Sunday, February 19, 2006

Frankly Speaking

With great annoyance, I remembered this morning that once again, there would be no Gilmore Girls this evening. And I thought to myself, I've had it. So, I did this.

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Dear Editor,

I was a fan of the West Wing and a fan of Gilmore Girls. It was with great annoyance that I discovered the television station's penchant of knocking off these shows for weeks on end for lesser shows or worse yet, repeat telecasts of reality or local programmes. The West Wing was a highly intellectual and stimulating show that touched on political and social issues in a way that no other show did. By screening it at close to midnight where most people who watch it and have jobs are asleep, or on late Saturday afternoon was just asking for ratings to be less than desired, which of course gave you more ammunition to put it a yet an even less desirable time slot.

Gilmore Girls, on the other hand, seems to be the victim to the repeat telecasts of lengthy and repeated screenings of antiquated and highly censored Hollywood movies being passed off as Sunday Night Blockbuster.. Gilmore Girls Season 5 took a break from Sunday evening for so many weeks that almost everyone had forgotten that it was still running. Many viewers leapt for joy when it finally reared its head the Sunday after CNY only to be told, through ticker tape at the bottom of the screen that it would once again be taking a break till the 5th of March. And this was just after one episode of its reappearance on 5. The problem with this is the sense of continuity. Viewers lose interest because they forget the plot lines. And because it is just too darn difficult to keep track of what time and when the next episode is, they come to one of two conclusions. Either they give up totally, in which case the station loses viewers again- often to cable television. Of course, this once again allows the television station to perpetuate the myth that only local television programmes are popular and allowing the station to justify airing a weaker and less entertaining selection. The other solution viewers have, is to wait and buy the DVD series. Gilmore Girls Season 5 and the West Wing Season 6 are already available on DVD so instead of being at the mercy of the programming eccentricities of the television station, for ardent fans, it is much more painless and a great deal more enjoyable to just buy the DVD and ditch Channel 5 altogether.

Just because Channel 5 is the only English television channel, it does not give one the license to screw around with the programming this badly. Viewers always have a choice and in this case, the choice puts the station at a severe disadvantage. I would hesitate to become like many of my peers who do not watch anything on free to air television and end up watching just cable or DVDs because after all, I do pay a television and radio license and this means, I am a legitimate consumer that should not let the television station get away with such shoddy programming.

Thanks very much for your time. And it's fine by us if this doesn'tt win the letter of the month and the cool station memorabilia.


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Ondine tossed this thought in at 10:45

1 thoughts...

1 thoughts...

At 12:33 am Blogger Tym said...

Wah, fierce! As you should be.

 

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