system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How does Bill Nye get so much credibility?
gpt
This one is hard to answer objectively...

I think the main thing to consider is that Bill Nye made science *interesting* to an entire generation. Since he was covering simple science that we could easily validate or try for ourselves to see it was true he created trust. We could see his kid friendly diagrams and experiments and say, "How neat!" We would later find these things to be true in science class.

He became a household name in science, just like Stephen Hawking or Einstein. When his show was taken off the air he was remembered as being friendly, trustworthy, and knowledgeable to millions of people.

Then of course he would appear on cable news channels, where anyone can appear genius when surrounded by foam-mouthed journalists. They would typically bring him on the show to talk about a part of science that the general population can easily understand (or at least be aware of). He becomes, and remains the face of science for decades.

His new show tarnishes all of this because it does not resonate with the majority anymore. (Plus, it was generally a horrible show)