BANGKOK — After nearly three years of 24/7 telecasts of the everyday lives of a giant panda family, Thais will have to leave their sofas and remote controls and pay a visit to a zoo if they want to see their beloved creatures.
True Vision, a local cable network, pulled the plug on the reality show Monday due to apparent declining interest in watching the pandas, who have been housed at a zoo in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, since 2003.
Interest in their lethargic lives – which revolve around eating bamboo shoots and sleeping – hit a fever pitch in May 2009 when artificial insemination succeeded and father Chuang Chuang and mother Lin Hui produced a cub, named Lin Ping. Six months later, True Vision dedicated a live feed from the panda enclosure in what was a new frontier in Thailand’s growing appetite for reality TV.
Many Thais tuned in initially to what was dubbed the “Panda Channelâ€, and some never seemed to tire of watching the cub claw around, chew bamboo shoots and doze, perchance dreaming of more shoots. Southeast Asia Real Time has more.
http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2012/10/02/thailand-says-goodbye-to-panda-tv/