Saturday, prime time telly, anybody bother?

Nibble · Sep 15, 2013

I was flicking through catch up just now looking for summat to watch this evening and noted that Saturday prime time still seems to exist. Gameshows, talent shows, weak light entertainment. Since the advent of catch up, box sets, movies on demand etc why does anyone still bother with this crap? They must do as it still gets churned out but just who is still paying attention to Ant and Dec and Gameshows.

noticed a thing called Do you Love Your Country, some game show with a set that looks like a sub-standard, Alan Partridge attempt at recreating the Olympic opening ceremony. Just watched 5 mins. It's ****ing shit.

As a youth I used to loathe Saturday evening telly. Once Knight Rider or A Team was over I'd get the lego out or summat, found it all so depressing. 321, Play Your Cards Right, Price is right etc. Occassionaly enjoyed Catchphrase.

thedonkeycentrehalf · Sep 15, 2013

The old Saturday evening TV was meant to be family orientated but probably the last shows that really met that brief were Total Wipeout (which the BBC axed last year) ad TV Burp which Harry Hill killed off himself..

It's now so predictable in the winter - Strictly, XFactor, the omnipresent Casualty - most people don't bother.

Nibble · Sep 15, 2013

TV burp was great for Sunday repeat, great hangover telly.

Deleted member 18477 · Sep 15, 2013

X factor is amazing :lolol:

Although I tend to record it and watch it hungover on Sunday...

vegster · Sep 15, 2013

I could go on for ages about the demise of television. But in a nutshell, it has had to dumb down to a very low level. There are too many channels and not enough money.Some shows can rise above this but production costs are prohibitive. Sherlock for instance is fantastic telly but don't expect too many more as they can't keep Cumberbatch on the BBC budget. Shows are mostly safe, lowbrow, lowest common denominators, linked to voting and " Behind the Scenes " extension shows to fill the multitude of channels. The few big hitter shows dominate the airwaves and the budgets. It's almost impossible to get a new show to air,other than derivations of " X, Strictly, Bake Off " . There are now just a few homogeneous formats that all shows are descended from. I worry that telly can never recover.

KZNSeagull · Sep 15, 2013

vegster said:
I could go on for ages about the demise of television. But in a nutshell, it has had to dumb down to a very low level. There are too many channels and not enough money.Some shows can rise above this but production costs are prohibitive. Sherlock for instance is fantastic telly but don't expect too many more as they can't keep Cumberbatch on the BBC budget. Shows are mostly safe, lowbrow, lowest common denominators, linked to voting and " Behind the Scenes " extension shows to fill the multitude of channels. The few big hitter shows dominate the airwaves and the budgets. It's almost impossible to get a new show to air,other than derivations of " X, Strictly, Bake Off " . There are now just a few homogeneous formats that all shows are descended from. I worry that telly can never recover.

Interesting. You are right - English telly has gone the way of American telly - too many channels filled with rubbish. Sky to blame again - ruined football and telly! To be fair though, Saturday night telly was always pretty crap! At least the BBC do come out with the occasional cracker like Sherlock, but it comes to something when Downton Abbey is hailed at the greatest thing for years, when it is actually an extremely predictable, badly scripted, soap opera.

Barrel of Fun · Sep 15, 2013

I caught a bit of Badults the other day. That is utter tripe. There's been a great deal of dire comedy produced in recent times. Where are all the good writers hiding?

vegster · Sep 15, 2013

KZNSeagull said:
Interesting. You are right - English telly has gone the way of American telly - too many channels filled with rubbish. Sky to blame again - ruined football and telly! To be fair though, Saturday night telly was always pretty crap! At least the BBC do come out with the occasional cracker like Sherlock, but it comes to something when Downton Abbey is hailed at the greatest thing for years, when it is actually an extremely predictable, badly scripted, soap opera.

Downton is merely the reincarnation of Upstairs Downstairs, which was one of a range of fairly decent period dramas of 30 odd years ago. There was Onedin, Poldark and The Forsyth Saga, all of which would be as good if not better than Fellowes' bland fayre.

Durlston · Sep 15, 2013

I think the broadcasters attitude is that a lot of people go out on a Saturday night, especially in the summer months so why bother blowing their best programmes and putting anything decent on? Friday night is much better as most people are knackered after the working week and more likely to stay in - Miranda and Mrs Brown's Boys are brilliant.

I've never watched X Factor in my life but viewing figures are apparently going down each year.

Questions · Sep 15, 2013

Bring back Dixon of Dock Green. Real gritty police drama.

You lot are a bunch of whining pansies. Read a book, watch a movie ( there are hundreds on Sky On Demand ) or go down the pub.

lawros left foot · Sep 15, 2013

Spent the last few months( and a fair amount of hard earned) buying up American tv boxsets on e-bay cos 90% of British tele is abysmal. It used to be the reverse, but things hsve changed and i can count on thr fingers of one hand the decent shows made by us. Why when we have something good does it only have 4-6 episodes per series, when the yanks make between 13-22?

Norman Potting · Sep 15, 2013

I once heard someone say that the saddest phrase in the English language is "...I watched some really terrible programmes on TV last night".

ofco8 · Sep 15, 2013

Yep, apart from football later in the evening have given up on Saturday TV. Watch a film mainly now.

Nibble · Sep 16, 2013

Questions said:
Bring back Dixon of Dock Green. Real gritty police drama.

You lot are a bunch of whining pansies. Read a book, watch a movie ( there are hundreds on Sky On Demand ) or go down the pub.

I think it's safe to say we all do those these things. If you read the OP properly you'll see that Indeed, I don't bother with it. Last night I fancies a bit of light entertainment and went in search of it on catch up, was surprised at the mount of crap so I watched a doc about Britain AD and read the papers. I rarely go to the pub on a Sunday night.

MissGull · Sep 16, 2013

I used to love Saturday night TV. Generation game, Blind Date, Noel's house party, Family Fortunes, Stars in their Eyes, Gladiators. Only 4 channels back then and the VCR.

glasfryn · Sep 16, 2013

we watched a film of "on demand" called "Shifty" good film and last night watched "Papillion" very old but very good film that we had seen several times before
Saturday and Sunday early evening TV is shite

desprateseagull · Sep 16, 2013

xfactor/strictly are a big turnoff. raather catch up on stuff i've recorded during the week, or dvd's.

Westdene Seagull · Sep 16, 2013

I don't mind the dumbing down on an early Saturday evening - especially as the weather starts to draw in. My family all snuggle up in the lounge to watch X-Factor for it's comedy value. Add a couple of beers - perfect ( but sad ) !

Nibble · Sep 16, 2013

glasfryn said:
we watched a film of "on demand" called "Shifty" good film and last night watched "Papillion" very old but very good film that we had seen several times before
Saturday and Sunday early evening TV is shite

Yes Papillion is very good, true story as well. Seen it a few times when I was going through a Steve Mqueen is God phase before I reached my Steve McQueen was an average talent who made very few good films phase.

Didn't like Shifty.

A turning point for British TV came in the early 90's when the US had a writer's strike. The States came up with a bunch of non-scripted shows in order to compensate for having no scriptwriters. Shows such as Judge Judy, Cops Jerry Springer and god awful teen reality house sharing style progs replaced drama overnight. They had a magic formulae, idiots liked them, There are lots of idiots and they watch a lot of telly and the shows were VERY cheap to make.

They stuck and as usual the UK followed suit. In the states drama is heavily regulated on terrestrial telly for nudity, swearing and gore but reality telly is classed as documentary and can contain these things. It wasn't until HBO, who are not a terrestrial company and not subject to the same censorship rules, started making their own progs that things improved.

Nibble · Sep 16, 2013

Westdene Seagull said:
I don't mind the dumbing down on an early Saturday evening - especially as the weather starts to draw in. My family all snuggle up in the lounge to watch X-Factor for it's comedy value. Add a couple of beers - perfect ( but sad ) !

Can't put that down chap, sounds bloody nice actually.

Got something to say or just want fewer pesky ads? Join us... 😊

Saturday, prime time telly, anybody bother?

New member

Retired

New member

Deleted member 18477

Guest

Sanity Clause

Well-known member

Abort, retry, fail

Sanity Clause

"Garlic bread!?"

Habitual User

Glory hunting since 1969

Well-known member

Well-known member

New member

New member

cleaning up cat sick

New member

aka Cap'n Carl Firecrotch

New member

New member

Share this page