Like many of you, I have watched Entertainment Tonight for years. It is sort of like TV white noise, where you feel the need to have the TV on but you don't really have to watch it too closely. The show was fun, nothing more, and the 30 minutes passed pretty quickly.
A few years ago, a companion show, The Insider, was added, so that stations carrying the show would have a one-hour block of time that they could fill after the local and national new.
Since this show has been added to the mix, I have noticed a general degrading of the product to the point that both shows are impossible to watch.
Both shows feed on celebrities and gossip, and that is all well and good, because that is what they should be spotlighting on these shows. However, the other material that they have cast their eyes on has made the programs the TV equivalent of World Weekly News and that ilk.
They have at least one porn story each week, related to movies emulating old TV shows, or most recently, a porn queen whose implants went awry. Then there is the coverage of the octuplet birth, where the brain damaged (and that is high praise for this dummy) mother was made into an instant celebrity--I am pretty sure ET paid her for her so-called "exclusives."
There have been many others, including the coverage of the woman who has had plastic surgery to increase her breast size into another dimension (don't get me wrong, I like big breasts as much as the next guy, but if you saw this woman, you would know what I mean), as well as their fascination with Oprah Winfrey. Heck, they hit their jackpot last week when they profiled Kirstie Alley's amazing gaining of weight--and had clips from Oprah's interview with Alley.
The shows have become trash TV at its worst, and they have become highly unwatchable.
Oh, for the days of Dixie Whatley and John Tesh (I can't believe I just wrote that!).
I'm totally with you on this. Initially ET was about the film, music and TV industry, discussing projects in development, profiling talent, and generally doing a good (if fluffy) job of covering the entertainment industry. Sometime in the late 90s it shifted into basically being a much more transparent PR whore for whatever album, show, or film was premiering that night or week. Now ET is as you say, just another half-hour of tabloid refuse. Too bad, as I remember some fun and interesting reports and interviews on ET in the old days...
ReplyDeleteDear the Greek:
ReplyDeleteAgain, this is like the music rant I wrote (and you answered) previously. You give the public garbage, and they will eat it up, because it is simply easier to do so than to search out something substantial.
By the way, the only reason I continue to watch this trash is that my wife watches it when she is home from work, and I like watching TV with her, no matter what program it is. She shakes her head too, but I guess after a hard day at work, you don't want to tax your brain too much (ah...that must be the secret!),