re: #120 Justanotherhuman

Well, A&E should change its name to “The Bigotry Channel”, I suppose.

Junk TV—easy to produce, not much cost involved since you can get State govts to help fund it. I mean, why do you think there are so many “shows” about Alaska?

One half-hour show would suffice for any and all of the premises these shows are based on—not an entire series for several seasons, for crying out loud.

For instance, do I want to watch people’s pathologies being broadcast nationwide, like “Hoarders”, for instance? That is little more than cruel exploitation.

Totally correct assessment.

Many of these shows waste time recapping what happened before the commercial break, then proceeding with the “story.” If they took out the commercial breaks, and piled the ads near the ends of the program (as they do in other countries), the actual program would be about a half hour long.

In a similar vein, most broadcast TV dramas are about 42 minutes long, or less, once you account for the beginning and ending credits and the commercials. That’s 18 minutes of story-telling lost.