PBS Finds Its Niche With Drama, Documentaries, News As One-Time Cable Competitors Wallow In Reality

[Hekate]

7. Beth Hoppe sounds fantastic

She left PBS to join the new wave, taking a job at Discovery to produce science programming for its networks. She knew it was time for something else when an executive asked her to go to Los Angeles to "add sex and celebrities" to the "Curiosity" series she was working on. Hoppe talked to old friend Paula Kerger, the president and CEO of the Public Broadcasting Service, to see if there was room for her if she returned.

There was, and by last December, she was made responsible for PBS' programming department.

Hoppe cites Animal Planet's mermaids shows as examples of something PBS would never do. "Mermaids: The Body Found" played like a documentary but was an admitted fake and was a huge success, spawning a sequel.

PBS, meanwhile, is a Snookie-free zone.

http://www.cleveland.com/tv/index.ssf/2013/07/pbs_finds_its_niche_with_drama.html

I love PBS -- and it really has improved lately. Now if it could only get a bit of funding from the government, like it's supposed to, instead of receiving death threats to Big Bird....