Women's Media Nation | Social, political, and cultural issues relating to women

What Happened to Oxygen?

posted by Women & Hollywood
Monday, January 11, 2010 at 12:35pm CST

Or I guess the better question is why did Oxygen never happen?

When Oxygen was born in 1998 I was psyched. The founders were stellar: Geraldine Laybourne, Marcy Carsey, Tom Werner, Caryn Mandabach as well as Oprah. What could be better?

Well I have to say that my hopes for the network never really came to fruition. I remember at times watching reruns of Kate & Allie and Roseanne but I never really got into the original programming. Most of it was low brow and trite (even for me) but then when it morphed into the “girls gone bad channel,” and I just completely lost interest.

I’ve always wondered why Oxygen never got off the ground. It makes Lifetime seem like the greatest network ever and we know Lifetime’s track record is very mixed.

So why? I know the network wanted to attract a younger demographic and distinguish itself from other cable stations, but how can something that had such promise become a network that is know for Girls Behaving Badly and the Bad Girls Club.

What is it about these shows that make them successful? Is it the whole raunch culture thing? NBC Universal bought the network in 2007 to add to its female brands, and the impetus for the story this morning was the announcement of this year’s development slate at the annual TCA convention.

The current successful shows are: Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood and Dance Your Ass Off.

Those in development include: Fashion Drop, Hair Battle Spectacular, House of Glam, Russell Simmons Project, When Charlie Met Sarah, Jerseylicious and Jersey Couture.

As a person who watches a lot of TV, I can guarantee that I won’t watch a single one of these shows.

I know that NBC is in trouble, but yikes. What’s going on?