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A Record High of 455 Scripted TV Shows Aired in 2016 (vulture.com)
In case you wanted to ground your abstract TV FOMO in hard numbers, FX has data on the fact that, yes, there really is too much TV. An anonymous reader shares a report: The network, whose CEO John Landgraf coined the idea of "peak TV," has released its unofficial tally of the number of shows on TV, finding that 455 different scripted television series from broadcast, cable, and streaming sources aired in the last year. That's an 8 percent increase from last year, when 421 shows aired on TV; a 71 percent increase from 2011, when a mere 266 shows were on TV; and a 137 percent increase from 2006, when there were 192 shows on TV.
400+ TV channels, Netflix, Amazon Prime etc. and still NOTHING GOOD IS ON
Saying that there is too much TV implies that I should be trying to watch every show on TV. But if different segments of the population watch different types of shows then who cares how many shows there are on TV? That's simply called having a choice.
Unless of course you mean all those "reality" shows that have* to die.
* note that my list of shows that have to die may differ from other peoples lists. But here on /. I'm pretty sure that I can safely say that every damn ghost hunter/big foot hunter/alien hunter etc reality show needs to die a painful death.
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It is really hard to stop watching TV. I have cut down to 3 shows a week.
I also stopped playing video games, especially on my phone.
These things are a big time-suck, a vacuous hole of waste.
Instead of video games, I have apps that are game-like, but educational. DuoLingo, MemRise, PianoSightReading, etc.
Instead of TV, I practice guitar, bass guitar, piano, and recently, violin. Also I workout and run everyday.
Basically, I am taking my previously wasted time and trying to better myself.
Try looking back. Did it really matter if Gilligan ever got off of that stupid island?
Did Hawkeye Pierce save more people because you tuned in?
Do you care if Al and Peg Bundy's kids ever moved out?
Twenty years from now, will you care if Sheldon every marries Amy?
Will you care if Mike Ross goes to jail or really becomes a lawyer?
Or, in twenty years, will you say, I should have been healthier, I should have read more, I should have learned a language.
- I live the greatest adventure anyone could possibly desire. - Tosk the Hunted
FX are *way* under-counting. There are an awful lot more than 455 scripted television shows out there. Hell, there are more than that on YouTube alone.
Their mistake is to assume that something only "counts" as a TV show if it's in standard half-hour-with-ad-breaks format, and it's "broadcast" on something that they recognise as a TV channel. But a looser definition - say, "scripted video content released on a recurring basis" would include literally thousands more, and it's a bad sign for FX that they apparently haven't acknowledged this fact.
What FX are doing is the equivalent of an oil company not realising that they're in the *energy* business (and therefore subject to competition from solar power and the like), or a car company not realising they're in the *transportation* business (and therefore subject to competition from rail, motorcycles and so on). Or perhaps a better comparison is the phone company not realising they're in the *communications* industry, and therefore failing to expand into mobile and internet provision until it was too late.
-- Note to Mods: There is a good reason there's no "-1 Disagree" option. --
Nothing good on? Bullshit. Here are the show only on FX in the past year, with their RT ratings:
Atlanta 100%
Fargo 98%
Always Sunny in Philadelphia 97%
Archer 97%
People vs. OJ Simpson 97%
The Americans 96%
Better Things 94%
You're the Worst 92%
Man Seeking Woman 90%
American Horror Story 77%
Baskets 70%
That doesn't count all the great shows on HBO (GoT, Westworld, Insecure), AMC (Better Call Saul, Walking Dead), Netflix (Stranger Things, The Crown), Amazon (Fleabag, Good Girls Revolt), and many others.
Also, RTFA - 455 this year is counting only NEW, SCRIPTED (not reality) shows on TV and OTT services like Netflix and Amazon. There's even a chart. Landgraf knows what he's talking about.
Also, many of you are making his point for him. Nobody wants to pay for this (ie watch commercials or subscribe). Each hour of high end TV (not twitch, not pewdiepie, not unboxing, but real scripted TV that can compete in this landscape) costs roughly $2.5 million. So, I just mentioned roughy 170 hours of content above - that's 425 million dollars. Where is that money going to come from?