Why do TV producers treat us like morons?

[PacificOcean]

I've noticed a severe downturn in "so did you see X on telly last night?" conversations compared to, say, ten years ago. I think more and more people _are_ just not watching TV, or at least not watching nearly as much.

Indeed.

In the 70's and 80's as many as 40m would be watching Saturday night TV.

Now they are lucky if the total audience is 20m.

And multi-channel has fragmented that small audience even further.

Could you imagine 10 to 15 years ago, 9 million being excellent ratings for Corrie - which is what it gets now?

10 years ago rubbish like Family Fortunes would get 9 million.

 

[dash_two]

There have always been telly programs that don't demand much attention or mental effort. But so what? The issue is whether those programs are of good quality or poor quality and whether they treat their audiences with respect or cynicism.

There is no excuse for making rubbish TV programs.

 

[dweller]

BBC4 was really good tonight. but have you ever met yer average tv producer? a vacuum contains more substance.