The problem is us.
If we didn’t watch it, they wouldn’t air it.
If documentaries of Civil War hospitals and re-enactments of Roman encampments had viewers, that’s what they would air.
Mythbusters is still going strong, though. Dirty Jobs has a market. My boys watch How It’s Made. The John Adams miniseries was terrific, and it was done for profit. Ken Burns rocks, and he works for PBS.
I do wish that the History Channel actually had history, like they used to, but in post-literate America, ALIENS will outsell documentaries about the Continental Congresses, because most Americans don’t know what a Continental Congress was, who was there, or why they should care that Peyton Randolph died between the first and second.
This is sad, because I would prefer the real shows. When we ask for good, we will get good.