A Series of Wonderful Events

So I am at my dad’s house right now and I am watching him watch a show called Ice Road Truckers. The show is pedantic and a blatant rip off of Toughest Catch. These two shows (and all of its subsidiaries such as Lumber Truckers) serve as a great economic models.

What! You cry, “Not economic models!” Stay with me readers. These two shows will make a great example to compare economic models because they represent the same viewing market.  Think about it. Both shows represent people in unique situations doing overly dangerous things. Both shows edit in music to create greater anxiety. Both shows focus mainly on the anxiety of five or six ‘stars’ to generate the drama for the show.

So with that in mind, why do you think Deadliest Catch is the more successful show? Is it because Deadliest Catch was the first show of its kind on the network it is on? Is it because Ice Road Truckers has less characters to focus on?

Both of those things contribute to the reason Deadliest Catch is more successful but it is not THE REASON. The Reason that Deadliest Catch is a more successful show is twofold. First, the danger in Deadliest Catch is un-mistakable. Watching DC you understand that the situations they are in are dangerous.

Ice Road Truckers does not have that level of authenticity.

Second, and to me the most important, is that DC set the standard and in doing so set it incredibly high. DC doesn’t try to appeal to a focus of viewers. They do not have groups sitting around figuring out how to appeal more to overweight woman, young Asian kids, etc. They have nothing but the authenticity of their standards.

Authenticity is a powerful economic model and the most authentic product often wins. Too be clear think of ‘authentic’ as something that defines the standard, represents quality and clearly conveys what it is about.

Think about it

JG