Come on, History Channel. Larry the Cable Guy?! "We are thrilled to welcome him to History in what promises to be a genre-busting series that takes a look at history like you’ve never seen it before," is what President of the network Nancy Dubuc said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. What she meant to say was: "Larry the Cable Guy is real popular with people who don't watch our network."
I'm not a big fan of stereotyping certain types of people, but considering that Larry the Cable Guy has made a career out of doing just that -- hell, he is a made-up stereotype himself -- I'll be allowed to for this. The History Channel has a tradition of showing historical documentaries about Hitler (other things too, but mostly Hitler if we're being honest), and those appeal to a certain demographic of people. We'll call them educated people interested in learning more about their world and how it came to be.
Larry the Cable Guy appeals to an entirely different group of people. People who like to go mudding, drinking and shouting "Git 'R Done!" at their TVs when "thet funny feller" is on there again. I'll bet most of them don't even know there is such a thing as a History Channel, since they done slept through that class at school already. Yes, I know I'm stereotyping. I said I was going to. It's not like they're going to get mad at me ... they don't understand computers and the Internets yet, so there's no way in hell they're reading this.
Okay, taking it down several notches, there really are two entirely different audiences, and it makes sense for History to try and bridge that gap a little bit to put new eyeballs in front of their shows. They've already done it to a degree with Pawn Stars and Madhouse, so what's one more. The problem will come when they take it all the way like VH1 and MTV have done, and the network is nothing but these reality shows with nary a hint of history to be seen.
For now, the tentatively titled Only in America with Larry the Cable Guy will have Larry traversing the country to experience different jobs and lifestyles that celebrate the spirit of America -- whatever the hell that means. I'm not sure what that has to do with history, but maybe on his journeys, he'll learn a bit about the history of whatever job he's undertaking, or region he's visting. And whatever task put before him, at least we know he'll Git 'R Done.
