Yesterday the History networks sent out a press release confirming that America Unearthed has been renewed for a second season, to be filmed this spring, probably for a fall airing. However, more importantly, the press release provided us with our first hard numbers about who is watching America Unearthed and just how many: AMERICA UNEARTHED premiered in December 2012 and has averaged 824,000 total viewers and 408,000 Adults 25-54, making it the #1 series of all time on H2. And, the recent Friday, January 25 premiere of AMERICA UNEARTHED pulled in 1 million total viewers and 547,000 Adults 25-54, becoming the #1 telecast of all time on the network. I do wonder whether the roughly 50% of the audience who are not 25-54 are weighted more heavily toward senior citizens or, more disturbingly, teenagers and young adults. Given the age profile of the History networks’ viewers, I would hope for the former, but I can’t be sure. Another important take away from the numbers is what it tells us about the performance of Ancient Aliens on H2. In its last airings on the History parent network, Ancient Aliens averaged between 1.2 and 1.6 million viewers; if one million is the highest audience total ever for H2, this must mean that Ancient Aliens has well south of a million viewers now. If America Unearthed is the network’s highest rated show with 824,000 viewers, the Ancient Aliens audience must be even smaller than that. We can rejoice, I suppose, that this audience represents less than one-third of one percent of the American population. (America Unearthed’s average audience works out to 0.26% of the population, using today’s Census estimate.) I also want to highlight a disturbing bit of boilerplate from the H2 release. In describing America Unearthed, the company’s PR flack writes the following: AMERICA UNEARTHED proves there is a lot we don't know about our past, and that people have gone to great lengths to cover up these mysteries. It shocks and saddens me that a major media company would point-blank allege a conspiracy to suppress ancient “mysteries.” If these “mysteries” were being covered up, why is it that nearly all of the sites and artifacts Wolter visited are either in publicly-owned places open to the public, in private museums open to the public, extensively documented in academic and popular literature, or otherwise well-known and easily found? I was reading today an interesting article over on the A.V. Club website about “the scourge of deliberate mediocrity.” Speaking of Guy Fieri’s infamously bad Times Square restaurant, Scott Tobias writes: It’s about marketable concepts—creations that might seem like they come from diners, drive-ins, and dives—but without the authenticity and soul. And it’s remarkable how passively we accept that premise, that something so impersonal and calculated could be given a pass. Or worse, not warrant a review at all, because we shouldn’t expect better. Tobias asked why anyone would bother making a movie, a TV show, a restaurant, that represented anything less than a reach for greatness, knowing well that the answer is that profit comes before greatness, and the profitable always supersedes the good, and often the true.
That seems to be H2’s programming strategy in a nutshell: programs cynically created as exercises in pure marketing, designed for passive consumption, but just bland and/or stupid enough to escape the attention of those who might actively challenge their assertions. I’m fairly certain that for all the faults of America Unearthed Scott Wolter and his crew are making the best television show they know how to make, but I sincerely doubt anyone at Ancient Aliens feels that way. They never reach for greatness; they are content merely to exist as an exercise in marketing and profit-making. On a completely different topic, the question of the great versus the merely competent resonated with me in thinking about Fox’s new serial-killer drama The Following. I find the show to be competent but nothing more—an exercise in marketing dressed up as a drama, a soulless exploitation of violence without vision or value. And as someone who literally wrote the book on the horror genre, I also am confused by the weird liberties they have taken with the work of Edgar Allan Poe. The show is premised on the idea that the serial killer and his cult are cutting out the eyes of their victims in homage to “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat” because of Poe’s pronounced ocular imagery. Not only is eye imagery not one of the most frequent or most essential of Poe’s leitmotifs, in both stories the horror was located in a single eye, not two. Between the two tales, only one eye was cut out, and it wasn’t a human one.
12 Comments
Coridan Miller
1/30/2013 09:52:29 am
Yet there are incredibly good shows that do a phenomenal job and improve as time goes on. Once Upon a Time, The Walking Dead, Falling Skies, Psych are some examples of scripted shows. There is definitely a lack of quality documentary shows though now that History is all pawn stars and conspiracy theories and TLC is the circus sideshow channel.
Reply
1/30/2013 12:36:44 pm
There are many great scripted shows, and some very good documentary series. I was picking on "The Following" only because they're adulterating Poe for their show, and horror criticism is one of the areas I've written on extensively.
Reply
Jon B
2/1/2013 09:15:26 am
I think the major difference between America Unearthed and Ancient Aliens is the inherent plausibility of the premise.
Reply
2/1/2013 09:40:29 am
Absolutely. So-called "alternative history" (diffusionism) is much more plausible than ancient astronauts, and thus that much harder to debunk because is seems to make sense on the surface, until you drill down. I also agree that there is a nationalist factor to focusing on America, while Ancient Aliens talks about those parts of the world most Americans don't care about.
Reply
Christopher Randolph
2/1/2013 03:36:17 pm
"I’m fairly certain that for all the faults of America Unearthed Scott Wolter and his crew are making the best television show they know how to make"
Reply
Rose McDonald
1/29/2016 02:09:42 pm
The key term is "Making the best television they know how to make." Not saying much, is it?
Reply
Laura
2/2/2013 12:55:48 pm
I have read several comments and you forget one item in cutting down shows today. This show America: Unearth makes some people think, stop having a narrow mind, like you claim Wolter had in the Roanoke episode with the guy on Hatteras. When my family watches this show, or shows like this, there is an immediate research and discussion the next day. Some people do look up what they see. Ancient Aliens, which I will say I watch to see crazy Giorgio's hair. If you want someone to learn history look at the alternate history talkers, they may have their own twist of the history but they do know the same facts you do. My family and friends look up everything we see and discuss it. So, do not be narrow minded enough to say no one looks up or forms their own analysis of the facts. I read your skepticism but love your honesty, you do not care about the outcome as it will just be a footnote in history. However, I am of the mind anything that will make the younger generation and the older generation think I am all for. My family went from using the internet as a giant game console to actually wanting to research wanting to read about stuff. So, next time you cut down anything, think about the other aspect, somewhere some good comes out of it, and if some good comes out of it maybe we will at least have some potential thinkers in the future and they might develop an imagination and we would not have to revert back to Jules Verne for some good ol' science fiction.
Reply
2/2/2013 01:01:44 pm
You'll find if you search my blog archive that I've made that same point before, crediting ancient astronaut books for sparking my own interest in the past. But wouldn't it be better if all that effort went into producing programs that were interesting but also true? While some like you and me will look up the facts and learn the truth, what percentage of people will simply accept what the TV says without challenge? Do you really want hundreds of thousands, or perhaps a million people deceived when TV could do so much better?
Reply
Christopher Randolph
2/2/2013 02:27:31 pm
What a rabidly anti-intellectual response!
Reply
Don
3/19/2013 12:11:21 am
Gestapo Historians in the world have totally removed the Truth about historical events. History is written by the winners! America Unearthed is the BEST Show on TV in the 2012~2013 season, without a doubt; its forces you to THINK! Thinking is something Wall Street doesn’t want the USA to do! I don’t see your criticism as being helpful and serves the hidden agenda of the establishment.
Reply
Amy
4/17/2013 04:04:26 pm
I absolutely love Laura's reply.
Reply
Victor
11/28/2013 02:54:36 pm
Perhaps the most upsetting part of America Unearthed for me is the underlying racism in it. "This had to be done by white people!" Does nobody else notice this? It's a VERY racist show!
Reply
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI am an author and researcher focusing on pop culture, science, and history. Bylines: New Republic, Esquire, Slate, etc. There's more about me in the About Jason tab. Newsletters
Enter your email below to subscribe to my newsletter for updates on my latest projects, blog posts, and activities, and subscribe to Culture & Curiosities, my Substack newsletter.
Categories
All
Terms & ConditionsPlease read all applicable terms and conditions before posting a comment on this blog. Posting a comment constitutes your agreement to abide by the terms and conditions linked herein.
Archives
February 2025
|