The Real Television Times

I love watching television at night; it's my form of relaxation. I don't turn on the computer as that's what I use all day and this is my way of connecting with the rest of the world, of seeing the news, finding out the weather for the next few days and being entertained. However, in the last few years, my familiar box in the corner has changed a lot. In fact, it's changed so much, I barely recognise it. I currently have a flatscreen television; however, it's still housed in a box, it's not a plasma screen. My reception has gotten really crappy, so I forked out around one hundred dollars for a HD box so that it would be improved - and it did. Little did I know I was going to obtain another five channels and upgrade my nightly viewing without having to pay anything else more. Pretty sweet if you ask me.

Then, the most interesting thing occurred. The television times I relied on so much (you know the one you get from the Sunday Mail each Sunday), became unreliable. It would have a show written down in there for a particular time, but when you switched over, another show you hated would be on. I've lost count of the times I've called one television station or another just to be told that they looked it up on the net and it was changed there! I've had explain calmly that I don't have my computer in my living room hooked up to the net twenty-four hours a day at my beck and call for when they decide to change the programming on a whim. I'd get an apology and a suggestion to call back during daytime hours.

Okay, I'll give you a good example. There's a new show that was supposed to be on air now on channel 10 called Three Rivers. The pilot went to air, then... nothing. They had the big advertising campaign with the very sexy Alex O'loughlin talking about Three Rivers and how it was 'coming soon'; they even put in a date and time slot (a Wednesday at 8:30pm). After the first Wednesday passed and I found the show pretty cool, I thought I'd give it a chance and watch the next show. The following week, it was in the TV times and I highlighted it remind me of it; but channel 10 put on a repeat of NCIS from last season without letting us know. Okay, they didn't advertise Three Rivers; that's a given; but what's with all the secrecy all of a sudden? What? We're too dumb to understand it might be given to another channel (the new channel 7?) or they just didn't think it would boost ratings? We're the public, not idiots.

So, now, when I look at the television times to check up on my programs, I really don't know what I'm going to watch... is it what's there? Or is it the luck of the draw? Honestly! We really have to make sure our favourite shows stay on the air and crap gets kicked off.