Race & Ratings: VH1's Latest Launches Show What's Working — and What's Not

[satam55]

"
Race and Ratings: VH1's Latest Launches Show What's Working — and What's Not

5:00 AM PST 08/08/2014 by Michael O'Connell

'Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta'

"LeAnn & Eddie" is a dud with viewers, but reality series starring African-American casts continue to drive the cable network to some of the year's biggest primetime gains.

A version of story first appeared in the Aug. 15 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

It is not a bad time to be VH1. Thanks to reality franchises Love & Hip Hop and Basketball Wives, the Viacom network is up 20 percent in primetime among adults 18-49 in 2014 — the biggest rise among the top 25 basic cable nets.

But three lackluster launches in July (LeAnn & Eddie, Candidly Nicole and Dating Naked) illustrate that VH1 faces an uphill battle to extend the success of shows starring African-Americans (and with primarily black viewers) to those starring white celebrities.

"The goal is to bring a general market audience back into the fold in addition to servicing our African-American audience," originals exec vp Susan Levison said earlier in 2014. That includes plans to broaden the network, continuing to focus on pop culture, music and nostalgia.

Of the latest crop, Dating Naked has been the only show to find a reasonable audience, averaging 758,000 viewers over the first few episodes. And, in fairness, most reality series don't rocket out of the gate. Love & Hip Hop dipped as low as 680,000 viewers during its first season.

Still, the dismal debut of LeAnn Rimes' docuseries (see below) does not bode particularly well for the similar September entry I Heart Nick Carter.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/race-ratings-vh1s-latest-launches-723427
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[Smoke]

Black people eat up the exploitation of other black people...it has been this way for awhile now.

 

[MewTwo]

People unfortunately like ratchet television. Pretty obvious.

 

[aXiom]

Like there is so much diversity in that line up... Ratchet across the board... There are no levels to shyt... All waste gets flushed

 

[TheGoldCoast]

never seen an episode

 

[MewTwo]

The showrunner to the Love & Hip Hop franchise is a Haitian lady.

The guy who operates worldstarhiphop is a Haitian guy.

See the connection?

 

[I'm Billy FUCO!!]

Who the fukk cares about Leann Rimes in 2014

White people don't even care about her now

The problem with these white celebs, is they either don't look attractive enough or aren't exciting/ratchet enough for people to care about them in a reality show setting.....celebrities don't usually engage in fukkery in front of a reality show lens

That's where shows like Love & Hip Hop gets it right......before the show began, you could've said "who the fukk cares about Stevie J in 2010" (or whenever it was the show debuted).....but dude has the personality to MAKE people start caring about him in that new light. Same with newer people like Joseline, Mimi, Scrappy, and I'll even add Kirk because that nikka like to act a fool on there . Meanwhile, they had to give Traci Steele and Drew the boot because their shyt had you like

The last time I can remember cacs get fukkery right in a reality show was Jersey Shore....and surprise, surprise, that show became HUGELY popular.....

 

[Rekkapryde]

c00nin and reinforcing stereotypes pays!!!!!

 

[CrimsonTider]

VH1>

 

[andre patton]

nikkas love watching tv



unfortunately, nikkas are also allergic to watching quality programming