Without Commercials - TV Sucks

I’ve heard TiVo and other personal video recorders are great. How it could change the way I watch TV. How I could skip and fast-forward commercials immediately returing to my favorite program.

How this will force advertisers to pursue non-interruptive methods of getting their message across. Maybe make TV more like real life by exploring product placement.

Maybe, but quality TV will always be interrupted.

For, only quality TV can be interrupted.

With 500+ channels, Netflix, and the outside world, if I’m watching reruns of Amish in the City, please, please, I beg of you - interrupt me. Amazing Race 5 on the other hand, could be interrupted by say, Amish in the City and I’d be glued to the screen anxiously awaiting its return. Without the threat of the 30-second+ interruption, writers, editors, networks, have no incentive to make good TV. No compelling reason to build up anticipation and at the exact moment of climax, swap in a Happy Fun Ball-esque pharmaceutical ad.

If nobody wants to interrupt the show, then the content probably isn’t valuable anyway. Advertisers can play with the format - longer, shorter, louder, quieter - but the point remains: TV worth watching is TV worth interrupting.