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My mother was a big fan of all the cooking shows and antiques roadshow on PBS
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I would have her watch the channel called Antenna TV. It has all of the old shows, and nothing scary or offensive. Andy Griffith, Hogan's Heroes, Father Knows Best, I Dream of Jeannie, etc.
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My mom sometimes will fall asleep I think for cat nap. When she comes to, she thinks she was with the people in the t.v. show. This happens quite often around here. She has watched Titanic and told us we all went on a cruise. Sometimes she just somehow incorporates the story into her living room with her. She is in the middle stages of dementia now. Happens all the time. Like all said above, puppies and Mayberry are better. Who would not Love Aunt B? P.S. My mom's t.v. has the weather channel symbol burned into the screen. You can see it in any channel lol!
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My fil thinks the TV is a window and gets upset with the people outside, and in wiled life movies he asks why did we move so far out here nobody comes to see us way out here. He hates DVDS because we have to change over from antenna to the dvd player and says we're messing it up. Sometimes he will dream about TV shows and ask where the people went. He got really mad when he turnd the TV to naked and afraid. He's ok with religious channels and cartoons, and the discovery Channel. Good luck.
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My mom used to confuse television with real life. Stopped watching Law and Order, NCIS, CSI and all those crime dramas. She would become so anxious, actually fearful about safety of her family.

Youtube so Many old shows on was wonderful. Mom loved the videos of young girls perform in on shows like America's Got Talent.😁
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My husband was a U.S. WW II veteran who did not have dementia but was ill. He identified with the ambulance in M.A.S.H. and shouted: "That's my ambulance!" when it appeared. He said some W.W. II ambulances were used during the Korean War.
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My grandmother, who had never watched television, came to live game shows and celebrity gossip. She was much more attuned to what was going on with Vanna White and Princess Diana than any of us, but it made her happy and kept her interest for several years.
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Teepa Snow...pls look her up....shes fantastic!!
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Animal Planet was well loved by my mom. She also loved Andy Griffith, Reba, and I Love Lucy. Her all-time favorite was Walker, Texas Ranger -- she couldn't follow the plot lines bit loved the fight scenes or when he took off his shirt. LOL
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My father, before he passed was having a lot of problems with this. He was never scared of anything throughout his life and TV shows often shook him up. Mom turned on things like Antenna TV, Decades or METV because they often showed calmer shows from their past.
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TV and dementia? Absolutely! I don't think it's so much mixing the two, it may seem that way, at least with my mom. look for game show channel, and decades channel if you have it, though i believe that's a local channel in the northwest, don't know if anybody else has it. they show old shows from the 50's and 60's and 70's, binge weekends, but the important thing is recording onto your dvr lots of episodes of shows and movies she likes. of course movies can then be bought on dvd and erased once you know what she wants. mom likes singing and dancing, lucy (either series, it's just lucy), golden girls, gilmore girls. movies are momma mia, burlesque, heidi... depends on what your mom's taste is, what the characters sentimentally mean to her. who's a favorite actor or actress, kids or not kids. watch her reactions, mom throws kisses to people on tv depending on character or person (like lucy). she used to love action pictures, she doesn't anymore, too much violence that scares her, so you can't go by what they used to like. sometimes she cries because she likes it, she's in the movie or relating to it, she does both. game shows used to make her think she was supposed to be winning something. if she likes it, you'll come to hate singin in the rain! :-))
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We ordered some DVD’s off the Alzheimer’s Store website. One was kitties and one was nature scenes.. it was very calming.
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humor, I wish I knew a better way, you have a better setup already than I could figure out! Maybe instead of any live broadcast, set up a DVR (is that already an outdated term? lol) with a number of browsable items that you have preloaded, and that menu is her ‘TV guide.’  If she likely to forget she’s seen the shows or movies, and watch them again.  You could cycle a few in and out periodically.  
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TV today, even on non-cable channels is the pits. Gone are the good shows like "Carol Burnett", "Andy Williams", "Lawrence Welk", and fun comedies like "I Love Lucy".

And TV remotes keep getting more complicated. Life was so much easier when the TV had a dial and you would turn the dial to the TV show. Funny, we always found something to watch with just having 3 channels :)

I don't know if there is some way you can lock the remote onto a few really good channels, like Turner Classic Movies, and those channels that offer softer shows such as "Andy Griffith", "My Three Sons", "Love Boat", "What's My Line", etc.
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Sunnygirl, do you remember the name or title of that DVD? I think my father might enjoy it.
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Oh, depending on how progressed she may be, I saw a nice Yule Time DVD that I almost purchased for the MC unit that my LO is located. In fact, I think I will get it. It has a varity of winter scenes, snow fall, deer, roaring fireplace, Christmas tree, etc. and plays Christmas music. I thought it sounded great and may get one for myself too.

I like the Animal Planet idea too. I especially like the Vet shows.
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If you get cable tv, and get Animal Planet, let her watch the puppies and kittens shows. They're adorable - little fur balls romping and rolling around. They're so light hearted that I think they'd be very good entertainment for anyone.

The "Puppy Bowl", a puppy imitation of the Super Bowl, is especially amusing - little puppies romping around, stepping in the water bowl...it's really cute.
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For awhile my LO would get angry with some people on tv, because she didn't like what they said, what they wore, how they talked, etc. But, that was replaced before too long with a disinterest in tv altogether, as she was not able to follow what was going on. It just confused her and her formerly favorite pasttime, was no more. We would keep in on just to add interest, but, she mainly ignored it.

If the shows were making her anxious, I would try to avoid them. You could always say the cable company is cutting out a lot of channels now days. Which is true. Just program the programs that don't bother her. Is this her only issue? Because, sometimes, just about anything can cause anxiety or agitation.
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Yes, this is very common. When my mom entered that stage, I only showed her movies. Mostly old musicals... Oklahoma, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers...she also liked game shows. Just make sure nothing scary.
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