Who watches network daytime TV these days? And why?

I gave this a “GQ” because I thought the same thing this morning and was considering asking it myself. I was going to a work meeting with a later start than my usual day, so I had some time to kill. The one show I will watch, and have for about 20 years when I was able was Regis and Kathy Lee, which became Regis and Kelly, which is now Kelly and Michael Strahan. I will, when I have time, try to watch a little of the “host banter.” They talk about what they did last night and other bullshit.

After that ended, Rachel Ray came on. That crap I find really hard to tolerate and so I switched it off and came up with the question. My version of the question was going to ask “Do you watch daytime TV and if so, how can you stand it” or something similar. The Rachel Ray show was all constant applause for everything she did.

Times I worked for CPS and had to visit clients at home, they’d have on Jerry Springer which was another show I really could not envision myself watching at all. Pure and total crap. I don’t know how people do it. I’d rather have silence or listen to music on the TV if I had to, or watch the news stations.

Housebound people are out of luck with the daytime venue. Probalby a lot of really old seniors that do not have computers or iPads.
I haven’t watched daytime TV since I watched ” All my Children” for the last few months of my pregnancy 27 years ago now.
I was upset that I actually was watching a soap. haha

Meredith Viera started a new show this season and I enjoy her style and determination to add topics of substance or to highlight kids with notable accomplishments.

For example, she had on a dance troupe composed of kids with physical challenges. It was inspiring and uplifting to see the delight on their faces as they had the opportunity to perform, wear sparkles and tutus just like their peers and brought a smile to my face.

She also featured Jason, a young filmmaker in his thirties who was recently diagnosed with MS (which her husband also has) and his filming himself and his efforts to cope, his recent marriage and birth of a baby daughter.

I’ve always enjoyed watching her over the years regardless of which network she was working for.

She’s refreshingly free of the type of BS that surrounds so many media figures nowadays, unpretentious, possessing some substance and a prety good sense of humor (many times at her own expense).

She’s a breath of fresh air.

Queen Latifah also started a new show this year. She’s a bit more into celebrities and such but still manages to be intelligent and down to earth with a genuine compassion for people.

There are certainly worse alternatives than these two and they’re kind of bright spots in the usual wasteland of daytime TV.

These two I actually watch. There are a couple of others I have on mostly as background whilst doing other things, The View, The Talk, Dr. Oz and The Doctors. The latter two do have occasional tidbits of useful and largely accurate medical info. interspersed between bits of banter and filler, some of which can get a bit ridiculous. The Doctors, especially, has gone downhill in terms of more ridiculous filler quotient compared to previous years.

Who the hell needs to see a hair makeover on a medical show? Good Grief.

The rest of the time I meander around between Food Network and various news shows just to keep up on current events.

Oh yeah, when I can tolerate it, I’ll check in on The Chew since there are at least two competent chefs (Symon and Batali) with some decent recipes.
(I have absolutely no idea what the simpering Clinton Kelly is supposed to contribute and he usually gets on my nerves, but…)

Anyhow, there’s not a whole lot to get all enthused about, but both Meredith and Queen L. are real enough to make spending some time with them not all that execrable.

I’ve never watched any of the soap operas at any time in my life, so the fact that they’re disappearing affects me not in the slightest :)

Give Meredith Viera a try. You may find her enjoyable. She does have kind of a goofy side to her but at least it comes off as genuine. (I could do without some of the stupid made up
Games but both she and Fallon need to cool it with those. Fortunately, they don’t take up a lot of time so hopefully they get phased out )

I am the newer housemate in a house with two other guys. One guy lives kind of a minimalist life and watches the football games on the big three networks.

I cannot remember the last time I watched anything on tv between the hours of 7:45 am and 5:30 pm. Are they still putting stuff on the air at that time?

Never, although funnily enough like @Coloma I did watch a soap for a while years ago – while I was doing a pre-nap nursing with my first son.

Stay at home pets, keeps them entertained on a base level.

@Buttonstc: Viera is on at 4:00 PM, too late for me.

Obviously, the uneducated unemployed.
A lot of immigrants still live with a stay-at-home mother, and I would guess they would watch, especially if they are trying to learn better English.

If I had a TV channel, I would probably watch Ellen some, because she still comes across as fresh and funny after all these years. Enjoys what she does.

The Russian wife of a co-worker told me that she learned basic English from watching day-time television while her husband was at work. Other than her, I don’t know anyone who does.

Yesterday, the clicker fell off the treadmill during my slog and I found myself trapped with Dr. Phil and the repulsive mother of Honey Boo Boo, during some surrealistic discussion about her cavorting with a sex offender who may have abused her kids. I shudder if anyone is learning English from her.

@gailcalled

You might find this little tidbit amusing (or not) but when their show was originally broadcast on TLC, (it has recently been cancelled) it was shown with SUB TITLES.

Yup, that’s right. They subtitled a show recorded and broadcast in English for an American (not foreign) market.

The only one who was half intelligible the majority of the time was little Honey Boo Boo herself. The rest of them were totally ridiculous.

And on a less humorous note, there is no doubt about the sex offender. He just finished serving a ten year jail sentence for molesting her eldest daughter, Anna (currently 21 yrs. old) so we they don’t even have to call him an alleged sex offender. He was convicted. No doubts about it.

I’m thinking it’s only a matter of time before the Dept. of Family Services steps in.

And this is also why TLC recently pulled the plug on the show. They were no longer THAT desperate for ratings that they were willing to stoop to portraying this level of piss poor parenting.

So many fish in the sea and that’s what the mother chooses?