Do critics run the networks?

[jackfaire]

Something I have started to notice in the last few years is that if a show is loved by most of the people I know and thought to be of good quality and not insult the audience with stupid inane jokes. When it's thought provoking and involves you not just rolling over you with predictable storylines.

When these things are true I hear and see a bunch of critics call the show crap then the same critics tout shows that show people acting in ways that we would call idiotic.

The shows I feel entertained by get cancelled. The ones that feed predictable and dumb storylines don't.

It seems like critics get more of a say than the many viewers out there. And god forbid are we still listening to the Nielson's hell why not listen to the internet viewers like me and ask our opinion?

I think the system needs fixing.

[AdminAssistant]

What shows are being cancelled that you feel are great? What shows are being touted that you feel are crap? Some examples might help here.

There are lots of popular TV shows that annoy the hell out of me. Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, Gray's Anatomy, etc. As soon as I discovered that I didn't like those shows...I stopped watching them. I have two shows I watch on a regular basis: NCIS and Ace of Cakes. I don't worry about the rest.

I do get annoyed when Shane Brennan and the NCIS writers do crap to play to the shippers and Internet fangeeks. Tony and Ziva aren't going to get together so could we just DROP it? Geez...It's going on FIVE seasons of this, mkay? If everybody's so desperate for a relationship in the show, get McGee laid by someone who isn't a bimbo.

[jackfaire]

One he did date Abby.

Two for example My Own Worst Enemy. I don't remembrer how many critics bashed it but some in my area did while I knew it to be a very popular show.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip seemed to be panned by critics but many people loved it while it was on.

[daleduke17]

I'm surprised House is still on. Good show, compelling storylines (most times), I like it...and it is still on. Damn. I'm amazed.

Some shows that need to die a very painful death: American Idol, Biggest Loser, Chopped, FN Challenge, Food Detectives, anything with Poker, Worst Cooks in America, most "reality" shows, and most "talent" shows.

How people think these shows are great. American Idol had ONE good singer: Carrie Underwood. Biggest Loser is just there to plug Jillian Michaels. I hate watching poker. Most "talent" shows only show people withOUT the required talent for the show, and "FN Challenge" is just boring and repetitive.

There are very few shows that have held on to a better time of television and that is Two and A Half Men. A good old fashioned sitcom. Decent writing, good cast, and humor. There needs to be a resurgence of good sitcoms.

[AdminAssistant]

One he did date Abby.

How many times does this have to be said? McGee and Abby dated (very) casually in Season 1, while McGee was only a recurring character. At the end of Season 1, Abby broke things off with him, primarily because Sean Murray was going to become a regular cast member (McGee became a full agent in the first episode of Season 2). That's it. A couple of episodes 6 seasons ago. They periodically remind everyone of Rule #12, but it never seems to take hold.

I do get aggravated when McGee gets hooked up with these complete ditzes. Come on, give the Elf Lord a geeky girl!

How people think these shows are great. American Idol had ONE good singer: Carrie Underwood. Biggest Loser is just there to plug Jillian Michaels. I hate watching poker. Most "talent" shows only show people withOUT the required talent for the show, and "FN Challenge" is just boring and repetitive.

There are very few shows that have held on to a better time of television and that is Two and A Half Men. A good old fashioned sitcom. Decent writing, good cast, and humor. There needs to be a resurgence of good sitcoms.

See people have these things called "opinions" and they frequently differ. I don't watch American Idol, but I understand the appeal. Cute kids with lots of hopes and dreams hoping to become superstars. That is an idea appealing to a lot of people.

I actually like Biggest Loser, although I don't watch it often (it conflicts with NCIS). While it's a reality show, there are people getting help for an issue. AND the contestants are never pandered or condescended to....they're treated like real, actual people who have a problem for a variety of reasons.

The only way I can properly express my opinion of 99% of sitcoms is to use the words of George Carlin, who said that sitcoms are a series of doors opening and closing with assholes entering and exiting rooms. Can't stand them. Two and a Half Men is a particularly awful example. I couldn't get through one episode. So...I don't watch those things.

[Fryk]

Chopped DOES need to be booted off the air. You can watch and tell that Ted Allen has no enthusiasm when hosting it. I DO like Worst cooks in America, though, mostly when people cry and moan because they got yelled at for touching raw chicken and not washing their hands afterward.

[Amanita]

A friend and I liked that NBC show "Trauma", set in San Francisco. I liked the characters- interactions between some of them had the potential to get interesting. Example- one paramedic bitching about gay drag queens in the vicinity of kids, saying he didn't want his kids seeing that, or something to that effect. And then later his partner comes out, saying that knowing a place like SF existed was one of the few things that kept him sane and alive as a troubled gay teen.
Eventually they came to understand each other a little better, and the potential for more revelations or conflicts was there.
And some of the situations they dealt with were wild- a jetliner crashing at Alameda? I kept waiting for them to have a cable car accident or a spectacular vehicular crack-up on the Golden Gate Bridge.

I have to admit, being a huge fan of San Francisco, it was cool seeing all the locations and thinking "Hey, I was there!"
Unfortunately the critics didn't like the show and it got canned after only 13 episodes. Boo, hiss! My friend even liked it, and she is one of the most critical people I know.

[elsporko]

If critics run the networks then we would probably have better shows since critics have no reason to like something that is poorly written, boring, or predictable. If it wasn't for critics there are good shows like Arrested Development that would have been canceled sooner.

Just because you know some people who don't like a show you like it doesn't mean they control the network when that show is canceled. Ratings and production costs control the network. A show could be created that is better then any work of literature in the history of mankind and it will be canceled if the ratings aren't high enough to cover the costs. This is why reality shows do so well, they are cheap to make.

[telecom_goddess]

No I don't think critics run the networks.....advertisers run the networks. What generates money is what gets to stay, quality be dammed.

I watch very little network tv these days. House is an exception. But sitcoms today....seriously? They have been crap for a long while now. They used to be innovative back in the early seventies....what happened?

[Hawaiian Eskimo]

The critics can't run the networks, if they did, there wouldn't be so much crap on TV these days.

Most critics have such high standards of "quality entertainment" that most everything would be at least halfway decent.

[Boozy]

Most critics have such high standards of "quality entertainment" that most everything would be at least halfway decent.

I agree. I almost always like "critically acclaimed" TV shows.

Unfortunately, they are few and far between. If critics ran the networks, we'd have three hours of good TV a day followed by nothing but dead air.

There are hundreds of channels airing 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That's a lot of time to fill and not enough talent to fill it. From a statistical standpoint, we shouldn't be surprised that 95% of the time when we turn on the TV, there's "nothing on".

[elsporko]

There's enough good shows from the past that there should always be something good on. Unfortunately people who run networks seem to be insane sometimes. I remember back a few years when Comedy Central was running Mad TV all the time. I hate Mad TV, but what was really frustrating was at 2 in the afternoon on weekdays there was an hour where they seemingly at random would show Kids in the Hall, Action, Strangers with Candy, Whose Line is it Anyways, or a few other shows I can't remember. All of the shows were good but they were only shown at this time slot and you never knew what was going to be on. Why not spread those around? Of course this is the same network that for a while showed The Critic at 2 in the morning on Mondays and never at any other time.