Discovery Channel

Discovery, History and other (similar owned) channels have recently forsaken their namesakes in Science and history for Pseudo science and cheesy reality programing in a misguided effort to raise ratings. Yet this discouraging shift will only end up alienating the viewers who were the impetus for their creation in the first place. The type of people that made them what they are were people, fed up with the juvenile programing ubiquitous on the "major networks". We wanted educational television and programing which inspired learning, explored science and nature and brought new and exciting discoveries to the viewers. I was once proud to say I only watched Discovery and the History channel. Now I would rather watch nothing then endure mind numbing reality shows and biased pseudo-scientific shows on the paranormal or UFO's. How low can a channel's programming sink before viewers call it quits? I for one urge everyone who is as sad and mad as me in seeing great TV go bad, to contact the... Read more

Good HD stuff, but they've kinda sat on their laurels for last few years, plus I just can't get excited about Shark Week.

A decent channel, I like Walking With Dinosaurs, Monster House, and Mythbusters, the best.

Discovery Channel used to be better, but they still have some interesting productions. In past years, their productions focused more on nature, wild life and future world/population development and they had that important 'LEARN something' feature to them. In recent years though, the focus switched to more "reality TV", that is they stress more on individual extraordinary human experiences, amusing, more entertaining hosts and productions. Because of this, it is less interesting than before and it got a bit boring/tiring lately, the shows aren't that exciting or interesting as they used to be.

I agree with JFI's review. Discovery used to be a lot better. The programming is stale and repetitive now. They have gotten away from documentaries and have been reduced to pretty much Mythbusters, Cash Cab, Dirty Jobs, and a whole lot of blue collar 'reality' shows like American Loggers and Deadliest Catch. "A Haunting" was an entertaining show that stopped production at the height of it's popularity, one of the many bad decisions this network has made in the past few years. If they were smart they would get away from so many cheap reality shows and go back to more documentaries and true nature (non-exploitive of nature) shows.

Most programming are crappy, but few programming like Mythbusters, How It's Made and Deadliest Catch are the best!

It was once a channel for scientific explanantions, but unfortunately it is now a reality TV channel.

One of the few channels I still watch has fallen to the usual sensationalistic BS. I thoroughly disagree that there is anything informative or educational on any of discovery's programming, unless nothing but death re-inactments and property damage statistics count as educational. And I love that everyday in the middle of the afternoon (and shouldn't a parent be able to think that a SCIENCE channel would be good television for their children?) you can turn to discovery animal planet and see (always young and attractive AND showing cleavage... hope most of you have daughters, since you're trying to create a society where people like to hear about them dying violently. Would it bother you if that happened?) actresses covered in fake blood getting mauled to death by bears. Good strategy for teaching people to coexist with nature and try to appreciate it. Or maybe I'm supposed to care about my OWN species as little as these people do. Well that's not the case, so I think I'll get me ... Read more

The overall quality of programming has definitely dropped off, but I'll still give it three stars for Mythbusters and the occasional interesting special.

I prefer Discovery health to the original. However still interesting.

nothing to watch

When I do watch TV, it's either to watch the Discovery Channel or the History Channel. That's about it.

I have no problem w/ the shows, it's the commercials. It's must be very cheap to buy time w/ them. Ripoff #1) Shamwow, people that have bought them say they got junk, doesn't work like it says. Ripoff #2) Magicjack, again, don't get it, you'll be sorry you do. Ripoff #3) Video professor; The worst of all. This guy is a ripoff artist. You get one CD and they keep on coming. Once you give them a CC#, you're screwed. And you WILL get charged for the free one too. Think it's around $200. That's just a few of them, it goes on and on.

While this has a 1 star rating it doesn't deserve it. It was the lowest allowable rating. As a manufacturer of educational toys they are terrible. We received a toy for our son called the Will C. More. I would not recommend this toy or any other from this manufacturer. The quality was horrible. It is designed for a child from 0-36 months but the toy will not stand on its own ,is very bulky and hard to handle and does not do what it says. From the minute it was taken out of the box the touch screen didn't work and it did not advance through the pictures. By the 3rd use it wouldn't even turn on. My son is only 4 months old not exactly able to handle it roughly. Not only is the toy of shoddy quality, the manufacturer will not stand by their product. Since this was received as a gift there is no receipt and can not be returned to a store. I was given the run around by the customer service department and told unless I can show it was bought directly from them they would... Read more

i love mythbusters.

dont rly watch the discovery channel

Excellent programming -- intelligent, informative, entertaining.

Love it!!!! Dirty jobs, Deadliest Catch!

Intersting!

there are some good educational shows.

Discovery Channel has really gone downhill with its diversity. The only show I see is Deadliest Catch. Let's get a new line-up Discovery and give me a show I can learn from....other than that I don't want to go crab fishing with un-friendly sailors.

It is incredible how Discovery Channel has decline is quality of shows in the recent year. It was my favorite channel something like 7 years ago. But now it is totally useless. What in the heck happened to the producers and directors of that channel? They should be sack...Shame on you that have changed a great educational channel in suck a rubbish thing. Who really cares about lobster catch, American shopper or Monster garage? Seriously, very very bad shows. I miss the old discovery channel!

i love the survival show especially. great tv

I love this channel 5/5

I enjoy most of the programming on the discovery channel. it's always worth flipping by just to see what's on.

Discovery channel is one of the few stations I watch regularly. I enjoy the learning aspects of many of their programs and they continue to add information programming to their line up. IMO, it beats the heck out of any Idol tv show ;)

A+

Man vs. Wild, Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs and all those fun cgi dinosaur shows. Also i hear good things about planet earth and once i woke up in the morning and saw this show that had no voices or actors but were just still clips of nature in iceland or something, beautiful to wake up to.

It's starting to draw more and more of my tv viewing time. Mythbusters is slowly becoming my favorite show and Dirty Jobs is fun to watch. Future Weapons is great, as well as Man vs Wild, and even Cash Cab is growing on me.

I love "Man vs. Wild"...

Man vs Wild... What Bear depicts is wonderful storytelling with animation. It doesn't matter if it's all factual - it still brings the spirit of the basics in survival techniques to watchers, who, if like me - are all too weary of the daily news reports on war and rape and purposeless accountings of the Hollywood stars. Give US a break and let us enjoy the far away dream and vision of survival in the wild...complete with some of the most beautiful scenery in the world! For those who are over obsessing over the technicalities...use your remote. Let the rest of us enjoy the great spirit of this show.

It's declining. How many cop shows arresting drunks can you have?

One of my favorites. Usually there is something worth watching on Discovery.

Mythbusters and Future Weapons is cool, that's about it though

channel has gone totally downhill over the last few years.

I agree that the main Discovery Channel tends to concentrate on the same type of program. What I don't understand is that people who have a problem with that don't look further down the channel listings and click onto one of the other Discovery channels. There's the Discovery Kids Channel, Discovery Health, Discovery Times (a collaboration with the NY Times), Discovery Home, The Science Channel, and The Military Channel. Those are all a part of The Discovery Channel family and they broadcast a wealth of programming.

NO WAY. When it became all "American Chopper" all the time, it went down. Also, the quality of shows has declined drastically. As another poster said, this channel has become inspired by Mad Max movies or something recently...lots of metal everywhere...what the hell? I always look at the TV guide and cringe. This channel and TLC have TANKED recently, why won't they learn! Thank god for Spike, FX and the History Channel, I don't know what I'd do without them...

although im not a fan of all the reality shows, overall the channel is still one of the greatest staions to brodcast

It was a 5 until it got overloaded with the MANLY reality shows. Now I don't watch that often. There is a whole other sex you know. I guess we don't count. Splaaaaaaaaht to you!!!!!!!!!!!!

Discovery was once my favourite channel when the programming was dominated by documentaries and educational shows. I hardly ever watch it now. Whenever I flick to it they're showing reality tv rubbish eg, Monster Garage, American Chopper, Junkyard Challenge, Mythbusters, Urban Myths or some forensic/detective show. The list goes on. Its all absolute crap. Who enjoys this rubbish? They should re-name it the reality channel.

I used to really like this channel and I still do, but now it is almost as if they are running out of ideas to try to make it interesting. Instead of putting science type shows on and nature shows, now they just put reality TV shows. It used to be a lot more science based. But it is still good and it isn't all reality TV shows. I like the science shows, power zone, extreme engineering.

A surprisingly wide range of interests are satisfied here.

Proof-positive that any good thing doesn't last. For a few years, Discovery was the best thing on TV, but then it was over-run by profit-grabbing execs who didn't give a damn about anything but grabbing more ratings, and they didn't care where those ratings came from.

I love this channel it has showes for my kids in the mornning and me in the afternoon and my husband at night so it is a fav at our house

Too bad this channel has sacrificed all to the altar of reality TV. I used to love their shows. How many times can we see a bunch of mechanics trick bikes and cars out while acting like spoiled children?

I dont watch Discovery frequently, so I may be off. However, they have had some good specials on geological things (volcanoes, earthquakes, tidal waves,etc) that I found interesting. I assume if I watched more often I would see more quality programming.

if theres sumthin good on, il wach it, but who cares?

This channel is terribly overated. Not much informative, I get tired of this cop reality type of crap they have on.