The Sprout Channel Late Night

I have discovered a new television channel to enjoy late at night: PBS's Sprout, which is aimed at a pre-school audience. So how am I able to watch this type of programming at one in the morning? Showing programs targeted at young children this late at night may be explained in three ways: one, maybe we have a lot of little night owls who burn the midnight oil. Two, maybe Sprout has discovered that grown-ups like this type of programming, too. Or three, Sprout gives little children who have gone off to bed something that gives them a sense of security (and a kind of night light as well).

Regarding the first explanation, I really don't think that there are many kids out there in the wee hours of the morning watching Sprout. If they did have a TV set available to them, they would most likely watching the evening programming, since it is just repeated after midnight. So either Sprout's late night showing of this programming is either aimed at an older audience or it is used as a "sleep enhancer" for youngsters.

I stand for at least one adult who likes Sprout at night. For one, I'm human like everyone else and sometimes like to watch and hear others speaking in a very friendly, positive manner (even if it's from the impersonal television set). On Sprout, Nina (the token human adult) and Star (a cute stuffed pillow-sized star puppet with a face) sit together on a comfortable-looking sofa in an "astral" setting, amiably conversing and introducing different short episodes (like Thomas the Tank Engine or the Berenstain Bears, for example). They show several of these over the course of the night, always returning to their sofa "base of operations". The end of the show always has Star falling asleep. What appeals to me about this is the idea of being able to accomplish different things by working out of a base. Well, I get it if no one else does!

But probably the greatest use the "viewing" audience gets out of Sprout late at night is its usefulness at lulling children to sleep and keeping them from being in the sometimes scary darkness. While I understand this, I wonder a little whether or not that's such a wise idea, at least in the long run. After all, while their brains are growing and developing in complexity at this early age, don't young children need to learn how to come to grips with natural fears, such as the normal fear of the dark? I know I did, but I wonder whether I would have adjusted as well had I had soothing television programming like that offered on Sprout.

Sprout is now my current default channel, when I've run out of reasonably interesting programming on the others. I recommend it to anyone regardless of their age, not because it is intellectually stimulating or terribly exciting (it is neither). No, watch it for its good vibes! One warning, though: you stand a risk of being overcome by its excruciating cuteness.