Over the last 15 years, something strange happened to the Travel Channel. Once a destination for aspiring tourists looking to see where they could get the best artichokes in Italy is now a stop-shop for men screaming about heat signatures, magnetic pulses, and infrared sensors in an empty room where clearly nothing is happening. It’s just dark. In 2008,premiered on the Travel Channel and forever changed the course of vacation entertainment.
In 1987, the TWA airline launched the Travel Channel as a network “devoted exclusively to travel and leisure.” But in the late-90s and early-2000s, the channel shifted, adding some paranormal offerings to its lineup. “Now it’s kind of like a joke,” said Mark Wolters, a travel vlogger and teaching associate professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Gies College of Business, told the. “Oh, I remember the Travel Channel.
Just like channels like A&E, MTV, TLC, FOX News… their programming no longer fits their title or original intent for programming. They turn into tabloid trash TV
People stopped traveling during Covid.
Why does cable still exist?
My personal take is that for 'travel' content, or 'history' content, there's just a finite amount of content you can make. And over decades, everyone has seen everything you can make. Eventually, you lose viewers, and have to move into something new to retain viewers.
Because we are a mostly stupid species and they show shows that trend the best. It is a business.