Channel 4 > Reviews > The channel which doesn't care about viewers

Author's product rating:   

Quality and consistency of programmes	Poor
Range of programming	Poor
Quantity of advertising	Too much
Value for money	Poor

Advantages:	Does show some good drama  -  if you can find it/stay awake long enough to catch it !
Disadvantages:	Uncaring of viewer preferences .  Garbage TV for the most part

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

Channel Four used to be the channel of choice for discerning viewers who were fed up with the same-old, same-old garbage coming out of BBC and ITV. It was innovative, catered for a wide variety of tastes, showcased some grounnd-breaking UK comedy and was the first to get some of the best US drama around, such as ER, NYPD Blue, Northern Exposure and so on. It also had the grittiest soap around, Brookside

But what's happened to it in recent years? Brookside is a shadow of its former self, seeking after sensationalism instead of genuinely good storylines. And where's all the good, gritty drama gone? Queer as Folk was the lasst genuinely good home-grown drama on C4, and the channel turned down the spin-off series it was offered by Red and Russel T Davies.

Now, C4 only appears interested in downmarket TV and repeats - why on earth Big Brother?!? And as for Eurotrash, a series well past its sell-by date, it's a waste of money and a real turn-off. And yet it was shown in preference to *new* and high-quality drama. C4, it seems, would rather show endless repeats of Friends, Father Ted and anything else than promote good drama.

C4's treatment of decent drama has been nothing short of appalling. The tactics are the same whenever it wishes to get out of continuing a series: the programme will be shifted around the schedules, shown at a later and later time, possibly cut to ribbons so that no-one can follow the plot, and episodes may even be dropped. And then, just to ensure that no-one's still watching when it's time for the new series, the new series will be shown on E4 first, with no definite date given for C4 transmission.

Just look at the treatment of NYPD Blue, Sopranos or Homicide. And, for a more recent example, the treatment of The West Wing, quite the best US drama I have ever seen. It won a record *nine* Emmys last summer after its first season in the US. C4 bought it last year, didn't start to show it until February this year, and then after putting it on at an acceptable time of 10pm, moved it later, to 10.30, and then to after 11pm, on a Thursday when people had to get up for work in the morning. Despite outcries, not just from loyal viewers but from TV critics unable to understand why C4 was doing this, no change was made. Instead C4 claimed that viewing figures were low. (Well, of course they're low when it's a new series and C4 mucks about with scheduling even before it's found its audience!). And the programmes scheduled before it are repeats - including Eurotrash, guaranteed to make any viewer who *might* enjoy TWW turn off C4 long before TWW is due to start! And then, after a mass of misinformation about the final episodes of the first series (not being shown/being shown/shown as double bills/shown as single episodes), the final cliffhanger episode was shown on the night of the general election. A series about US politics! Didn't C4 imagine that TWW's viewers might also be interested in the election? Or is this all part of the same conspiracy to lose TWW its viewers?

And now series 2 of TWW is on E4, where audience numbers are a fraction of those on C4. Great logic, C4. Great demonstration that you care about your viewers' wishes.