*Last week BET announced the ironic shrinking and expansion of T.J. Holmes’ late night show “Don’t Sleep!,” claiming the demand for great, solid programming is high.
But the move may have been a bit premature or the time slot is completely off.
According to reports, the show is looming over the trashcan as ratings aren’t reinforcing the good idea.
For some reason, the network could blame the viewers for not showing up if the show gets canceled. But let us remember the hour in which this progressive current issues show broadcasts.
The show’s failing ratings could also be that the expansion was too much too fast. Perhaps the half-hour was good enough, and the team executed that amount of time well.
In a piece called “Who’s to Blame for Sleeping on ‘Don’t Sleep!’? Not the Viewers,” Rahiel Tesfamariam of the Washington Post suggests “bite-sized doses until they being to yearn for its taste on their own.”
She also writes, “The threat of too much of a good thing becoming a bad thing” particularly holds for BET’s efforts to push forth socially conscious material to an audience whose palate has largely been cultivated for junk.
Basically, positive, thought-provoking content is like trying to get a druggie to go cold turkey. It doesn’t work. Rehab is a process, a slow one.
Read/learn more at The Washington Post.
I beg to differ. I tried to watch this show and it was straight mess.
I think the topics are good but they way it was discussed was horrible. Can’t we have a show with a little class…sorry T.J. I don’t even watch BET anymore because of the mess on there…I was hoping this would be differnt.
I too tried to watch “Don’t Sleep”, but I couldn’t help it…I fell asleep. I saw the first show and it was really ghetto if your know what I mean. T.J. not to be a hater but there are a few observation I made trying to watch your show:
*Stage set is totally wrong, it looks like a local news show for a mid-size city. Doesn’t look polished. The desk T.J. sets at when there is a panel is too large.
*The time the show comes on….is late, a 10pm time slot would have been better. The show gets going with discussing a topic and the 30min show time is over right when the topic gets hot.
*Panning the audience doesn’t help, leave the camera….looks like a an adult version of “106 & ParK”
I was looking forward to BET presenting a news show with an Afro-centric perspective…but how can they do that when too many directors are in the mix. How about asking what’s left of the viewers for ideas.
first of all why does the good programs come on LATE night BET? And all the re-runs dating back now 20 years old still being ran during day time hours? Y’all got it backwards.
.. working people aren’t staying up to watch this program, so their best bet is to DVR or pre-record the program for ratings, the show itself is short lived on the air about 15 mins not counting the commercials which is another 15 mins.