Board Thread:Pitches/@comment-4146635-20160801092757/@comment-25375217-20160801195420

Yay I have to be that guy again. I've been so agreeable up to this point gosh Matt

I really just disagree. I mean, first of all I don't think this really makes us too much like Disney Channel, because it's not a Disney Channel thing. Disney Channel, and channels like Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, appeals to pre-teens and (to a certain extent) early teenagers. Channels like Freeform appeal to late teens and twenties. Channels like Ion or USA appeal to 30s-50s. Etc.

Wiki Channel's thing has always been a delicate balance - we aren't writing things that would appeal to a certain group. We're writing things that a family - parents of 30-50, younger kids of 9-12, early teenages of 13-15, late teens 16-18, and college aged 20-25 can all watch together. That's not something that any real channel does - yes, you can watch Freeform with your nine year-old, but there are going to be parts of the show where they are bored or see something they shouldn't. Adults can watch Disney Channel with their twelve year-olds, but there will be shows that they get bored out of their minds about.

Wiki Channel, IMO, has been writing shows that appeal to everyone. There's the occasional exception where it only really targets one group, like Edgewater Falls would be mainly the 19-25 age range. If we start taking these occasional exceptions and turn it into our target - even if it coexists with the previously established age group - we lose that unique quality. We want to run this as close to a real channel as possible, right? Then we should be appealing to the audience that doesn't have a channel for themselves. Additionally, if a channel that had been run focusing on appealing to all age groups - not inappropriate for children, not boring for adults - suddenly started pumping out shows that were inappropriate for children (sorry, but I don't see why anyone would let their six year-olds watch anything on Freeform), it would lose a lot most of its parent viewers and their children, to gain more college students, and the older family-based shows would drop in popularity.

Realism aside, though, I don't see why this is necessary. After Dark Network is not officially related to Wiki Channel, and it's largely dead, but it does exist for Freeform or USA/Ion-type shows. It functions largely identical to Wiki Channel, so I don't see a problem with using it if you want to pitch something more mature.

My post is also assuming that you're using the same definition of "mature show" as I am, but that seems to match your comparisons. I do not think Wiki Channel should have shows with sex or inappropriate language (I kind of have a problem with the wiki users using inappopriate language but that's an entirely separate deal that I might bring up later; there are reasons besides my personal preference though) or too much gore. Other heavy topics such as character death, drinking, or drugs I think can be used but not liberally - throwing in a scene where everyone does drugs just for the sake of it is too much, but showing the struggle of an addicted person and how it negatively affects their life and their journey to overcoming it might work, as long as it's a unique plot and not something that happens 24/7 on every show, and character death would be fine in a context such as Mrs. Svorski (old age), disease, or tying into the previous points on addiction, maybe in something e.g. school shooting but not often. Racism, sexism, etc. would all be fine in my definition of family-friendly.

These are just my thoughts and I doubt that anyone will agree, but... I don't like the idea of doing Freeform shows on Wiki Channel. We are a family channel, and we should stay that way.