Things i’ve grown to dislike…

Why do TV Stations persist with the notion that we are all still habitual viewers? That we will tune in same time, same place each week to see our favourite program even when it’s not there.

I can understand back in the day when a remote control was a reference to the fact that the TV knob was soo far away from the couch, you would turn the TV onto a channel and leave it there.

The same era when the only alternative to TV was to listen to the nightly countdown on the radio or read a book.

Sure, back then we would stay tuned into the Channel 7 news after watching a game show on the same channel because we couldnt be bothered getting up. And no doubt we would have tuned in week in week out at the same time slot regardless of the fact that our favourite TV Show was off air till next winter. Hell I used to do it, watch the Cosby show on 9, then they took it off and replaced it with Murphy Brown…. so i kept watching, there was nothing else to do.

The problem is that TV stations still have that mentality.

They still think that the 5:30 is crucial to get the big audience on the news when I will quite happily watch Deal or No Deal and press the button on the remote and change to the Simpsons.

I’m also no longer going to tune in week in week out because I will only watch what I want to watch when it’s on. I have other things to occupy my time, Movies, Music, My Computer, Playstation, Books, DVD’s, Sport etc etc

Its amazing that Channel 7, in an attempt to hold onto the 2 million viewers that watch Greys Anatomy replaced it with Criminal Minds in the assumption that they would then tune into that instead. Unfortunately for 7, Criminal Minds got the same ratings it did in its usual slot ie 1.2 million.

Two incidents in sport have annoyed me over the weekend. Both involve minor skirmishes which have been blown out of all proportion when in reality they amount to little more than a schoolyard scuffle.

First was Arsene Wenger (Arsenal Manager) and Alan Pardew (West Ham Manager) squaring off on the touch line. Over their the Manager is the Coach and unlike over here they are allowed a small technical area within which they can pace up and down ranting and raving like a drunken mad man.

We can only guess what Pardew said to Wenger after his team scored the winner 2 minutes from time, “that was a jolly good goal, i’d like to see your chaps emulate that” or “your team couldn’t score in a brothel” maybe? Whatever it was Wenger lost it, in the sort of way that a midget might lose it, you all laugh because you know he wont hurt anyone. Wenger looks like a school teacher, a real weeny school teacher and his reaction was like having his buttons pushed one time too much by the class trouble maker. It was very unlike Wenger but somehow it’s being reported all over the shop about how they would have to face charges of bringing the game into disrepute.

Closer to home, Brendon Fevola continues to make the news as the AFL newsmongers struggle to come up with anything interesting or newsworthy in the off season. After grabbing some irish hotel guy by the shirt and putting him in a 2 second headlock he has had a barrage of criticism. And apparently his poor family have copped abuse as well.

How ridiculous are both these situations. Don’t the news have anything better to do than flare up rather innocuous incidents. I’ve seen worse clashes at the cott on a sunday than these 2 yet they are being punished or could possibly be punished quite harshly.

For Wenger and Pardew, well I couldn’t care, he squared up to him and shouted some words, they didn’t shake hands at the end. I loved it, a bit of passion, personalities clashing, it happens in sport, it’s great. Why is it that in Cricket two players can sledge each other yet in football it’s called bringing the game into disrepute.

As for Fevola, well I’m sure its not the first time that a sports person has done something stupid, its also not the first time someones clashed with another person and its certainly in the slightest stretch of the imagination, a major incident. He was sent home from Ireland yet Willie Mason (some rugby league player) punches a British player in the midst of a game, in the head, in front of heaps of cameras and all he gets is a one match suspension. How does that work?