The Hanover Collaboration

I’m getting the impression that the standard for educational TV show has really dropped since we were young. I regularly watch National Geographic specials, but they are dominated by “dramatic re-enactments” with really minimal and meaningless narration. I was thinking that the difference is that I’m pickier now—that Nova wasn’t that much better. On the other hand, I’ve always been suspicious that Nova couldn’t have done that kind of thing, even if it wanted to.

I’m in the middle of watching Scientific American Frontiers after watching Nova, and I can assure you, they are much better than anything else on the TV currently.

What I don’t understand is why isn’t (e.g.) the National Geographic Channel comparable? It isn’t like Nova is very expensive to produce. Is it that it is impossible to sell commercials during shows this?