DECADES TV Network Rebranding to CATCHY-Comedy TV March 27, 2023. (1 Viewer)

[Bob Gu]

DECADES is rebranding to CATCHY-Comedy on Monday March 27, 2023.

The Binge, over Saturdays and Sundays, will still be in place. I hope the Binge will still include non-comedies. But if it's going to be comedy only, the opportunity to binge record drama, adventure, and detective shows is over.

The CATCHY schedule.

 

[Wiseguy]

DECADES is rebranding to CATCHY-Comedy on Monday March 27, 2023.

The Binge, over Saturdays and Sundays, will still be in place. I hope the Binge will still include non-comedies. But if it's going to be comedy only, the opportunity to binge record drama, adventure, and detective shows is over.

The CATCHY schedule.
View attachment 179222

Although Ed Sullivan featured comics I wouldn't call it a comedy.

 

[Dave Lawrence]

Just saw a promo for the change this afternoon while watching an episode of this weekend’s binge of 77 Sunset Strip.

Can’t say I’m looking forward to this change. Most of the comedies listed are either already on the schedule or can be found on other channels. (Plus I own some of them on disc.)

I mostly just watch on weekends when the binge show is one I’m interested in. Although during the week if I wake up during the night, it’s been fun to catch occasional episodes of Our Miss Brooks, Dark Shadows or The Millionaire. At least OMB is sticking around, and I already own DS - of which Decades only showed Year 2 anyway.

But I will definitely miss them including non-comedies as part of the binge. (I’m assuming any binge on “Catchy Comedy” will only be a comedy going forward.)

 

[Rodney]

Well that's a bummer. I am going to miss The Dick Cavett Show, Through the Decades, and other non-comedy shows they presented. I don't see how this will get them more viewership.

 

[bmasters9]

Well that's a bummer. I am going to miss The Dick Cavett Show, Through the Decades, and other non-comedy shows they presented. I don't see how this will get them more viewership.

If anything, it'll probably lose viewers, because some of them are connoisseurs of practically everything television had to offer then, and if it's now going to be just one kind of show, they'll probably leave in a hurry.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I don't see how this will get them more viewership.

I wonder about that too. My armchair expert guess is that they have their viewership numbers and must have observed that the non-comedy reruns are getting less viewership than the comedies they are keeping, and/or that the licensing fees for the programming they’re dropping are a mismatch for the ad sales revenue they bring in. There’s probably an angle by which this decision makes financial sense for them, but it’s still a harsh awakening to see more vintage programming coming off the schedule.

 

[bmasters9]

My armchair expert guess is that they have their viewership numbers and must have observed that the non-comedy reruns are getting less viewership than the comedies they are keeping

Why would comedy have more viewers than other kinds of shows, according to those numbers?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Why would comedy have more viewers than other kinds of shows, according to those numbers?

If I could understand and explain human behavior I’d be rich

It just seems to be the way it is - I Love Lucy, for instance, is infinitely more popular today than any comparable half hour drama that originally aired at the same time.

 

[bmasters9]

If I could understand and explain human behavior I’d be rich

It just seems to be the way it is - I Love Lucy, for instance, is infinitely more popular today than any comparable half hour drama that originally aired at the same time.

It probably had that special something that brought the numbers then on CBS, and still does it in syndication and on DVD and all the classic channels/networks.

 

[sjbradford]

Comedy has always repeated better than drama. Back in the heyday of strip syndication, getting to 100 episodes of a popular comedy was considered a goldmine. Historically, the most successful off-network shows in syndication have been 30 min sitcoms.

 

[Robert Saccone]

Happy they will till have The Odd Couple, Bob Newhart and Taxi. Sorry to see Get Smart and especially the Dick Cavett show go. It was great seeing all the various guests he had through the years. I was able to see Groucho's appearances after reading about them in a coupe of books. Going to miss things like that.

 

[Nelson Au]

I saw the promos this weekend. I was wondering what the heck was going on. I can;t saw I’m a fan of this.

i did a little 2 second search and see it’s about ratings where before the Decades channel was a non rated channel. So it appears to be about higher end advertising and presumably more revenue.

This is a disappointment. DecadesTV had gotten me to add quite a few shows to my collection as DVD and blu ray sets that I’d very familiar with and some I had not seen before. Perhaps this mean no more Twilight Zone marathons too.

Weigel Broadcasting‘s Decades Network Will Flip to Sitcom-Centric ‘Catchy Comedy’ in March, Led by Original ‘Night Court’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Weigel Broadcasting Co. is flipping its digital broadcast network Decades into the sitcom-centric Catchy Comedy on March 27, Variety has learned exclusively. The over-the-air network will focus on …

variety.com

 

[ScottRE]

I think it's very simple: people like to laugh. Comedies from earlier eras are easier to share with younger generations than a serious detective drama or war show. Laughter is timeless. Dramas, just by their very nature, date much more quickly. So a change to an all classic comedy format can be a Nostalgia Station and still appeal to more audiences.

Pop my grandson in front of the Brady's or Gilligan and he'll be entertained. Give him Naked City or Route 66 and he'll be playing Roblox before the titles. I probably couldn't even get him to sit still for The Green Hornet (I refuse to try out of fear of heartbreak - my own).

That doesn't mean I even slightly approve of this change. Decades was a great channel. I mourn its passing.

 

[bmasters9]

That doesn't mean I even slightly approve of this change. Decades was a great channel. I mourn its passing.

Me either, and concurred-- there aren't just comedy fans when it comes to classic television fans (many love the great classic cop shows and detective series and medical dramas, as well as comedies).

 

[Claude North]

I read online (I think it was on Variety's website) that they plan to use the weekend binges to highlight lesser-known and short-lived sitcoms in addition to classic shows. I would love a "Dick and Paula Saturday" featuring HE & SHE and QUARK, and I can think of quite a few other shows that it would be fun to see. Still, I will miss the Decades brand name, Dick Cavett, and binges of 1970s and 1980s cop shows.

 

[rmw650]

Just saw a few TV shows going to be disappearing from the schedule when they make the switchover to the new brand next week, such as A&C TV Show, Car 54, Dick Cavett and a few others but they're continuing on with their binges for the weekends and adding a few new series to the fold. DECADES was fine just as it was, so why the change? I have no idea but they could have come up with a much better namw than Catchy though..

 

[Sky King]

Hi all,

I don’t know about the rest of you,
but Decades new name Catchy-Comedy, is a pathetic title for a cable channel.
The big wigs at the corporate round table actually approved this title ??
What were they thinking ??

John

 

[bmasters9]

Hi all,

I don’t know about the rest of you,
but Decades new name Catchy-Comedy, is a pathetic title for a cable channel.
The big wigs at the corporate round table actually approved this title ??
What were they thinking ??

John

They probably weren't thinking-- personally, if they had just named it Catchy, w/the same blend of classic formats as Decades had, I wouldn't have minded the name change. Catchy-Comedy, I will agree, is a bridge too far.

 

[Wiseguy]

Just saw a promo for the change this afternoon while watching an episode of this weekend’s binge of 77 Sunset Strip.

Can’t say I’m looking forward to this change. Most of the comedies listed are either already on the schedule or can be found on other channels. (Plus I own some of them on disc.)

I mostly just watch on weekends when the binge show is one I’m interested in. Although during the week if I wake up during the night, it’s been fun to catch occasional episodes of Our Miss Brooks, Dark Shadows or The Millionaire. At least OMB is sticking around, and I already own DS - of which Decades only showed Year 2 anyway.

But I will definitely miss them including non-comedies as part of the binge. (I’m assuming any binge on “Catchy Comedy” will only be a comedy going forward.)

Well, it's about time they "bury" Dark Shadows for good if they continued to show the same year over and over (shown twice a year due to airing two episodes a day). I understand that the middle three years are available on commercial stations (the first and last years are only available to cable stations due to lower residual payments to actors since those episodes have never been rerun on commercial stations and the distributor (Worldvision or CBS depending on the logo of different episodes) isn't interested in paying more).

 

[bmasters9]

Well, it's about time they "bury" Dark Shadows for good if they continued to show the same year over and over (shown twice a year due to airing two episodes a day).

Not much entertainment value in one year's worth repeated like that, is there?