Remote Control: TV One Televises the Dream
By Ronda Racha Penrice, AOL BlackVoices columnist
This month is TV One's one-year anniversary. Those of you in urban areas such as Los Angeles are just receiving the cable channel that launched Jan. 19, 2004 (the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday), so you've missed some of the growing pains. Launching and building a new network is not easy, especially when the target audience is us. Remember NUE-TV? It launched July 17, 2000, and shut down Oct. 31, 2002. Even though investors included Quincy Jones, among others, the network just never caught on, perhaps because its unofficial focus was to take out a then black-owned BET.
TV One's position, from the beginning, has not been to replace BET but to co-exist with it. By recognizing that there doesn't have to be just one channel to speak to us all, it is building toward the day when we can have choices. As a result, when Johnathan Rodgers, who runs TV One, addressed a roomful of mostly white journalists at the network's session for the Television Critics Association tour in Los Angeles, he refused to entertain comparisons to BET. He did not knock the network, but simply maintained that there was room for more than one African-American-oriented network and even mentioned the Black Family Channel (formerly the Major Broadcasting Network) owned by super-attorney Willie Gary, boxer Evander Holyfield and former baseball player Cecil Fielder, among others.
But while three channels exist, the youngest of the bunch seems to be the only one getting it right. In just a year, TV One has introduced original programming such as the cooking show 'Turn Up the Heat With G. Garvin.' The network is also on board to launch the personal finance show 'Singletary Says,' with Washington Post personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary, who has appeared on 'Oprah' and BET. Both of these shows, as well as 'Divine Restoration,' where churches, not homes or people, get makeovers, and the black home show 'Living With Soul,' zone in on what we all know: We do more than listen to music or worry about the state of black America. We are people, too, and we watch HGTV (Home & Garden Television) as well as the latest videos, probably even more so overall. In other words, TV One is largely for grown folks: people who go out everyday to make a living, who like to build toward the future but also want to enjoy life.
Music is still in the mix. There is even 'Living It Up With Patti LaBelle,' but I have seen the two or three episodes a zillion times. So, don't get me wrong, TV One is not perfect. There is still some tweaking to do. But what makes the difference here? How is it that it has done so much in so little time? The bulk of the programming is still comprised of leftovers from the major networks, such as 'City of Angels' and 'Under One Roof.' It also shows old episodes of 'Boston Public,' the life-coaching show 'Starting Over,' 'Good Times,' '227,' 'In the House' and 'Martin.' One of my favorites, though, is 'It's Showtime at the Apollo.' You can really see why some artists are no longer with us and why others have gone on to become superstars. Of course, 'Amateur Night' can never be beat.
The difference here is actual television experience. TV One CEO Johnathan Rodgers was president of the Discovery Networks U.S., which includes the Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Discovery Kids and the Travel Channel, for six years. In addition, he was a longtime CBS executive. Also, Lee Gaither, who is executive vice president of Programming and Production, was once vice president of Programming and Development for NBC Entertainment. One has to believe that their extensive contacts have contributed to strategic partnerships such as 'TV One Access,' hosted by Shaun Robinson of 'Access Hollywood' fame. This show simply piggybacks on 'Access Hollywood' resources and focuses on people and events that are relevant to us.
Most important is probably the business model itself. TV One is a joint venture of Radio One, the nation's largest black-owned radio enterprise, and Comcast, the giant cable company. Alfred Liggins heads Radio One, which was started by his mother Cathy Hughes, who returns to her talk-radio roots with the show 'TV One on One' (she interviews high-profile personalities such as Barack Obama and Jamie Foxx). Liggins is a very smart businessman. Liggins, who is familiar with NUE-TV, no doubt studied that failed experience to build an even better product.
TV One has set itself up to cover history with 'American Legacy,' public affairs with 'America's Black Forum,' health and wellness with 'Donna Richardson: Mind, Body and Spirit' and music with 'The Tom Joyner Sky Show,' among other things. It's not perfect yet, but it's good to know that someone is striving to get there.
Jan. 25, 2005