Television for many of us offers a release from the trials and tribulations of everyday life. If you thought you have recently had a tough run in life then simply switch on the evening news and you can take solace from the fact that somewhere in the world others probably have it tougher than you.
If you are worried about that Freudian slip of the tongue when you accidentally used the expression “youse” when drunk on the weekend then after the news, Today Tonight and A Current Affair will no doubt have a story to allay your fears you have fallen to the levels of that dole bludging, benefit cheating, notorious nasty neighbour.
Then its reality hour, or two depending on what new show a network has they want to launch into for the rest of the night. After all when was the last time a show actually started on a half hour mark?
The problem with reality TV is that the producers think that the viewers are dumber than those tuning into TT and ACA at 6.30. It seems to get worse every year. It started a few years ago when these shows introduced the tease of what was coming up after the break.
This year it has bee enhanced to include the ‘recap’. This is where we spend 30 plus seconds seeing what we have just seen. We get this recap before going into what only 3 minutes earlier was most likely just previewed.
To explain it goes a little like this.
The past 200 words have tried to take a look at what is on TV in the evenings and how we have seen a change in the way reality TV is presented to us. All commercial networks are responsible for this. Coming up in the next paragraph, we will identify which shows in particular are the worst offenders.
You have just read about how all the commercial networks are responsible for the state of television shows recapping on what we have just seen. Whether it be The Block, The Biggest Loser, Australia’s Got Talent, Masterchef, or the biggest culprit The Voice, they all spend close to 20% of their program time telling us what we have seen or what we are about to see. If you progress to the next part of this piece you won’t want to miss the dissection of bad footage from these shows that we don’t see.
Well it’s been an exciting blog so far and as discussed previously, The Block and The Voice in particular, seem to do the recap better than most. However in a reality show where hundreds of hours of footage are presumably captured, how boring must these bits be that never got off the cutting room floor? After the next line break you can’t miss how this ends.
Previously we suggested that The Voice does a recap better than most. They also do the over the top preview better than all the rest as well. Imploring you to stay tuned because coming up is the biggest sensation of the night. But you are let down as the same tease gets revisited every break. Yet we still get caught up hanging out for this sensation when the show is back on only to be let down again.
So you get the picture. It becomes monotonous and draining to see the same footage over and over again. Sure we could switch over to the ABC or SBS but at the end of the day a bit of light relief from the troubles of the rest of the world is what we are after in the evenings.
Even if we have to see that light relief reincarnated, before and after, every break in the show.
Lenny
