Reality TV replaces fine arts

Television doesn’t matter much to Sharon Benge. The theater program director at Texas Woman’s University just doesn’t have the time.

But when she does turn on the tube, this supporter of the fine arts is dismayed.

“I’m astounded, with all these cable channels, that there isn’t anything to watch,” she says.

“If I have to sit down to watch TV, I need something soul-fulfilling, enriching and beautiful to watch. All these reality shows make people look stupid. … Donald Trump? Who is he to dominate my TV?”

While networks devoted to everything from cartoons to car culture have thrived, channels aimed at the fine-arts consumer have either collapsed (the seminal CBS Cable) or started serving up increasing amounts of reality TV (Bravo, A&E).

This month alone, Bravo launched two new reality shows: “Work Out,” which follows the sweaty antics at a Beverly Hills gym, and “Tabloid Wars,” which chronicles the cutthroat competitive world of the New York Daily News.

Meanwhile, A&E is promoting “Driving Force,” a peek into pro drag racing.

It’s a far cry from what promised, more than two decades ago, to be a golden age for arts programming. Bravo hit the air in 1980, and CBS Cable followed in the fall of 1981. A&E came along three years later.

But CBS Cable succumbed after only one year, and high programming costs, along with the pressure to appeal to a wider, younger audience, affected Bravo and A&E.

Bravo still carries the long-running “Inside the Actor’s Studio,” and A&E clings to its Sunday-morning “Breakfast With the Arts.” But like $2-a-gallon gas, they seem like vestiges from another era.

“You could argue that a lot of the (fine arts) performance doesn’t translate well to television,” says Frances Berwick, Bravo’s executive vice president of programming. “Our viewers spoke loudly that few people wanted to engage in that media on TV.

“I believe we are an arts and pop-culture network,” Berwick adds. “In ‘Project Runway,’ you see the creative process. Same with ‘Top Chef.’ “

Delia Fine, A&E’s vice president of drama productions, also cites shifting viewer tastes.

“You may dimly remember that back in the day when dinosaurs ruled the earth, opera singers and the classical arts were featured on a weekly basis on variety shows,” she says.

“They were every bit as interesting and exciting as pop stars. But times have changed and, boy, have times changed.

“I don’t know if it’s because we have a duller pantheon of classical stars … or if it’s because of what I call short-attention-span theater, where ‘Miami Vice’ and MTV started a new way of looking at things on television.”

Even PBS – with its long-running series such as “American Masters” and newer ones such as “How Art Made the World” – has come under fire for dumbing down its programming with the likes of “Texas Ranch House,” a recent reality-style series in which participants had to live as if on an 1867 homestead.

Just as cable TV initially expanded opportunities for the arts, the Internet and new types of television might do the same.

Susan Wittenberg, programming vice president for the Ovation cable arts network, has high hopes for IPTV (Internet Protocol TV), a fancy phrase for digital downloads and video-on-demand.

“I’m optimistic because there will be a chance for new niche ideas and channels,” she says.

“It costs so much more money to launch a (traditional) channel than to launch an IPTV channel, and that alone will give different things different chances.”