husbands of Hollywood and Second Generation Wayans. Both shows look good.

"Don't Sleep" is decent the few episodes I caught. And another series, Vendicated with Orris Chestnut.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

BET is starting to change people. They don't show videos all day, but at least have sitcoms on like My Wife and Kids, Bernie Mac SHow and Jamie Foxx Show.

They have some new original programing starting up next month in Real Husbands of Hollywood and Second Generation Wayans. Both shows look good.

"Don't Sleep" is decent the few episodes I caught. And another series, Vendicated with Orris Chestnut.

But that's after TV One came and forced BET to come to grips that they don't have half the audience they use to have.

Timmy84 said:

LittleBLUECorvette said:

BET is starting to change people. They don't show videos all day, but at least have sitcoms on like My Wife and Kids, Bernie Mac SHow and Jamie Foxx Show.

They have some new original programing starting up next month in Real Husbands of Hollywood and Second Generation Wayans. Both shows look good.

"Don't Sleep" is decent the few episodes I caught. And another series, Vendicated with Orris Chestnut.

But that's after TV One came and forced BET to come to grips that they don't have half the audience they use to have.

True, but sometimes you need that extra push. TV ONE was that push.

I rank them like this.

TV One

Centric

BET

Aspire (only cause Aspire doesn't really have a lot of programing yet. The Bill Cosby Show, Julia, a few episodes of Flip Wilson Show in edited form and Soul Train ... though I can never catch it.)

LittleBLUECorvette said:

Timmy84 said:

But that's after TV One came and forced BET to come to grips that they don't have half the audience they use to have.

True, but sometimes you need that extra push. TV ONE was that push.

I rank them like this.

TV One

Centric

BET

Aspire (only cause Aspire doesn't really have a lot of programing yet. The Bill Cosby Show, Julia, a few episodes of Flip Wilson Show in edited form and Soul Train ... though I can never catch it.)

BET needs to present music documentaries that give Unsung a run for their money... that will convince me. But I'm guessing Centric will do that before BET.

Timmy84 said:

LittleBLUECorvette said:

True, but sometimes you need that extra push. TV ONE was that push.

I rank them like this.

TV One

Centric

BET

Aspire (only cause Aspire doesn't really have a lot of programing yet. The Bill Cosby Show, Julia, a few episodes of Flip Wilson Show in edited form and Soul Train ... though I can never catch it.)

BET needs to present music documentaries that give Unsung a run for their money... that will convince me. But I'm guessing Centric will do that before BET.

I think Centric already has one calld "Being" though it doesn't come on primetime like Unsung. Comes on like random hours on weekends.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

BET is starting to change people. They don't show videos all day, but at least have sitcoms on like My Wife and Kids, Bernie Mac SHow and Jamie Foxx Show.

They have some new original programing starting up next month in Real Husbands of Hollywood and Second Generation Wayans. Both shows look good.

"Don't Sleep" is decent the few episodes I caught. And another series, Vendicated with Orris Chestnut.

BET doesn't have much choice if they wanna stay in the game because more programming is being developed by other outlets in response to the audience that they ignored for so long.

They screwed up by trying to put all of their eggs in the hip hop culture basket, as the title of this thread suggests. They miscalculated badly though because they failed to recognize that hip hop is a sub-culture and never did represent the totality of black culture...TvOne and others didn't make that mistake.

Don't Sleep has potential but it needs some tweaking...I've only seen a couple of episodes of Vindicated, but it looks interesting.

Timmy84 said:

LittleBLUECorvette said:

True, but sometimes you need that extra push. TV ONE was that push.

I rank them like this.

TV One

Centric

BET

Aspire (only cause Aspire doesn't really have a lot of programing yet. The Bill Cosby Show, Julia, a few episodes of Flip Wilson Show in edited form and Soul Train ... though I can never catch it.)

BET needs to present music documentaries that give Unsung a run for their money... that will convince me. But I'm guessing Centric will do that before BET.

They are definitely gonna have to diversify even more than that especially since their hip hop foundation is crumbling beneath them. The corporate driven, media constructed, fake hip hop that is being force fed to the masses now isn't the same grass roots hip hop of a generation ago.

More and more people are finally saying enough with the brain-rot already.

babynoz said:

Timmy84 said:

BET needs to present music documentaries that give Unsung a run for their money... that will convince me. But I'm guessing Centric will do that before BET.

They are definitely gonna have to diversify even more than that especially since their hip hop foundation is crumbling beneath them. The corporate driven, media constructed, fake hip hop that is being force fed to the masses now isn't the same grass roots hip hop of a generation ago.

More and more people are finally saying enough with the brain-rot already.

The first step in the right direction is gettin rid of the Hip-Hop Awards. They perform enough Hip-Hop on the flagship BET Awards, 2 months later you don't need another one. They need to bring back the BET Comedy Awards which was in place pf the Hip-Hop Awards in 2004 and 2005.

But they do need to bring back Rap City though.

BET lost me when they cancelled "Out The Box"... if they bring that back along with "Hits From The Street" and add some more quality programming like the rest of you suggested, then I'll start watching them again

JasonWill1980 said:

BET lost me when they cancelled "Out The Box"... if they bring that back along with "Hits From The Street" and add some more quality programming like the rest of you suggested, then I'll start watching them again

What is Out The Box. I remember most BET programs post-95, but dont remember that one?

LittleBLUECorvette said:

babynoz said:

They are definitely gonna have to diversify even more than that especially since their hip hop foundation is crumbling beneath them. The corporate driven, media constructed, fake hip hop that is being force fed to the masses now isn't the same grass roots hip hop of a generation ago.

More and more people are finally saying enough with the brain-rot already.

The first step in the right direction is gettin rid of the Hip-Hop Awards. They perform enough Hip-Hop on the flagship BET Awards, 2 months later you don't need another one. They need to bring back the BET Comedy Awards which was in place pf the Hip-Hop Awards in 2004 and 2005.

But they do need to bring back Rap City though.

I agree. Or at least bring back comedy shows. Rap City shouldn't have died. That's why younger folks go online to find rap artists because BET don't know how to promote hip-hop anyways.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

JasonWill1980 said:

BET lost me when they cancelled "Out The Box"... if they bring that back along with "Hits From The Street" and add some more quality programming like the rest of you suggested, then I'll start watching them again

What is Out The Box. I remember most BET programs post-95, but dont remember that one?

If I recall, it was an alternative music show that promoted non-mainstream R&B artists. I forgot what day it aired or what time it would come on. My mind is blurry on those parts of the info. I don't think it was on for long though.

Timmy84 said:

LittleBLUECorvette said:

The first step in the right direction is gettin rid of the Hip-Hop Awards. They perform enough Hip-Hop on the flagship BET Awards, 2 months later you don't need another one. They need to bring back the BET Comedy Awards which was in place pf the Hip-Hop Awards in 2004 and 2005.

But they do need to bring back Rap City though.

I agree. Or at least bring back comedy shows. Rap City shouldn't have died. That's why younger folks go online to find rap artists because BET don't know how to promote hip-hop anyways.

I still can't figure out why they cancled Comic View. It was their longest running current program in 1992. Video Soul was on longer I belive.

And after Comic View and Video Soul, Rap City was their premier program

Timmy84 said:

LittleBLUECorvette said:

What is Out The Box. I remember most BET programs post-95, but dont remember that one?

If I recall, it was an alternative music show that promoted non-mainstream R&B artists. I forgot what day it aired or what time it would come on. My mind is blurry on those parts of the info. I don't think it was on for long though.

What year didi it air, I don't remember?

LittleBLUECorvette said:

babynoz said:

They are definitely gonna have to diversify even more than that especially since their hip hop foundation is crumbling beneath them. The corporate driven, media constructed, fake hip hop that is being force fed to the masses now isn't the same grass roots hip hop of a generation ago.

More and more people are finally saying enough with the brain-rot already.

The first step in the right direction is gettin rid of the Hip-Hop Awards. They perform enough Hip-Hop on the flagship BET Awards, 2 months later you don't need another one. They need to bring back the BET Comedy Awards which was in place pf the Hip-Hop Awards in 2004 and 2005.

But they do need to bring back Rap City though.

Rap City was well before hip hop went corporate so I feel ya there.

The main thing is that there was at least some substance and diversity in their programming once upon a time and they are gonna have to do a whole lot better if they expect to get some of their audience back or TVone will continue to put the smack down on them....

LittleBLUECorvette said:

Timmy84 said:

If I recall, it was an alternative music show that promoted non-mainstream R&B artists. I forgot what day it aired or what time it would come on. My mind is blurry on those parts of the info. I don't think it was on for long though.

What year didi it air, I don't remember?

Maybe right around the time 106 started airing...

LittleBLUECorvette said:

BET is starting to change people. They don't show videos all day, but at least have sitcoms on like My Wife and Kids, Bernie Mac SHow and Jamie Foxx Show.

They have some new original programing starting up next month in Real Husbands of Hollywood and Second Generation Wayans. Both shows look good.

"Don't Sleep" is decent the few episodes I caught. And another series, Vendicated with Orris Chestnut.

I'm for sure not watching that. And the Wayans are cool but I'm not really interested in their kids.

I just noticed that. "Real Husbands in Hollywood"? How original BET lol

Timmy84 said:

I just noticed that. "Real Husbands in Hollywood"? How original BET lol

Naw, that shit gonna be fire. I'm even gonna watch.