Posted on 09/14/2007 11:36:55 AM PDT by JZelle
Americans may watch an average of 12 to 17 hours of television a week, but they continue to hate what they see.
When asked which of the new fall programs they were looking forward to viewing, a whopping 86 percent said they were anticipating "nothing," were unsure of the lineup or dismissed the new offerings altogether, according to a poll released yesterday by the Associated Press and AOL.
Viewers see a dim future. Almost two-thirds — 62 percent — say TV programming in general is "getting worse." Among evangelical Christians, the number was 85 percent, the survey found.
There are too many reality TV shows on the air; the genre was cited by 71 percent of the respondents as being too abundant. Crime and talk shows followed, each cited by 49 percent, and game shows, cited by a third. Least offensive, was news, sports and dramatic programming — found in appropriate amounts by the majority of respondents.
News, in fact, showed some promise. The findings revealed that 28 percent of Americans would like to see more news on television, compared with 17 percent in a similar survey taken two years ago.
"This is all very telling about the complicated relationships people have with their television. We have so much to chose from right now — some good, some bad. But most Americans tend to fall back into the idea that TV will forever be the 'idiot box' and the 'boob tube,'—" said Robert Thompson, a Syracuse University broadcast professor and director of the school's Bleier Center for Study of TV and Popular Culture.
"There's a divide between our opinions and our behavior here. Americans check off all the boxes on a survey saying TV stinks with one hand, but they've got the other hand on that TV remote, believe me.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
“57 Channels and Nothing On....”
Television jumped on the faux ‘reality’ bandwagon in large part because its much cheaper than a sitcom, or dramatic series. The costs for writters alone is many times more than what it costs for a months worth of Survivor, for example.
I’ve never watched a reality show beyond the first season of The Apprentice. Once I realized that was about as ‘real’ as ‘The Matrix’ I didn’t bother with it again.
Holy cow! A center in a university devoted to studying TV? Good Lord, no wonder no one can spell or write well. These boobs are trying to discover what the nation is watching on TV! Hah!
How utterly stupid of them.
Say, what’s on channel 7 tonight?
Nothing. Same is what is on every other channel you turn to.
Thank God for the Discovery Channels, Magnum PI/Miami Vice reruns, etc.............
Hey, it's not "Dog", but we like it.
I’m a fairly big TV watcher, actually ... and programming seems quite a bit better these days than it was a few years back. I’m one of those guys that has the TV on all the time, even if I’m doing something else while its on.
I watch 24, Smallville and Heroes pretty much every week (when new episodes are on).
As for reality TV ... my wife likes it, so I watch Big Brother (a monumentally stupid show), the Biggest Loser, and American Idol occasionally.
Sports ... Baseball tonight, Sportcenter, Monday Night Football, Astros games (back when the Astros were still relevant), and football on Sunday.
Add occasional sitcoms ... How I Met Your Mother, Two and a half men, and Rules of Engagement are good. The new sitcom with Patricia Heaton and Kelsey Grammar looks OK.
Add in Fox News programming, Seinfeld and Raymond reruns, the History Channel, ESPNews ... and the TV’s pretty much on all the time. There’s not anything NEW I’m looking forward to ... but there are quite a few good shows on.
H
TV is dead.
Maybe they’ll report this on TV, if anyone will watch it.
***“57 Channels and Nothing On....”***
Absolutely.
Our TV is for sports and DVDs only (”because that’s all there is” say the guys in my family).
TV? We don’t watch no steenkin’ TV. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when the analog signals go away.
Homicide life on the street records nicely. Taken in sequence it is a great production
WGN Noon every day
Whadda they mean? I can’t wait for the fall premiere of Dancing With The Surviving Queer-Eyed American Idol Who’s The Biggest Loser Apprentice.
Outdoor Channel (Good gun and hunting shows), VS (hunting), History, Military, some SciFi (Eureka).
That’s about it.
Don’t forget the Food Network! LOL
Shows still in production that are worth watching, IMHO:
The Wire
Lost
South Park
Flight of the Conchords
I really can’t think of any others. I’ll watch these if there’s nothing better to do:
Big Love
Entourage
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Post of the day!
Pretty much the only TV I watch outside of sports, are cartoons with the kids.
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