The Hub Network: What Should Have Been

The Hub Network! A network that was supposed to be dedicated to Cartoons and Family Entertainment unlike no other Network. But those Mega Geniuses at Discovery Communications decided to Not use the Networks full potential and act with retardedness. After the Constant Failures of Disney and Viacom, TV viewers (myself included) were ready for a Superior Family Network.

At first we were pleased....well somewhat. The Network was greatly flawed, but had the potential to get better. Though, it was much better than the Disney Channel and the Nick Networks. Things started getting better slowly. The Hub started airing cool shows and even created it's own version of Toonami, HuBoom. The only huge flaw The Hub had was the fact that it aired the same lame movies every single month. The only upside to that was that the Hub Family Movie was solely a Weekend thing, with 2 Movies on Saturday and 1 Movie each on Fridays and Sundays.

But it wasn't long before Things went Horribly wrong. Nikki Reed,Former Disney Executive,was brought in as the Network's Program Director. Reed quickly became radical loyalist of Discovery Communications and followed their orders with no Question. And Soon The Hub Network became the very thing that we Didn't want. And now it's way too late.

Here is a brief history of what was once a Network full of Promise.  

On April 30, 2009,Hasbro announced that it would be forming a joint venture with Discovery Communications to re-launch Discovery Kids as a new, family-oriented television channel. Discovery would handle advertising sales and distribution,while Hasbro would acquire and produce programming.

While the network planned to maintain educational series,plans called for new original programs based off Hasbro-owned franchises such as G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, Transformers, and game shows adapted from its board game brands.

In Early 2010, Discovery and Hasbro announced that the new network,known as the Hub, would be launched on October of that year. The network planned to continue targeting Discovery Kids' main demographic of small children,but also planned to feature things an older crowd would like. They also made a primetime block with retro sitcoms.

The network's President and CEO Margaret Loesch stated that The Hub's goal was to be "vibrant" and "diverse" in its programming, and that the channel would not purely be a marketing vehicle for Hasbro products. The network's original imaging was developed by Troika Design Group, and built around an emblem nicknamed the "hubble"—which was designed to embody a "catalyst of action and imagination". The final logo design was the result of a number of drafts by Troika designers, some of which had incorporated typography similar to Hasbro's logo.

And So,like Hasbro and Discovery promised,The Hub Network was launched on October 10, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. ET; its first program was an episode of The Twisted Whiskers Show (a bad way to start). Some of The Hub's launch programs included Family Game Night,Pound Puppies (modern), My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (aka overrated piece of crap), G.I.Joe Renegades,and Transformers: Prime. 

In 2010,The Hub Network introduced an unnamed 2 hour block. This block aired from 3 pm - 5 pm. In 2011,The block would expand to 3 hours (from 3 pm - 6 pm). Then in 2012, the block was named Huboom and now aired from 3 pm - 7 pm.

Unfortunately,in the Summer of 2013,The Hub Network Stupidly ditched the block and it was never seen again.

In a June 2011 debt filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Discovery Communications indicated that the channel may be worth less than previously believed, based on low viewership figures (*sarcasm* gee,i wonder why?). The management of The Hub underwent a fair value analysis of the channel. 

In The Fall of 2013, The Hub Network officially began it's downward spiral.

The network was renamed 'The Hub Network'. In 2014, Hub Network introduced an updated logo and a new imaging campaign, "Making Family Fun"(feh,more like "Making Fun of Family"). 

Also in 2014,The Hub Network thought it would be a "Cool" idea to emulate Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network by adapting a "popular" Internet show. The show in question is Kid President. And things only got worse.

Again in 2014,The Retro Stitcom block was shortened to make room for Hub Family Movies. Now The Hub Family Movies aired Every Night..including double and Triple features every weekend. This was So Stupid! Not only did they waste air time with the same movies,but they also devalued the specialness that was The Hub Family Movie.

But..It got worse. Discovery decided to "get with the times" and started airing Reality Shows, Starting with "Parents Just Don't Understand". *facepalm* Thank Jesus himself that PJDU was the Only Reality show that aired...at least before the re-launch.
On September 17, 2014,Discovery Communications was preparing to acquire a controlling stake in The Hub Network from Hasbro, and then re-brand it as Discovery Family.

Margaret Loesch stepped down from her role as Hub Network president and CEO at the end of 2014.

By 2014, the network had only made $9 million per year (i'm shocked it wasn't less). Discovery staff was also unable to display a full commitment to Hub Network's operation, due to factors such as the troubled launch of the Oprah Winfrey Network (what a retarded reason!). Hasbro decided to hand over operation of the network to Discovery,so that they could put more focus on their toy business.

In re-launching Hub Network, Discovery executives noted that there would be a larger emphasis on programming of interest to both children and families (and we all believed that BS at first). The Hub Network was re-launched as Discovery Family on October 13, 2014—just over four years since the original launch of The Hub. Discovery Communications now holds a 60% stake,while Hasbro holds a 40% stake.

And Now The Worse Part: Discovery Communications decided to throw out all of the Cool shows and Retro Sitcoms and replaced them with Crappy shows from their other Networks. What Assholes!!! Plus,the Girly-Girl and Pre-School garbage became the Daytime Majority. Shit!

*sighs* And there you have it,Ultimate Destruction of The Hub Network by those Geniuses at Discovery Communications.  It's now time once again to take a look into what Shoukd have Been.
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What Happened: Too much focus on Kiddie Shows.
What Should've Been: Kiddie Shows have their place,but they Shouldn't be the main focus of a Family Network. Disney is making a similar mistake with their Networks (all of them). So Kiddie shows are only limited to a small 3-hour block every weekday morning.

What Happened: Those Damn Ponies! They Are Everywhere!!
What Should've Been: The Ponies are not overexposed(ala spongebob). They will only air once a day And Pony marathon's will never exist. Period!

What Happened: The Girly garbage..promoted with pride.
What Should've been: Girly-girl shows like 'Littlest Pet Shop' are never allowed to air on The Network. And it's way better for it.

What Happened: Nikki Reed!
What Should've Been: She Never gets hired. Seriously,that woman is/was so braindead.

What Happened: Moving the cool non-kiddie live action programming (like hercules) to unacceptable timeslots and then dumping them all together. This happened under Nikki Reed. This type of thing should've Never happened in the first place. What Should've Been: These types shows not only get better timeslots,but they get treated with love and respect.

What Happened: The cool original shows were canned too early.
What Should've Been: Dan Vs.,GI Joe: Renegades, and The Aquabats Super Show were the biggest victims of this type of executive meddling. These 3 shows get renewed and promoted.

What Happened:  Huboom..gone,but never forgotten! :(
What Should've Been: Huboom should've been kept and promoted. It also becomes the Next Toonami.

What Happened: The Censorship of Old Family Movies and Classic Cartoons. This was So Stupid.Discovery did this to complement their Pre-school base And to please Soccermoms. Why? Those shows were Family-Friendly to begin with. *sigh and facepalm* Like I said this was so stupid.
What Should've Been: Every Family Movie and Classic Cartoon is kept As Is. Period!

What Happened: Reality Shows and "Popular" Internet shows on The Hub.
What Should've Been: These types of shows should've never been allowed to ai in the first place.

What Happened: Going Crazy With The Hub Family Movies by airing them every night. This was a serious waste of Airtime.
What Should've Been: The Hub Family Movies air Only on the Weekends. 2 on Saturdays and 1 on Sundays.

What Happened: Airing The Same Damn Movies over and over. Not too diverse,ain't it?
What Should've Been: A wider movie selection and No repeats from the following month.

What Happened: The retro sitcoms got screwed.
What Should've Been: The retro sitcom block should've been kept,with more shows added in the future.

What Happened: Shows like Xena,Freakazoid,The Tick,Static Shock,etc. never made it. Mainly because of Huboom's (unfair) cancelation.
What Should've Been: Those shows (and more) really should've aired on the Network.

What Happened:  The Hub's Transformers 30th Anniversary Celebration was marred by Transformers:Rescue Bots. No Joke! The Lamest and most Pathetic Transformers show made up the Majority of that 30th Anniversary marathon. No! Just,No! The marathon was supposed to represent something special: The 30th Anniversary of a beloved franchise. But Discovery had to screw things up with it.
What Should've Been: A marathon of G1,The G1 Movie,A marathon of Beast Wars,A small marathon of Animated,And Finally,a marathon of Prime. See,much better!

What Happened: Discovery Family.
What Should've Been: Instead of turning The Hub into yet another generic Discovery Network,It should've been improved upon instead.
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Had Discovery done things the Right way, Discovery Family wouldn't be the Pathetic Joke that it is Today.

See You Next Time and Stay Gold!!