[quote name=\'TLEberle\' post=\'244381\' date=\'Jul 17 2010, 05:44 PM\']Starter question: do you watch a television show because it happens to be on a particular network, or because you want to watch that show? I could give a rip about poker being on GSN, or Not Cartoons being on Cartoon Network, or Dane Cook on Comedy Central. If people want to watch, they will. If they don't, they won't.[/quote]
The network does matter to me, because I have higher confidence of the ability of certain networks to produce certain types of shows. Or, at times, I have confidence in certain divisions of those networks. There was a time when the early saturday evening (not Adult Swim) portion of Cartoon Network was a "do no wrong" place for me, because they made strong programming decisions and repeatedly promoted shows that could be appreciated by a more diverse audience. Certainly this is no longer the case. These days, any original one hour fictional program that premieres on USA is going to get plenty of rub just because it's USA, and their track record has been stupendous in the last five years.
OTOH, CN has never had a game show, and their idea of what makes entertaining live action, based on their Canadian acquisitions, makes me have great reservations. And USA promotion of a new reality show would not catch interest nearly as much as, say, a similar show on Bravo.