That Network You Don’t Know About Switches to Reality Programming You Don’t Care About

MTV is in a bad spot. All those job cuts and ratings problems has caused the network to do the unthinkable: return to scripted programming. It’s a Hail Mary, but they’re pinning their programming future on it. (Well, less Juvies and Laguna Beach.)

So why is it that another struggling network is doing the exact opposite?

MyNetworkTV, that bastard child of UPN and The WB’s merger, had hedged its bets with the production of telenovelas. Which flopped. Hardcore. Like 800,000 viewers max levels of hardcore.

So now the News Corp. network is ditching the script … for reality TV.

“We’re not developing anything scripted at this time,” said MyNetwork President Greg Meidel. “We don’t have one scripted project, other than telenovelas that have already been produced.”

Instead, Mr. Meidel said the News Corp.-owned network, which has struggled to draw audiences with its telenovela content since launching last fall, is in discussions with top reality producers to acquire new shows.

Mr. Meidel was blunt about his reasons for dropping scripted content.

“The five major networks spend enormous amounts on development and I don’t think we can outdo what they do in [comedies] ‘Family Guy’ or ‘Two and a Half Men,’ or [dramas] ‘House’ or ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’” he said. “But I think there’s some great reality projects out there that are available.”

How ambitious. So why all the changes?

“I want people to know MyNet is out there, and there’s a huge percentage that do not know we exist,” he said.

And just for clarity’s sake, by “huge percentage” he means the 98.7 Nielsen share.