Toby Miller

I've spent the last five months back in the US, thanks to a generous
[fellowship in Latin American
Studies](http://stonecenter.tulane.edu/articles/detail/2397/Toby-Miller-Distinguished-Greenleaf-Scholar-for-Spring-2017){target="_blank"}
at Tulane in New Orleans. It was great to be in that wonderful, troubled
town just when the [Take 'Em Down NOLA social
movement](https://www.facebook.com/TakeEmDownNOLA/) of African Americans
and their supporters succeeded in pushing local government [to remove
offensive commemorations of the
Confederacy](https://theconversation.com/confederate-memorials-support-a-white-supremacist-ideal-whose-time-has-long-since-passed-78149?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest+from+The+Conversation+for+June+1+2017+-+74965794&utm_content=Latest+from+The+Conversati){target="_blank"}
that had been erected as part of the backlash against Reconstruction and
the triumph of Jim Crow laws and white terrorism.

During my time there, in addition to of course very important scholarly
activities, I wanted to see what had happened to three of my favorite
networks, Lifetime, Oxygen, and We, the major national stations
dedicated to female viewers.

[Lifetime is the elderly
parent](http://www.mylifetime.com/){target="_blank"}. It was founded
over thirty years ago and commissioned sports coverage and original
drama. Now owned by A&E (Disney and Hearst), it is returning to sports
via [women's
football](http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/national-womens-soccer-league){target="_blank"}
but maintains its broad-based programming, including reality,
made-for-TV movies, and series. [Lifetime has either replaced or
provided content for similar stations around the
globe](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/topic/lifetime){target="_blank"}.

The basic orientation of the network has not shifted. That is not true
of its competitors.

Founded by notables such as Oprah Winfrey, Paul Allen, and Marcy Carsey,
[Oxygen](http://www.oxygen.com/){target="_blank"} is now part of NBC and
hence Comcast, the cable giant. Since the network began in 2000, it has
been principally targeted at women. NBC bought it for close to a billion
dollars in 2007.

What began in the new, naïve world of the cybertarian dotcom boom as an
interactive channel, and one offering coverage of the Women's National
Basketball Association, soon changed to the banalities of reality
programing. And once Oxygen had become a creature of NBC, [it announced
itself](http://variety.com/2017/tv/awards/networks-thrill-license-to-kill-true-crime-glut-1202466253/){target="_blank"}
as a 'haven for multicultural millennial women, with shows that
reflected "how real women with real stories see the world---vibrant,
optimistic and bold".' Uh huh.

Enter Toby.

Going home to the US I was astonished to discover that Oxygen, like
several women-oriented stations, was now a [crime network. Dick Wolf
central, in
fact](http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/nbcuniversal-dick-wolf-oxygen-crime-channel-1201940020/){target="_blank"}.

Why? Ratings had tumbled. The tendency for subscribers to flee from
their bulky cable liabilities was generating a niche approach to
bundling channels because subscriptions and hence commercials were at
risk from a-la-carte contracts. In response, NBC's tactic was to rerun
police procedurals and produce new reality crime shows, drawing on
Wolf's authorial signature and the lazy, easy, cheap world of
non-celebrity reality television. [The network's slogan is 'very
real.'](http://www.oxygen.com/crime-time){target="_blank"}

[*Variety* describes the network last month like
this](http://variety.com/2017/tv/awards/networks-thrill-license-to-kill-true-crime-glut-1202466253/){target="_blank"}:
'A teenage girl doused with gasoline and set on fire. A schizophrenic
stalker. A month of programming devoted to crimes from the
1980s---nostalgia for the Night Stalker, Jeffrey Dahmer and the Green
River Killer.'

[And the programs announced for the coming months are equally
uninspiring.](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/oxygen-dick-wolf-nancy-grace-ice-t-projects-1002546){target="_blank"}
But as NBC's corporate shill gleefully put it, the ['young, female
viewership we have was really leaning into and getting fanatical about
the crime
shows'](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/oxygen-officially-rebranding-as-crime-focused-network-970867){target="_blank"}
. And when you see women 'leaning' and 'getting fanatical,' I've always
found there to be just one corporate response: selling. In textual
terms, NBC wants program makers to produce either 'self-contained
procedural unscripted bucket or major buzzy tentpoles.' I do love
private language; don't you?

Meanwhile, for me, this meant watching the network's reruns of *CSI* and
*NCIS*, because I like ensemble casts of well-paid actors, expensive
location shooting, high-level scripting and editing, and character
development. But that's not what we're being sold, as [the network's
YouTube
channel](https://www.youtube.com/user/OxygenLiveOutLoud){target="_blank"}
makes obvious to those living elsewhere.

For its part, WE Tv started twenty years ago as Romance Classics, and,
like its current owner AMC, in those days, you could enjoy it minus
commercials. Very heaven. WE: Women's Entertainment became the name in
2001, and advertising was its norm. Reality programs soon took
over---the surviving one today being *Braxton Family Values*. [The look
is designed to appeal](http://www.wetv.com/){target="_blank"} to
African-American and white women.

[AMC's wonderful 2014 press release lets us in on the geniuses behind
the network with these powerful
words](http://www.amcnetworks.com/press-releases/we-tv-rebranding-doubles-down-on-communal-power-of-we){target="_blank"}:

> WE tv today unveiled bold new branding that reflects the network's
> broader focus on the communal power of "WE" in a connected and social
> world. While it will remain a leading destination for women on
> television and online, WE tv has officially dropped the word "women"
> from its name and will focus on the broader and universal implications
> of the word "WE" as it continues to expand and redefine its compelling
> mix of programming and innovative digital extensions.
>
> "When we looked at our name and brand, we realized instantly that the
> word 'WE' is an ideal reflection of the socially networked world we
> live in today," said Marc Juris, WE tv president. "The idea of 'WE' as
> all of us---sharing common interests and experiences---is a powerful
> and universal theme which drives connection, conversation,
> collaboration and community. It creates an ideal platform to position
> the network at the center of the rapidly evolving multi-screen
> universe."

[Like Oxygen, WE is successful in attracting the women whose attention
it sells to advertisers; the new strategies are very
successful.](http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/we-tv-reality-series-marc-juris-1202477432/){target="_blank"}

So my return to the US took me back to one similar and two
vastly-altered networks for women, just in the three years I had been
gone. The lessons?

I suspect there are three: continuity works for well-established market
leaders; criminality continues to absorb and fascinate the female as
well as male audience, as it has dating back beyond the first films to
the first tabloids and dime novels; cable stations are looking to
identify themselves ever more with very specific viewers; and reality TV
and syndicated, stripped reruns are really easy ways to, you know, make
money.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Toby Miller** is Emeritus Distinguished Professor at the University of
California, Riverside, the Sir Walter Murdoch Professor of Cultural
Policy Studies at Murdoch University, Profesor Invitado at the
Universidad del Norte, Professor of Journalism, Media and Cultural
Studies at Cardiff University/Prifysgol Caerdydd and Director of the
Institute for Media & Creative Industries at Loughborough University in
London. His adventures can be scrutinized
at [www.tobymiller.org](http://www.tobymiller.org/){target="_blank"}.


I’ve spent the last five months back in the US, thanks to a generous fellowship in Latin American Studies at Tulane in New Orleans.

Postagens de Rogue Scholar

BACK IN THE USA, LOOKING FOR THE OXYGEN OF WOMEN’S TV