Execs tuned to brand identification

Bravo is the network that has been slouching toward the nouveau-gay intelligentsia -- a trend begat by the success of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” and which has since branched out to encompass catwalk cattiness (“Project Runway”), narcissism in the salon (“Blow Out”), the breast-enhanced exurbs (“The Real Housewives of Orange County”), and now heads to the gym (“Work Out”) and the Malibu real estate office (“Million Dollar Listing”).

Asked by a reporter this week in Pasadena when, exactly, the network formally abandoned its roots as a cable arts channel in favor of reality fare like “Work Out,” Frances Berwick, executive vice president of programming and production, replied: “Well, I would completely refute that. I think they’re absolutely about the arts and culture and pop culture. You look at this country and 50%, [a] huge chunk of the population belongs to gyms even if they don’t go to them. It’s a huge focus on bodies and exercise and getting fit, and I think absolutely this is representative of our culture. We’re getting at it from a sort of particular angle and following, you know, personalities here, but that’s absolutely about representing the arts and culture. So, yes, it’s -- you know, we’re not focusing on the traditional arts, but I think both these series are going inside the creative process.”

The arts-is-culture-which-is-pop-culture argument is about the last thing you can say before admitting you’re doing what everybody else in TV does: chasing after what works. “Monk” (obsessive-compulsive detective) worked on USA, and so now is “Psych” (eccentric bogus psychic detective), and now the network’s new slogan is “characters welcome.” TNT won the sweepstakes for “Law & Order” reruns; combined with the success of its home-grown “The Closer,” the network now proclaims, “We Know Drama.”

The jury’s out, though, on whether you actually need this sort of brand identification to succeed, as opposed to just call letters in search of a defining show. Take A&E;, whose name has long been familiar to viewers even if the A (arts) and E (entertainment) don’t amount to much in the way of programming guidance. A&E;, after all, is the home of popular shows in the area of ... criminal justice (see “Dog the Bounty Hunter” or “Cold Case Files”). This week the network announced its slate of new shows -- a reality series starring Gene Simmons of KISS, called “Gene Simmons Family Jewels,” a TV movie around the theme of gay marriage, starring John Stamos and James Brolin, not to mention first-ever reruns of “The Sopranos” and “CSI: Miami.”

A&E;, with its sister channels History, Military History and Biography, doesn’t seem to have suffered from blurring whatever A&E; means. Bravo’s slogan, by contrast, feels like a nifty dodge. “Watch What Happens.” It has a certain unhelpful ring. But for Bravo, which is owned by the NBC-Universal Television group, and which is available in more than 80 million homes, cable TV remains a marvelous business to be in, thanks to the dual revenue stream of subscription fees and the sale of on-air ad time.

Cable TV is one of the few businesses in which you get paid just to open up shop; from there it’s a mad dash to prove the service you’re providing actually has some sort of cultural and/or entertainment value, even if nobody’s watching. I had no idea, for instance, that there’s now a channel called sleuth, another called the crime and investigations channel (“the ci,” soon to be available domestically), another still called The n.

They are owned, respectively, by NBC-Universal, AETN (jointly owned by ABC, NBC and the Hearst Corp.) and MTV Networks. Easier to comprehend, perhaps, is the evolution of HDNet, co-founded by the eccentric billionaire Mark Cuban, who also owns the Dallas Mavericks and who on Tuesday appeared onstage with his new toy, deposed “CBS Evening News” anchor Dan Rather.

Here was Rather, shamed off the air after proffering dubious documents in a story on President Bush’s military service, now sitting with his new benefactor, Cuban, who was dressed typically in eccentric billionaire-wear: jeans and untucked but expensive looking shirt.

HDNet is his fledgling high-definition channel, available at this point to only about 3 million homes. The whole thing started, Cuban said, with “me buying high-definition cameras and other equipment and placing them in the hands of 65 different people from around the world before we had any idea that Dan was going to be working with us or joining us.”

Rather’s show is to be called “Dan Rather Reports.” Said Rather: “My now-deceased friend and longtime mentor and teacher Eric Sevareid once said: ‘It’s true that sometimes a picture’s worth a thousand words, but it’s sometimes true that the right word’s worth a thousand pictures.’ ” Cuban kept smiling.