I cut the cord ages ago, and subsequently really only watched any terrestrial or cable television when I was traveling. However, since I got access to a fairly nice gym and their cable package a few months ago, television has become part of my routine again - well, in a limited form.
The channels I have access to are as follows:
Local programming which consists of multiple local news channels, two PBS stations, two retro programming stations, and assorted foreign language channels
Two channels that only run infomercials.
Two cable news channels, CNN and Fox News
Two sports channels, ESPN and GOLF
HLN, which is all "Forensic Files" all the time.
BET, which mostly airs African-American 90s sitcoms
VH1,which mostly airs African-American 90s sitcoms
Bravo, which mostly airs "Real Housewives" and "Below Deck."
TBS, which mostly airs "Friends" reruns.
TNT, which shows a lot of recent action movies, and sometimes "Supernatural."
AMC, which can be counted on to occasionally show good movies.
I'm focusing on the cable channels today. So, my experience is definitely skewed by the fact that I'm only watching half an hour of programming at a time, always in the early afternoon because of my schedule, and I have the sound off and closed captioning on. However, this still affords me a fascinating glimpse at what cable television has become in the 2020s.
The first thing that jumped out was that this was almost all older content. When I had cable in the mid-2000s, channels relied heavily on reruns, but they also had a good amount of original programming. New shows would be aired multiple times after the initial broadcast. I remember catching the prior night's "The Daily Show" and "Mad Men" in morning or afternoon slots regularly. Of the programs listed above, it looks like only "Real Housewives" is actually current programming. "The Daily Show" is the only currently running show on Comedy Central, and it's now followed by "Family Guy" reruns instead of Larry Wilmore or Jordan Klepper
I looked into the programming schedules for other channels - MTV, A&E, E!, Syfy, and USA and they're all like this. Even for the most popular channels, there's maybe an hour of original programming in the prime time slots, and the rest is just reruns, often of the same two or three shows. Lots of cheap reality programming like"Ridiculousness" on MTV or "PD: Police Patrol" on A&E. Reruns of 90s and 2000s shows are particularly endemic - "The Office," "Modern Family," "Seinfeld," "Law & Order," and so much "NCIS." Channel drift/network decay has also advanced to a point where many channels have given up trying to match their programming with the network branding. Syfy is airing straight action films like "Wrath of Man" and blocks of "NCIS." "VH1" is essentially all African-American programming.
Of course, the channels that still do have original programming want you to know about it. AMC is constantly running promos for its shows, and even recently added reminders to watch "Mayfair Witches" to its station ident bug. On a recent vacation with small children, every episode of "Bluey" on Disney Jr. was followed either by ads for the latest "Miraculous" movie or "Descendents" movie until the kids were verbally reciting them as they aired. Notably, a few channels are airing shows that premiered on streaming. I spotted episodes of "Bel Air" on the USA Network schedule, and apparently other Peacock shows have popped up on Bravo. However, this is far from a regular occurrence.
As a result, watching cable television feels so strange now. The format and the content all feels the same as it did twenty years ago. The channels feel like they're running on autopilot, with barely anyone behind the scenes. I checked most of the information in this post against listings on the TV Insider website (originally a sister publication to TV Guide), which provides up to a month of schedules for each cable channel in advance. This has allowed me to confirm insane things, like "Ridiculousness" episodes being scheduled to air three hundred times in two weeks (which Andy Denhart noticed back in 2020). And the fact that you can currently watch "Two and a Half Men" on four different networks. And that "The 700 Club" is still running on Freeform.
Mostly, I stick to the movies or reruns of "Friends" when I'm on the elliptical machine. Occasionally I'll find a movie I haven't seen, watch a chunk of it, and watch the rest later when I figure out how to track it down. I wish AMC would make more of an effort to identify what I'm watching, instead of trying to get me to watch "Mayfair Witches." I'm not going to watch any more of "Mayfair Witches." Then again, I kinda like being able to stumble across something completely unfamiliar, and slowly figure out which Kyle Gallner horror movie I'm watching, or which Chazz Palmintieri crime movie I'm watching. A well-programmed television channel still has its charms, and it's a little sad that there are so few of them left.
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