What made me think of this is the news that the Today Show is expanding to a fourth hour in September.
Yeah, that's exactly what's missing from my TV schedule: another hour of Today. Hey, let's add three more hours to Good Morning, America. Maybe The View can be an all-day thing, and ABC can show All My Children at 2 in the morning?
This is a horrifying trend. Do we need that much news, talk, and information, all day long? Take my local stations for example. We have two hours of local news, sports, and weather starting at 5 am. Then the Today Show (and GMA and CBS' The Early Show) start at 7am, and that goes til 9. Then my local NBC station shows Regis and Kelly, and then at 10 they show that third hour of Today. Then at noon, it's an hour of local news. Then at 4, it's three more hours of news! And this is on top of all of the 24 news channels and talk shows that are on during the day. Gah gah gah.
I hate that moves like this are pushing out soap operas (do you realize Days of Our Lives is now the last soap on NBC??) and syndicated shows. And then at night we get an onslaught of cheap reality shows and mind-numbing game shows (and I like game shows - but enough of the hideous Deal Or No Deal/Show Me The Money/1 vs. 100/Identity clones).
Of course there's a bottom line, but I'm a firm believer that the networks have to give people what they need, not just want they seem to want. Even if they don't know they need it yet.














Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-19-2007 @ 9:55AM
PB said...
I heartily agree! I remember when I was a kid and had to stay home from school for some reason or another (probably being ... ahem ... "sick"!) and I could watch game shows in the morning and soaps or reruns of '60s shows in the afternoons (anyone from SoCal remember the lovely block of Wild Wild West and Star Trek airing every afternoon?) Nowadays, when I stay home "sick", I end up watching DVDs or stuff I've already recorded on Tivo, because there's nothing fun on regular TV anymore. *Sigh* It'd be fun to be a kid again!
Reply
1-19-2007 @ 10:16AM
Tai said...
This is probably a stupid question, but what would you rather see in the morning instead of talk shows? And in prime? I don't think you're giving them enough credit for variety in primetime since you skipped over the serialized (usually crime) hour-long dramas and sitcoms/dramadies as options. But don't get me wrong because I totally agree with you: Everything is a clone of something else and it's all the same on every network. But what else would plug in there as options instead?
Reply
1-19-2007 @ 11:06AM
David004 said...
This is stupid. No one watches TV in the afternoon because they have jobs. NBC isn't making money on shity soaps but they are with news and talks. There are now 100 changes to watch that show repeats of every show you will ever need, watch one of those channels or get a job and be out of the house all day.
Reply
1-19-2007 @ 4:32PM
Nate said...
My NBC affiliate in Milwaukee already airs seven hours of news and lifestyle programming in a row in the morning that just blur into one big block of sludge. Where the fourth hour of "Today" is going, they have this show called The Morning Blend which is like those local home shows of 60s, condescending and pretty much screaming, "Hey, you could do so much more for your life by buying this and this and this", with two hosts that have the personality of gruel. It's an hour-long show where advertisers pay to be mentioned on the show.
Years ago, there was so much more variety in the mornings, and everyone had something on, from game shows, talk shows, sitcom reruns, maybe a good local show here and there. Now it's all just talk shows or third-tier court shows, and the CW/MyNet affiliates have given up and thrown on infomercials at that time of morning because they're too lazy or fearful to challenge Regis, The View, and Today.
I don't need news all day, really. All the noon/11am news is doing anyways is rehashing last night and the morning because nothing ever happens between 8am-11am.
Reply
1-20-2007 @ 4:39AM
Hans Lys said...
We love the new forth hour of The Today Show. Then again we run The Today Show viewers website over at TodayTop.Com so we might be a bit biased. :)
Hans Lys
http://www.todaytop.com/
Reply
1-20-2007 @ 6:24PM
Preston said...
In the pre-Oprah, pre-1986 era, local stations would show reruns of old '60s and '70s sitcoms like The Brady Bunch. Brady had to have been huge in afternoon ratings in 1978-1981 with kids watching it after school. TV Land does that now. Now, the daytime lineup is covered with talk shows, courtroom shows, some lifestyle shows and so forth. And some local stations have a tendency to waste 9 to 10 am hours in the morning with infomercials! They feel that reruns won't cut it, so they'll show something else. I kind of liked the 1995-1996 season, when 22 to 23 talk shows were competing in daytime--there was much of a variety, confrontational, safe, high road, low road or even crazy. It's not like that today.
As with primetime, I wish that some networks would STOP COPYING American Idol, Deal or No Deal or any of Mark Burnett's popular reality shows! Get your own show, get your own identity and concept! Ever since American Idol was a massive hit on Fox, the rival networks will rush in their talent show and copy Simon's rude judging style, the talent competition itself and even some of the bad singers of the audition shows. End result--The One on ABC was cancelled after 2 shows last summer. Others were cancelled due to poor ratings. Look, American Idol's the real deal, covers of some cheesy pop songs or strong, substance filled songs or not! LEAVE IT ALONE!!!!
Reply
2-13-2007 @ 10:47AM
Kellie said...
I totally agree! I'm so sick of reality shows, makeover shows (GO AWAY HGTV!), Food Network idiots like Rachel Ray or Emeril, news, news, and more news. What would like be if all the people who were employed to talk and give their idiotic opinions on Fox, MSNBC, CNN, etc. SIMPLY FADE AWAY? It would be great, that is the absolute truth. I'd rather watch a Brady Bunch re-run any day of the week vs. being inundated with talk, talk, and more talk crap. News, reality, find your true love, be the next model, dance, makeover your house & your garden, sell or buy a house, spend $40 a day on food, WHO THE SHIT CARES? Who comes up with this crap? I do not watch any of it anymore.
Reply
3-01-2007 @ 3:14PM
Maxine Franklin said...
I think the "View" is unbelievable (bad) Walters whom
I formerly admired has dropped to the bottom since she took on that tacky p-g and I am being polite. I cannot print what I really think.
Reply