Late last night a Facebook friend alerted me to this show, “Bad Teachers.” Here’s a promo:



Titillating. To be completely honest, I laughed at the premise and shrugged it off. After all, Investigation Discovery is not exactly the bastion of highbrow programming. If you’re unfamiliar with the channel, here’s a list of some of their popular programs.
  • Southern Fried Homicide
  • Pretty Bad Girls
  • Poisoned Passion
  • Wives with Knives
  • Happily Never After
  • 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover
  • Secret Lives of Stepford Wives
  • Elder Skelter (my personal favorite title)
These shows are something of a joke. Even South Park recently did an episode about it called “Informative Murder Porn (click to watch the episode). Something started to niggle in the back of my mind. Many things that initially seem innocuous can actually be quite culturally pervasive and I really think “Bad Teachers” is one such show. I decided to dig a little deeper.
According to FastCompany, ID General Manager Henry Schleiff built the network to be an all-consuming, 24/7 guilty pleasure.
Additionally, Schleiff eschewed the prevailing idea that the way to build a network was with appointment viewing. Instead, he focused on making ID an all-day destination. “If someone tunes to CBS every week to watch CSI, they’re keeping a scheduled appointment. It occurs only once a week,” he says. “If that same person tunes into ID at any time, she’ll see an original show that likely appeals to her.”
What enables ID to fill its schedule with unique content is the inexpensive nature of its programming. ID shows capitalize on their viewers’ affinities for reality TV and crime dramas, and most contain a mix of low-cost reenactments; unpaid interviews with crime victims, their families, and incarcerated prisoners; and commentary from experts who aren’t as pricey as, say, David Caruso. The shows range from investigative and newsy with On the Case and the hate-crime-focused Injustice Files to the melodramatic, campy, and even cheesy with Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry? andDeadly Women.
Then I checked out the demographics from Time Warner advertising (comments in bold my own):
The Index is a measurement of a consumer’s likelihood to watch the cable network. An index of 100 is on par with the national average. Anything above 100 is above average and anything below 100 is 
Honest Practicum – ID spreading teacher hate to women, the lower class, and African-Americans: