Snow What?

I'm about to give up the Weather Channel.

And while I'm at it, I think HGTV and the Food Network are about to be purged from my time wasters as well.

It's really not too much of a stretch for me at this point, as those are about the only television channels I watch (except for a little cocktail of CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC when there's a major news story occurring).

Twenty years ago, I was a major television hound/couch potato. Life, home ownership, job, kids, and other fascinations have taken the place of television over the years. So now, I only like watching shows where I learn something to better myself, learn a skill, or just be better informed to tackle my immediate world tomorrow. That's why I settled on weather, food and home improvement as my interests.

But the Food Network only seems to run competition shows in the evenings, and quite frankly, I don't care who's a better chef than whom... just give me the recipe and the technique. The Weather Channel is all about documentaries of chasing tornadoes and spelling gloom and doom for the earth's climate... all I want is the local forecast on the 8's. And don't even get me started on the plethora of House Hunters which has replaced all the cool design shows that could show even the most hopeless oaf how to paint a room to make it look better.

Sometimes, when we're really good at something and really popular for doing it, we mess with the formula which gained us our popularity. When that happens, those who appreciated us for what we did well, they lose heart and go find value elsewhere.

What accomplishments are you "tweaking" that are best left alone? What fans are not coming back because you've lost your value? How are you messing with otherwise successful projects, changing the scope so nobody wants them? In your quest to seek new audiences for your accomplishments, are you alienating those who applauded your existing accomplishments the loudest?