… watching TechTV and “The Screen Savers”. I’ve been a bit of a fan for several years. I even went as far as to get DirecTV so that I could get it.
They just keep running the show and the whole network straight into the ground. It started out as ZDTV about 5-7 years ago and was great. I loved the call-in stuff and that it was a good place to learn more about computers. It made it much easier to keep up with current trends. The only other alternative at the time was PC Magazine and it’s competitors.
ZDTV sold out to TechTV, which traded hands a few times and then sold out to Comcast, who merged it with G4TV (A network dedicated to video gaming). They moved it from San Francisco to Los Angeles, bringing about the loss of several great personalities who didn’t want to move.
Now I read that they basically fired all but two people on “The Screen Savers”, and plan to overhaul the show again. It seems that every time they do that, they get further from their roots, and what made them what they are. Every time they overhaul, they get worse and worse, ignoring what their fans are saying they want to see. No wonder their ratings continue to slide. I don’t read the Newspapers because I don’t like being told how and what to think, and I don’t want to watch a TV show that tells me what I want to see. As it is, I only watch the show after it’s been recorded to my Tivo, and I fast forward through at least a third of it. Take out commercials, and then fast forward through 20 of the 45 minutes that’s not commercials, and you’re not left with much substance.
The Discovery Channel or TLC would have a great show on their hands if they were to hire everyone that has been fired from “The Screen Savers” to do a similar show on their network, going back to what the show originally was.
Then again, maybe it’s better if it shrivels up and goes away. I have less and less time to be sitting in front of a TV anyway.