This piece (edited) I wrote for a thread on a TV forum site. I thought it SO good, I decided to extend it a little and add it as a post in its own right on my blog.
___________________________________________________________ I’ve been turned off by the “same old format” tripe of X Factor (singing reality contest in the vain of Pop Idol). The sob stories, the “average” singers that get through, the groups always being booted out never to win. I watched some of the opening shows, but as soon as it got to “boot camp”, I well and truly tuned out. I was excited by the return of Strictly Come Dancing (the original UK format of the new worldwide “Dancing With The Stars” franchise), but only watched the 1st week of mens and the 1st week of ladies. Now I’m equally sick of that and haven’t watched it since! Why DOES reality TV dominate Saturday nights so much now? And WHY oh WHY are we going down this American route of if you have a successful show, you should churn it out season after season with no changes in format to keep it interesting? Thank goodness there’s going to be a break from the “Maria/Joseph/Nancy – search for the next musical theatre star” Andrew Lloyd Webber lead shows next year. As soon as Strictly Come Dancing and X-Factor are finished we’ll get Dancing On Ice in January. I wish I could shout from the roof tops “Reality TV is dead, long live Variety!” But no one can even do a good variety show anymore. There are still aspects of Saturday nights at certain times of year to look forward to, thank goodness, like when Doctor Who is on air. But Saturday nights USED to be a TV entertainment shining beacon! Now the light is flickering and almost extinguished. R.I.P. Saturday night TV. It was good while it lasted.2 Replies to “What has REALLY happened to Saturday night TV?”
Comments are closed.
although I watch the dancing I still tend to agree with you that the quality of the TV programmes not only on a Sat night but during the week nights as well are sadly lacking. I think that’s why I spend so much time on the computer.
I have to admit it’s so frustrating to see all the different reality shows, and then when we don’t think we have enough here we get some of the UK’s and US’s aired here too! WTF?AS I’ve told you I rarely watch tv and avoid those types of shows regardless.