Television is Dead.

The question is, whodunit? And why?

To backtrack, I came up with the question while taking some survey. The questionnaire asked "How many hours a week do you spend watching television?" and gave a list of answers, like "15 to 20 hours", et cetera. At any rate, my answer was well short of that; as of the fall, with the NFL season in full swing, I watch a game or two on sunday, and that's pretty much it, so my answer was 6 to 8 hours. That may not sound like much, but this is arguably the time of year that I watch the most... I'm into football the most out of all sports, as you don't have to search around for the games, and you don't have to have cable to get them; (for the most part) you can just turn to Fox every Sunday afternoon, order some food, and the next seven or so hours of your life are set. Good times.

But when it comes to any other time of the year, I normally don't even bother. I'll watch the sunday afternoon basketball game on NBC in the winter and early spring, but that will be it. Baseball season is even worse, I get my fill of baseball in an hour of SportCenter a week. I'll also throw in the occasional episode of Family Guy every now and then. In the past (years ago) I would have been keeping up to date with music via MTV or BET, but those networks don't even show music videos; 106 and Park doesn't count, as I just...refuse to watch it anymore. I'm not one of those "I'm too busy to watch TV" type of people (or else I probably wouldn't do this blog), or the "I'm too cool for normal entertainment" type either. In fact, I get plenty of entertainment, whether it's watching the news, a music video, an episode of The Office, a trailer for a movie to come out, or celebrity breakdown caught on tape. Only I do it through the Internet, free of commercial breaks* and home to all the porn I could ever need.

So I suppose that answers the first question at hand; the Internet killed the video star, that's for sure. But now for the "why?" In my opinion, television died with it's eyes open, because it definitely deserved that isht. There are striking parallels between the decline in music (especially hip-hop) and the decline in quality television. It all stems from some corporate executive guy (or woman; Ask a Robot is an equal opportunity site) that decided that they can get people to accept anything, provided they shove it down the viewers/listeners throats. And that's what happened; just as skilled rappers and singers slowly lost their relevance to people with tawdry affairs, perfect features and media circus lifestyles instead of talent, TV shows with substance and quality writing lost their footing in the tidal wave of reality television shows. As descendants of the Real World, all of these shows adopt mantra; force people with contrasting lifestyles (there's always one gay guy or lesbian) and backgrounds (there's always one Black or Hispanic person) to be together in front of a camera, and just let the sparks fly. I remember hearing, I believe in 9th or 10th grade, that there would be one hundred reality shows on at any given time in the next 5 years. That was actually seven or six years ago, but it totally came true; do me a favor, and scroll through the channels at any given point in the day; you'll find at least fifteen RS's. This flooding of the market with reality shows with little to no actual depth (see: Amish in the City) was quite successful for a while, and the best thing about it? No need to pay actors every week; granted, there's always some $100,000 prize at the end for someone, which seems like a lot of money to your regular Joe (or Jane) Schmo, but in comparison to what they would have to pay ANY normal actor? A small sacrifice (The entire cast of Friends, in their last season, made $1,000,000 per episode. [I know it was an iconic show, and had longevity and all that, but even shows that have only proven to be a hit for one season have to jack up the salaries of the main players]). No need to hire writers to create dialogue; just let them have at it in front of the camera. The best part is, that "grand prize" only has to go to one person; the rest of the people, no matter how entertaining, don't get anything. A brilliant money making scheme, but there was only one problem; people started to get sick of it.

I have done absolutely no research on this subject, but I estimate that television viewing is at an all time low. Its like that era in pop music, like the late 90s, early 2000s, when people no one had ever heard of mysteriously went triple platinum off the strength of one or two singles. That also worked for a while, until the whole P2P file sharing thing came about. Then you could really decide what kind of music you want, without having to shell out 17 bones to have the one song you actually liked and another hour worth of music you never listen to again. Now, if you're an artist, you're lucky to go platinum at all; and don't come with any BS, lest you pull a MIMS. The point is, the internet puts the control back with the viewer; I don't have to find shows to occupy my boring Friday night in, I can just look at archival episodes of shows on hulu or dailymotion; or watch another internets celebrity making an ass out of themselves (for free!) in a viral video. And, seriously, all the porn I could ever need. It's ridiculous, the sheer amount of porn available. Just when I thought the state of TV couldn't get any worse, apparently the government is forcing people to buy brand new digital televisions, as if we aren't in a recession, or people have actually seen digital TV. I figure to hell with that, I'll just stick with my 17-inch (nhjic); after all, I do have TrueColor. Like I said, TV is dead. Or at least brain dead.

*The asterisk is for those annoying banner ads you can't close out that make a crapload of noise, like the smileys that say "Hello?!?!" or the one woman who, for whatever reason, sounds like she's talking via the drive-thru window at Burger King to tell you you've won something. God I hate those.