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I hate most of the newer shows on TV. Reality TV and especially those damn talent shows (the irony is in the word talent). What shows do you hate? And if you could cancel just one what would it be? Mine would be X Factor. Simon Cowell has ruined both TV and Music and deserves a good beat down.

X Factor is a guilty pleasure for me. I enjoy the audition episodes for the sheer amount of deluded talentless people who think they can sing, and if I'm honest I quite like Cowell's no-nonsense approach to cutting them down when necessary. The worst part is that the actual music in the show is always bland, middle-of-the-road nonsense. So much for 'X-Factor', they're actually looking for the most generic, marketable, safe contestant to promote at the end.



anyway, one show that I have consistently disliked since its inception, and would love to cancel is SOUTH PARK.

I know I'm in a minority here, but this is seriously the most annoying, unfunny thing I've ever seen in my life. how can anyone even listen to those voices for longer than 10 seconds is beyond me, plus the general tone and style of the show just makes me want to claw my brain out!

I'd smack down "Toddlers and Tiaras" and/or its spinoff "Here Comes Honey BooBoo." I've never even seen either show, but the promos for them are enough to make me throw a shoe at the TV.

I have never understood the "child beauty pageant" thing at all. How does anyone think that dressing their kid up like a mini porn star and parading her around in front of a panel of creepy old men is a good idea? Those shows are a pedo's paradise. Who needs'em? 

Same minority here,honey. I despise Southpark....always have.


As for a show I would cancel,that would have to be Big Brother. That program has seemed fake and pointless from the beginning. Like a soap opera without the drama. :lookingup:

I would have said "American Idol," but it sounds like they renamed it "X Factor"? So I'll add my vote to those. The problem is that by extending their crap beyond the TV screen into the music field it doubles my chances to accidentally encounter it.

Family Guy/Cleveland Show/American Dad...essentially anything by Seth MacFarlane.

Same show, same crew, same jokes, if you can call them that, and no real value

This. Nothing worse than child exploitation...

Simon left Idol for X Factor, got a black guy that looks like Randy, got two train wrecked girls instead of one and is basically doing the same damn show. Then throw in the Voice, again, same show. it's madness. I don't understand how people can justify untalented people judging marginally talented people while laughing at other untalented people. Why don't they go out to a club and see a real artist with talent, instead of playing armchair music producer at home. Idol and X factor give the uninformed viewer the mistaken idea that anyone can sing. In reality a lot of people on the radio at this moment can't even sing. Really talented musicians get no respect from Joe Average, because they aren't being promoted by American Idol. Musicians are not respected for being master craftsmen anymore. Everybody thinks they can do it and shows like Idol don't help. Today's youth see music the same way they see gum, they think they can steal it and nobody will notice. The music industry is dead! On to South Park, which is still in my opinion a great vehicle for social commentary, I just hope they end it by season 20 before it becomes as bland and dull as the one great Simpson's. As far as Toddlers and Tiara's are concerned, there is NO excuse for exploiting children. Social services should remove these children from the parents. In fact they should put these parents in jail.

Almost too many possibilities to choose just one, but I have to agree that the child beauty pageant shows are probably the most appalling. I'd rather not watch f**ked-up parents f**king up their children, thank you very much.

The Voice isn't too bad as far as the singing shows go. The judges have proven talent and actually work with the people trying out. Even take them on tour and such.

I also like the auditions on X Factor, but I think it's making people really complacent about music in general. At the same time, I don't really give a s**t about this because most popular music is for idiots anyway, so whatever effect these shows have on the music industry is fine by me. Let the general public think that talent means singing other people's songs. Most of the people who have won on X Factor or Idol are usually forgotten within months anyhow. But as far as shows I think should be cancelled I'd pick So You Think You Can Dance. Useless horses**t.

I almost never watch broadcast TV except for sports events anymore. I didn't realize they had child beauty shows on now, I want to change my vote.

I would drastically reduce the amount of sport shows on television.  Their omnipresence annoys me and in cases like the original run of Futurama  they kept shows I wanted to see from being shown.

"Honey BooBoo"....? Egad! Just the name turns me off and turns my stomach. :thumbdown:

I've always hated the special treatment sports get on TV. The whole schedule can be disrupted just because a game runs too long. Worse still, they still broadcast all the post-game crap, or switch to the end of another game playing around the same time, even when it's cutting into other shows' time slots. When there's a game on, it's as if nothing else matters.

Futurama is a great example. That show was pretty much thrown under the bus by scheduling it right after football every Sunday.

They did that with King of the Hill a lot too.  It's really disgusting the way FOX bends over backwards for MacFarlane but they gave that treatment to the quality animation.

Ryan Murphy's little pet projects THE NEW NORMAL and GLEE both need to go.  Both shows constantly tout the message "Discrimination is totes wrong u guyz" but every character (and most of them are racial minorities or gay) is a shrill one-note stereotype.  What's the point? 

King of The Hill could've lasted a few more quality seasons.

Me, I'm a sports guy, so I didn't mind games running long, but then King would be pre-empted, Malcolm in The Middle too.

Excellent point here. I was a big Married with Children fan, as soon as Fox started running football the show bumped all the time. Why does network TV even air sports anymore? Aren't there like a million different sports channels on cable?

Sadly sports get special treatment everywhere in life. Schools cut out the arts in favor of them. Our whole society has been based around competition and being the best. Athletes get a free ride in life just for being better at a stupid game. It's a sick thing to subject our children to.

The New Looney Tunes Show. In general, I wish they had just let the characters die in peace, rather than be subjected to Space Jam, Back in Action, the new CGI shorts, Baby Looney Tunes, etc, etc, etc.

"Space Jam"....oh,brother! My daughter talked me into taking her to see that. I'm still paying for therapy. :lookingup:

     TWO AND A HALF MEN....disgusting.

I don't watch 'em, as I don't have a TV, but even when I had a TV, I didn't watch 'em.

They are on TV, at least in part, because of demand and cost. With the proliferation of TV channels, there is more demand to fill the airtime with something anything. And as expensive as they may be to do, they are still one of the cheapest programs to show on TV. And you have enough people that'll watch 'em, that they'll turn in a reasonable profit.

But they have been out there, even before the days of TV. The first one I am familiar with was "Major Bowles Amateur Hour." I believed Frank Sinatra was on, as part of a male quartet, before TV, when it was still on the radio. They lost. I guess Sinatra had more success as a solo act.

Then somewhere between radio and TV, "Major Bowles Amateur Hour" became "Ted Mack's Amateur Hour." I believe Ann-Margaret was on that. She came in second. Losing to a man who played a tune by blowing on a leaf.

But the only one I made an effort to watch was "Star Search," as hosted by Ed McMahon. There was a truckload of now famous people that came out of that one. Though, they did not always win.

One of the most interesting competitions, which I admit, I did not see, was Dennis Miller and Sinbad competing against each other in the comedy category. When the judges voted that first time, they tied. So the decision was sent to the audience, and they tied again, which was unheard of. They came back the next week, and when the judges voted once more, again they tied. Again it was sent to the audience for a decision. And Sinbad won, but by only one vote.

There was also a junior edition of "Star Search," with the same categories, but no comedy category.

That showed, at least, that girls should not compete against boys in the dance category.
Dance is such a muscular activity, and even at that age, boys are more muscular than girls, so boys won a predominate number of the dance competitions.

As for children's beauty pageants, and here we are talking about pageants for girls under 1 to 18, the earliest national one was sometime  in the '60's or four decades after the first national adult beauty pageant.

And there have been complaints, probably as long as they existed, that they exploited children, but even if they stop showing 'em on TV, they probably won't cease to exist. As there are too many of 'em. In any given year, there are almost 25,000 of 'em in the U.S. And they generate too much money. They are thought to generate over a $1,000,000,000 a year.

Oddly enough, or maybe not, there are also beauty pageants for boys, but, the odd thing about that, they are only for under 1 to 6. By the age of 7, there is so little interest in these pageants for boys, that there are few if any in existance.

I was up at Tina's apartment-she was switching channels and stopped momentarly on Honey Boo Boo-EGAD. They give poor white people a bad name.
Hell,they give the HUMAN RACE a bad name!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgB2CQxRvps&feature=related

This clip made my stomach  churn...ugh....I actually gagged.  :bluesad:

Jersey Shore! Oh, whoops! Too late!

I'm always curious when I hear people say they don't have a TV. Does this mean you go elsewhere for entertainment (online etc,) or does this mean you simply don't bother with with the visual media in general?

I watch so very little television that I don't feel I am a good judge.
However, most comedies and so called REALITY shows seem
like pointless crap to me just from the commercials.

Futurama also was a victim of 911. Fox stopped showing it for a couple months because -ohmigod!-  it had a cartoon spacerocket crash into a building and America just couldn't deal with that after 911.

If I could fecal container one show it'd  be "the big bang theory". It's just 'Amos n Andy"  done to politically correct standards.

I wouldn't cancel the show but I don't understand it's appeal, or why people seem to think it's original just because the characters are geeks. They're still going through the same old worn-out sitcom routines.

Personally love Big Bang Theory. The stuff with Wil Wheaton was particularly hilarious. But hey, to each their own. Still I weep for humanity at the apparent fact Here Comes Honey Boo Boo appears to be a hit.

It's the modern-day equivalent of exhibiting human oddities. People have always lined up for a freakshow.

Watch an episode of THE NEW NORMAL sometime (or actually watch 30 seconds because nobody should be subjected to a whole episode); it makes BBT look like season four of THE SIMPSONS.

Ah, "Big Bang Theory," perhaps one of the more 'controversial" shows discussed on this site.  Seems most folks either enjoy it or really, really hate it.


Short Answer:

The appeal is simple.  You either like/enjoy the comedy or you don't.  There is a TON of inside "geek" humor on that show that underlies the worn-out sitcom routines.  JaseSF mentioned one...the Wil Wheaton stuff.  There are many examples.  If, as an example, you don't understand the "inside" reasons why the Wil Wheaton storyline is funny, you won't like the show.



Longer Answer:

I can see that the show probably mostly appeals to folks that have lived something of that life...we've had other "social outcast" shows before, but few (if any) really showcase the "smart, nerdy socially inept outcast" as a group, not just one character thrown in for color.  

As such, there is, as I mentioned, a heap-TON of inside humor.  The writers of BBT really know science geeks (or are such geeks) rather than just writing to pander to some stereotype of a geek that a friend told them about.

I've hung-out and worked in that environment with "that" group.  Shoot, my own personality has component mixtures of Sheldon and Leonard (probably more than I care to admit), so the show is a way to laugh at myself.

There's a TON of realism there, too, in how they live day-to-day lives (their lifestyle is one of constantly chasing new mental stimulations - different games, different hobbies, etc - while at the same time being totally OCD about what they do.  For the time they are "hooked" on a hobby, they are TOTALLY hooked on it to the point of obsession).

The characters are not always heroic; they are very flawed.  Each show does not have a life lesson "preachiness" to it.  It's just a collection of stories about a group of people, sometimes they grow and learn and become "better," sometimes they don't.  Kinda like what really happens...we don't always learn from the lessons life teaches us.  They are not 'evil' like some show's characters seem to strive to be; just human.

That said, I'd have to say that Leonard is my favorite character; not always as funny as the others, but by far the most "realistic."  Sheldon is a bit of a caricature and is often "over written," but he's still pretty funny.

Finally, it's very male-centric within its genre.  There are not a LOT of "female good, male bad," plot points and there are not a lot of female centric storylines period.  Given what else is available, it's kind of refreshing in this respect.  It's a show about a bunch of socially inept guy friends, mostly doing (or wanting to do) guy stuff (at least as they perceive that)...and since this has to involve women, it butts these guy drives against their social ineptitude.

That, anyway, is why it appeals to ME.  Can't speak for anyone else.

As a contrast, I absolutely HATED everything about "Will and Grace."  Please tell me the appeal that show had, why it stayed on so long.  I saw nothing remotely funny about any of it...just a bunch of stereotyped and very unlikable characters.

I think ulthar has pegged it.  I've spent a lot of time the last 30+ years in the company of computer- and science-geeks;  we find BBT very funny.   :thumbup:

I think I've been a "geek" many times in my life and enjoyed things considered geeky....comic books,D&D,Star Trek and Star Wars. "Big Bang Theory" to me is very funny. :wink:

     Besides, there has never before been on tv anyone even remotely like Sheldon Cooper.

I agree on Honey BooBoo as thats awful.I hate 95% of reality tv as its not real anyway.

I can take or leave BBT but I am a fan of Sheldon  :smile:


I know several have chimed in on this but yeah, HONEY BOOBOO is genuinely evil.

Don't cancel "Star Search."

It is interesting to see people who are now famous or semi-famous, looked 10 and 20 years ago, when they appeared on "Star Search." And here are some of them, not all of them winners, who appeared on various categories of "Star Search," before they were famous or semi-famous.

aailyah -- aaron and nick carter -- alanis morissette -- alisan porter -- autumn barr -- backstreet boys -- beyonce -- bobbie brown -- britney spears -- christina aguilera -- christopher reyes -- countess vaughn -- david archuleta -- david chappell -- debbie james -- dorian hughes -- drew carey -- eric tidwell -- jarrod spector -- justin timberlake -- kevin james -- kim field -- leann rimes -- martin lawrence -- norm mcdonald -- rosie o'donnell -- tatyana ali -- usher.

And as I failed to mention in my previous post, Sinbad, who beat Dennis Miller in the comedy competition, made it all the way to the finals. Which means if Dennis Miller had gotten just two more audience votes, when he lost to Sinbad, Miller would have been in the finals instead of Sinbad.

Law ad Order:SVU has been doing cheesy "ripped from the headlines" episodes for what seems like a hundred years. is rape really so fascinating that people will watch these absurd scenerios and Ice T's lame acting?

I agree with all except one... I love American dad, it is strange I hate Family guy and the Cleveland show with a passion. American dad is more out there, and has that sci-fi element to it. The other two are low brow, and stupid. gaaaaa

I don't watch much tv at all aside from sports really, but I'd be all for the canceling of all these talent/singing contest shows. I just feel they are over saturated.

Number one reason why I hate BBT, the laughter that goes on through the show, it really irritates me, as if to point out to the stupid viewers ''Here, laugh at this NOW!!" I hate shows that does this, for reason I just said.