E Unit

Ha, I’m well aware. Doesn’t bother me in the least. And I’ve seen decently produced material, but my guess is that the percentage of that stuff is incredibly small in the YouTube world.

And using that video example that was posted, it’s just a pretty chick pointing a camera at herself and saying how great Hawaii is. Unless I’m her boyfriend, I doubt I’d watch more than a minute of that and scroll through most of it.

Traxan

I hope The Smithsonian Channel never loses its way. That channel is a gem.

Josh-da-man

In the 1990s, The History Channel was basically the The Hitler Channel.

In the 2000s, it was the "World is going to end in 2012 Channel."

And after that didn't happen, it became the "Aliens Built the Pyramids and Stonehenge Channel."

Traxan

I'm a little surprised History hasn't rerun "Life After People," considering all the stories of how animals reclaimed areas abandoned during the lockdown. That show proved rather accurate.

GoldenJCJ

I enjoy the Paranormal Caught on Camera show because it just gets to the point with paranormal videos. There’s actually some pretty compelling evidence caught on some of those videos.

As much as I enjoy paranormal shows, most of the other ghost shows on TRVL are pretty terrible. For people that are doing some fairly exciting stuff, they sure do produce some boring ass shows.



That was my first thought as well. I admit that I don’t utilize youtube like I should. But that video looked like a narcissist’s vacation videos. I would love to see quality travel videos again but I could do without a single person with a selfie stick documenting her entire trip by pointing the camera at themselves.

I loved watching Samantha Brown. The most recent show I saw her on wasn’t very good.

The Questyen

"Pretty compelling evidence". LOL 😆

DJariya

Samantha Brown has a show on PBS now called Places to Love. I still like her and the show is decent, but it does lack a little meat to it since it's only 30 minutes.

For the record, not every YouTuber can afford a professional camera crew. I follow Steph Tayler and have interacted with her on her live chats. She is far from some bimbo who's like look at me I'm in Hawaii it's so beautiful. She has a degree in broadcast journalism and does research on all the places she goes to. And she uses as much professional equipment as she can afford. Yes, she's beautiful, but she's not narcissist using her iPhone.

Mark Wiens is regarded is one of the best YouTube travel vloggers.

Here's his channel. He has 6M plus followers.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyE...at5kkC6svyjudA

You don't build that kind of audience by being some egomaniac narcissist with a selfie stick. It's just him, his wife and son who travel together. He takes time to prep all his shoots and make all the arrangements ahead of time. Yes he shoots his videos by himself or his wife shoots them for him. But, he uses a 4K camera with top microphones.

So don't write off these travel vloggers just because the medium they use is YouTube. Mark's content is also on Amazon Prime and is good enough IMO to be on TV.

E Unit

I searched Hulu travel shows since I watch Hulu the most. Some interesting finds is a show called Basic vs Baller. It’s two brothers, kind of hipster types who start off in some city then do a trivia question about the city. The winner gets a daily budget of like $4000 a day and the loser gets like $200. Then they spend accordingly. They focus on typical stuff like places to see, but focus a lot on food, which I really like. Episodes are fast, lasting about 25 minutes. They do some selfie cam, but thankfully keep it to a minimum.

Another is In the Shadow Of. It’s pretty cool and shows iconic landmarks and focuses on the people who live right there near them. Oddly, the first season (and only season) is 1 episode. Alas.

There’s also The Wine Show which takes place in Italy and focuses on people and vineyards in the wine industry. Haven’t seen this one yet.

And Samantha Brown’s Great Weekends is on there. 3 seasons with 16-18 episodes each.

tanman

Well said. And I think some of the sentiments expressed here are a good example of how women oftentimes have to work harder to prove themselves because of preconceived notions.

GoldenJCJ

I don’t know, man. Obviously some of the stuff on there can be explained away as natural but there are some videos that looks pretty legit to me.

GoldenJCJ

I’m not sure if this is directed in my direction or not but I resent the implication that gender has anything to do with it.

Rex Fenestrarum

For the record, one thing I like about YouTube is that you can get specific-as-hell information about places you're going or want to go. Going to New York City? There are a million videos about that. Staying in a hotel on Broome Street between Mott Street and Elizabeth Street? Here's a 20 minute video about which restaurants are good in that area. Want to find the best falafel in Manhattan? Here's a 20 minute video about that. Flying in to LGA and want step-by-step instructions for how to take the Q70 to the Roosevelt Ave. subway station and get to Manhattan for, like, $6? There's videos for that, too.

will travel

I like EXPEDITION UNKNOWN on both the Travel Channel and the Discovery Channel, guess they are owned by the same company.
Josh Gates is a fine host
He kind of remains me of Josh Bernstein from History Channel "Digging for the Truth".

Gunde

Anything remotely plausible would have been investigated to death by real scientists a long time ago. There are no ghosts. Anywhere.

Rival11

I really do wish all the ghost stuff was real, it would be so compelling but even the simpletons are starting not to fall for those shows anymore.

GoldenJCJ

I watch Expedition Unknown as well. It’s a run show to watch. My biggest issue with his show is they always end the show before anything significant is found. Like, he follows a team of researchers around, and right when they’re getting close he says, “Welp, good luck with your dig, fellas. Let’s pack it up!”

MLBFan24

Expedition Unknown is my quarantine show. Before March, I never saw a single episode. Now I binged a whole bunch the last few months.

The episode that got me hooked when I was channel surfing was “The Secret Solved” episode (s7.e13). And yes, they find something at the end of the episode, so it’s not a letdown.

Nick Danger

Doesn't anyone else see the irony of complaining that the Travel Channel no longer features programs about gluttony?

Channel drift has been going on for a long time. Mrs Danger remembers when TLC did programs about college math that explained it clearly.

Obi-Wanma

Yeah, I remember a number of years back when I asked my wife why all the shows on the Travel Channel were about food. She would watch those shows all the time. I never really paid close attention to the travel channel, but I'm certain that it wasn't like that in the beginning.

Jason

Reality TV has poisoned cable television. Original cable content is now nothing but phoney people getting into fake arguments while trying to make money doing something where both the danger and the reward is overblown. It's scary to think that Tiger King (I know, Netflix is not cable) is a "real" reality show and not a "This is Spinal Tap" style parody of the genre.

Jason

When I first got cable, the first thing I watched on The Learning Channel was a documentary on the technical side of the early days of cinema. I felt so lucky to have access to this sort of thing. Now sadly shows about people whose homes are stuffed floor to ceiling with garbage is the best thing on the channel.

I don't know what's sadder, that people will watch shows about hoarders, or that there are enough hoarders out there to support multiple television series about it.

Jason

I liked that show, even though every episode boiled down to "shit falls apart."

tanman

No not towards you. Sorry if it seemed that way. And honestly some of the comments are just being honest how some people feel, which is fine, I was just pointing out how women who are attractive might have to work a lot harder to overcome that perception of themselves and be taken seriously.

Not that I have any first hand knowledge of that.

GoldenJCJ

No worries, I appreciate it.

I have no doubt that women have a more difficult time being taken seriously, in general. I just know that for me personally it doesn’t play a factor when choosing what to watch on TV.

Actually, that may not be entirely true. If I’m honest, I probably gravitate more toward an attractive female doing a travelogue than a man. I would much prefer to watch Samantha Brown than, say Anthony Bourdain. Brown makes you want to travel along side her on her adventures. Bourdain always came off a kind of an arrogant dick, who I wouldn’t even want to meet, much less travel with.

But that being said, your point is received.

DJariya

Yeah I've interacted with Samantha Brown on Facebook a few times. She's actually a genuinely nice person and is really passionate about travel.

I don't know what Bourdain was like outside of TV, but he did have a lot of friends and was well respected in the travel community.