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 ...
“Dr Who, Dirty Jobs, Mythbusters, and my favorite (which my six year old daughter loves to watch with me)- “how it’s made”. An interesting point about that show is that it’s made in Canada- and they have no shortage of things to show us!. I have my dvr set to record every episode of How It’s Made.
Oh, and Burn Notice is fun- I only wish we really had intelligence operatives that smart and competent.
Speaking of such channels, what happened to the old-time documentary where you had a live narrator who took you to places and calmly and clearly told you the stories and facts, with an occasional diagram to help things along? Now the disembodied narrator with the hyped-up or overly-dramatic voice tries to add as much drama as possible and waste our time with long computer animations.
"One day our sun will go nova and WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!" Dude, chill out. That's, like, four billion years from now.
Didn't you know? Some are more equal than others.
I kind of figured that out when I started watching everything with a DVR and it took a lot less than an hour to watch an hour-long show. But I do find myself occasionally stopping to watch entertaining commercials (they do exist).
Many of those cable programs are very good. Too bad they don’t extent their seasons. Some run as few as 6 episodes per ‘season’.
Their lives were scripted even in Hollywood's golden days -- even more so then.
A news program that did news would be nice. Our local news station has said several times that they target their programing toward women because women watch more TV than men. In my openion their programing is insulting to women, all fluff, very few facts. Lots of stories about how women are victims.
Yep, I got spoiled as a kid watching "The World At War" with Laurence Olivier doing the narration, it is impossible to top what he did.
That’s a difference with stage actors. When they go home they usually disappear into the background because they don’t need to create a life for themselves and they can leave their acting at the theater.
Did you see the one on Discovery that showed them building the roller coasters in Virginia and Minnesota? That was something else!
Sounds like me, but I'll add ESPN and Mythbusters (Discovery)
"Victory at Sea" was great too. Great sound tract.
i was surprised to learn that a washed-up fired L.A. sports jock named Keith Oldermann actually was hired by one Big Media to be a news reporter! Imagine that!
Yes that was great too. But you'll never forget The World at War theme, I can't think of another piece of music that so eloquently conveys the horror of that war.
I keeping telling myself to dump the cable, and at the next price increase, I will.
ESPN fot NHRA (if I'm not busy) and Mythbusters if it is something new. I would also add some NFL games (once again, if I'm not busy).
LOL! That face could never do anything wrong!
Like another FReeper pointed out, it's way too expensive to produce a sitcom when you can do a reality show for cheap. The only ones that I like involve house hunting and cooking shows like Hell's Kitchen.
When asked which of the new fall programs they were looking forward to viewing, a whopping 86 percent said they were anticipating "nothing,"
The new season of "How It's Made" starts tonight. About time! I think I've seen them all at least twice by now...
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