'Sarah Palin's Alaska' may be TLC's strongest play for a middle-class audience

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Los Angeles Times television reporter Scott Collins writes that Discovery Communications' TLC network is making what may be its strongest appeal to date for the non-elite, middle-class audience, with "Sarah Palin's Alaska," its new series starring the former governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate:

The combative former Alaska governor is teaming with reality super-producer Mark Burnett to start production next month on a one-hour, eight-episode series in which Palin "will show, first-hand, what it means to be Alaskan," according to an internal summary developed by the channel's ad department. "Each one-hour episode will feature taking on a different job, a new adventure.

"She may be hauling nets with her husband, Todd, on his commercial salmon fishing boat on Bristol Bay, roughing it in a logging camp or spotting grizzly bears while camping on Kodiak Island," the summary continued. (Neither Palin nor Burnett was available to elaborate.)

Whether the show will connect with its target audience is anyone's guess; Palin is already a contributor and show host for Fox News, another network self-consciously aimed at non-elites. But it's the strongest proof yet that TLC, a unit of Discovery Communications, which also operates Discovery, Animal Planet and other networks, is determined to become the antidote to Bravo, a rival cable network that has perfected the fine art of chasing upscale viewers with wry, trendy, often-sensational fare.

"We tend to be less snarky, edgy," TLC president Eileen O'Neill said from the company's offices in Silver Spring, Md. "There's something for everyone here. We do shoot all around the country. Our topics and people tend to represent a lot of daily American lives — a little less of the edgy, cooler" material than is found on Bravo or elsewhere.

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O'Neill promised that the ex-governor has been intimately involved with the show's development, even though "there won't be her opinions in the show, politically or otherwise."

"There's nothing on TV, honestly, that we can say this is like," she added. "People have asked, 'Is it a nature documentary? Is it a travelogue? Is it a docusoap? Is it a reality show?' It's going to have pieces of a lot of things people are familiar with, but there's no one label."

A well-organized campaign by leftist political operatives and radical animal rights activists to pressure Discovery into dropping the series seems to have become an EPIC FAIL. Discovery understands that such anklebiters are not among its target audience, but likely watch Bravo instead. "Sarah Palin's Alaska" will debut on TLC on schedule. The more her enemies try to destroy Sarah Palin, the stronger she seems to become.

- JP