Last week BET announced the expansion of T.J. Holmes’ late night show “Don’t Sleep!,” from a half-hour to 1 hour saying the demand was great and programming is high.
But according to reports, the show ratings aren’t reinforcing the good idea.
The show’s failing ratings could be that the expansion was too much too fast. Perhaps the half-hour was good enough, and the team executed that amount of time well.
In a piece called “Who’s to Blame for Sleeping on ‘Don’t Sleep!’? Not the Viewers,” Rahiel Tesfamariam of the Washington Post suggests “bite-sized doses until they being to yearn for its taste on their own.”
She also writes, “The threat of too much of a good thing becoming a bad thing” particularly holds for BET’s efforts to push forth socially conscious material to an audience whose palate has largely been cultivated for junk. Basically, positive, thought-provoking content is like trying to get a druggie to go cold turkey. It doesn’t work. Rehab is a process, a slow one”.
The broadcasts hour 11pm could also be an issue.
