Reality Overload!!

[moonshadow]

What's happening to prime time ITV programmes? For instance Tuesday 9pm, new series ,******.Who wants to watch yet another Dragon's Den, Apprentice cloned show full of budding entrepreneurs with their squabbling incompetence,surely this is a programme more suited to channel 4 or if I had my way ,the bin.Then for the next hour we are subjected to Dara O'Briain's Tough Gig were we are subjected to the delights of a group dressed up as elves,orcs and warriors staging full scale battles of The Lord of the Rings and what makes them tic ! The fact is who cares!! If they have to make such rubbish why don't they screen it after 11.30 with the rest of the dross.What's happened to all the quality Drama and sitcoms? I'd like to know what do you all think?

[Ethel]

Cheap programming is the answer. In the good old days when there were only two or three stations, the programme makers had big budgets to make quality programmes to grab the biggest share of the audience.

Because of the limited choice, programme makers could allow new series time to grow and develop - a lot of 'classic tv' was an initial failure, but over time grew to be firm favourites.
Nowadays, if something new doesn't succeed very quickly, the series is pulled.

Of course, tv went off at 11pm then - they weren't filling the schedules 24/7, so the budget had far less of a stretch.

Then came remote controls and channel hopping. It became harder to guarantee the prime time viewer - it used to be that once the tv was turned on at 7.30 or 8pm, the channel would rarely be changed until the dot on the screen that signalled 'time for bed'.

[jenstar]

Blimey, that's a little bit harsh, having the swear filter set to asterisk it out. I mean, it can't be that bad, surely? Interesting that people think it's going to be an Apprentice/Dragons' Den "clone" (and how can it be a "clone" of two programmes which, while both loosely about business, are otherwise completely different formats?) when if it's a clone of anything, it's the 2003 series "Innovation Nation". What short memories people have. It was prime time BBC1 - surely you can't have forgotten it already?

[juliacornwal]

I'm on your side, moonshadow, I'm sick of the endless array of people wanting their fifteen minutes of fame!

[moonshadow]

Jenstar I didn't 'asterick' it out as you have pointed out the Ed did,as you can see in the little brown box marked 'Edited by Answerbank'. I thought it rather strange as I mention two programmes and only one was zapped.It's the first time my post has been edited so it comes to us all in the end.Anyone got an idea why? all answers gratefully received!! Perhaps cloned was the wrong word Jenstar I should have put boring.Business should be kept to the boardroom (get the pun!) and yes at my age you are lucky if you can remember what day of the week it is let alone what channel a boring programme was screened on months ago.

[mushroom25]

moonshadow, the word "tyc00n" is considered racist by answerbank. that's why it was asterisked out.

[LeMarchand]

I loathe all reality shows. That said, I rarely watch anything on ITV. Of late it's only been "Doc Martin" and the similar but not (to me) as good "Kingdom"; and I can't remember the last show I watched on ITV before DM!

[moonshadow]

Mushroom 25 thanks for your answer, pardon my ignorance but could you explain why the naughty word is considered racist, I'm a bit behind the times with such things?

[LeMarchand]

moonshadow you're probably "too young to remember" rather than "behind the times"! The part of the word that follows the "ty" used to be in fairly common usage as an offensive term for a black person (probably an abbreviation of racc oon - without the space).

[moonshadow]

Thanks for the explanation LeMerchant I can be a bit slow on the uptake at times.I am old enough to remember the word and a lot more besides and was born in the year Malcolm Little changed his name to Malcolm X .I still think it was crazy to ban it as it was part of another word ,especially when subject such as Jamie-boyo in Media are allowed