‘Niche’ programs for specialized viewing

“FISH Tank Kings” cast members Mat Roy (left) and Francis “Fish Geek” Yupangco

Some viewers have expressed their appreciation for the sneak peeks we’ve been offering into unusual TV shows, so we hasten to follow up with our latest compilation of “novelty” productions.

With TV shows now becoming more specialized productions aimed at specific “niche” viewerships, it’s a pleasant surprise to see that there’s even a show being produced and telecast on the National Geographic Channel—for aquarium aficionados!

That’s right, “Fish Tank Kings” amazes viewers with the huge aquariums it features, most of them specifically created for very rich clients.

Learning process

In the process, viewers learn a lot about what aquariums need in terms of sanitation and aeration systems, and the kinds of fish, grasses and corals they can apply to their smaller versions at home.

Last month, the show featured a truly amazing and huge aquarium that cost $45,000 just for its structure and systems, without factoring in the added expense for the living organisms it contained, which were worth much more!

Just to give viewers an idea of the big investment involved, the show’s aquarium experts shared that one finger-sized piece of a particularly beautiful coral alone cost $60! It would take five years for that small piece to grow to the size of a dinner plate, so the investment involved includes patience, as well—that’s for sure!

Another unusual TV show we viewed sometime back was a reality program for—nuns and postulants! That’s right, the program, “The Sisterhood: Becoming Nuns,” followed a group of girls who wanted to become nuns through the entire postulancy process, and made for instructive viewing for young people with a religious vocation.

Decor concepts

For its part, “The Apartment” was a design show and competition in which teams of “celebrity” interior designers from all over Asia worked really hard to come up with the best design and decor concepts for the same space.

When we watched the show, a Filipino, chef Laudico Guevarra, was part of one team, and he had a lot of problems with his exceedingly snooty and temperamental female teammates!

For its part, “Best Ink” is a competition for—tattoo artists! Each week, professionals with many years of experience and “signature” visual styles of their own are whipped up to frothing, ferociously competitive mode as they come up with virtual “epidermal canvasses” and even “murals” (!) that are both astounding and dumbfounding to behold!

Then, there’s the allied competition for experts in making prosthetics and monster faces and bodies for TV-film sci-fi productions and video games. Their creations are pretty wild and far-out, too—and more than slightly nihilistic and even—necrophiliac?

Since zombies are “in” on TV and in the movies, these “dark” experts come up with a lot of them, gruesomely disfigured and disemboweled to viewers’ disgust and horror—which the “artists” involved take as a huge compliment!