The Fabricator
Channel 5+ shatters viewership records
WTVF-Channel 5’s promotions department was giddy last week with the release of the latest viewership numbers for Channel 5+, the cable channel the station fills with a parade of live phone-in shows hosted by various news personnel at the station.
Open Line, the cable channel’s 7 p.m. weeknight flagship program, had as many as seven viewers at once last month, which shattered last sweep period’s high watermark of five viewers.
“For those who say that our Plus channel is not a viable programming choice, these numbers should shut them up once and for all,” said Debbie Turner, Channel 5 station manager. “I’m confident that, sometime in the next two years, our number of viewers will reach double digits.”
The issue of how many viewers the cable channel can claim became a point of contention recently when the Dish Network, a provider of satellite programming, recently dropped Channel 5, and its CBS programming, from its Nashville customers rather than pay the station to carry its cable channel. WTVF was insisting that the two channels be carried by the satellite service as a package.
For a show that has to compete in a time slot shared with the likes of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and Friends, Open Line is painfully austere. Hosted by news anchor Chris Clark, the show features static camera shots, often rambling, pointless conversation, and a guest list that drags so low as to sometimes include Metro officials and Scene writers. The callers are the same people who often phone talk radio, which is enough said about that.
In one infamous incident late last year, an hour-long panel discussion on the best way to dispose of used holiday wrapping paper featured a panelist at the far end of the table having a stroke, slumping over, and dying as an oblivious Chris Clark soldiered on with questions about the possibility of recycling wrapping paper.
