Categories: OLD Media Moves

The primetime reinvention of CNBC

Emily Yahr of The Washington Post writes about how CNBC‘s primetime shows have helped it expand beyond financial news.

Yahr writes, “About two years ago, CNBC quietly started expanding into the reality TV world — then came ‘Shark Tank,’ which brought a new, broader audience to the network. Ever since, the channel has been marching ahead with a primetime reinvention.

“Like so many other cable outlets these days, CNBC recognized that it could no longer just exist with one identity; it had to expand beyond just its ‘financial news’ mission to keep up. As a result, the channel churning out multiple reality shows, all with a theme that goes hand-in-hand with CNBC’s core mission: Money. Shows include ‘The Profit,’ ‘Car Chasers,’ ‘Restaurant Startup,’ and starting Wednesday night, ‘The Filthy Rich Guide,’ which features how .01 percenters spends crazy gobs of money. (Can you say ‘private island’?)

“It’s been a positive, if challenging transition for CNBC, which generally goes by the theory ‘our primetime is daytime’ — after all, that’s when people tune in to keep up with the markets. Network president Mark Hoffman admitted that for a long time, CNBC didn’t pay much attention to its programming past 7 p.m. It was sort of the land of misfit toys. Who can forget series with John McEnroe and Dennis Miller? (Pretty much everyone.) There were various game shows and reruns of ‘Late Night With Conan O’Brien.’

“None of them did well in the ratings, and executives decided they needed to completely reinvent the network’s landscape in primetime, especially as the competition increased. So they studied what other channels were doing and thought about what kind of reality shows would be the best fit, especially to bring in new viewers that weren’t used to CNBC having anything except financial info.”