What the heck has happened to ...
Question: What the heck has happened to A&E?
Dog the Bounty Hunter is their top show and now there is a reality show called
God or the Girl? Please tell me A&E plans on offering us something better in the upcoming summer and winter.
Answer: I wish I could, but A&E seems to have gone almost completely to the dark side, with an obsessive devotion to reality-based series, and not even particularly good ones. Still, there is another season of first-rate British spy drama
MI-5 in the wings, and the network keeps telling me they'll air it, although there is still no airdate. One positive sign: With
The Sopranos joining the schedule in January, there are reports that the network is developing some quality-minded original dramas to complement it. (And a few of the original movies in A&E's pipeline sound promising as well.) But by and large, A&E is content with its downmarket shift in focus. It has brought the network a younger base demographic, and to advertisers, that's all that apparently counts.
