TVSquad

Spurred somewhat by this piece on BC Beat about TNT running "pop up" advertisements during its showing of A Christmas Carol, I must also say that those little promos can be a nuisance. I remember watching an episode of Family Guy when suddenly an ad for Family Guy popped up in the lower right-hand corner of the screen in the form of Stewie. This "double Stewie" phenomenon confused me for a moment before I realized what was happening. MTV2 is even worse, however. They like to remind you of what you're watching, not by a tiny pop-up at the bottom of the screen, but by running a thin strip right across the middle of the screen that reads, "You are watching [name of show]." Maybe they should just have the actors stop in mid-sentence about every ten minutes, turn to the viewing audience, and tell all of us about what shows and specials will be on that week. Dear god, now some TV exec is going to read that and take it seriously. I've just doomed us all.