Who’s In Charge?
August 21, 2006 5:15 PM
Well, tonight, I am. At least in terms of the remote control, because my husband is on a business trip. And I’m going to watch “Dog The Bounty Hunter,” A&E’s 2-year-old reality series that reached 4.5 million viewers for an episode that aired Aug. 8. It was the net’s highest-rated series event in its history.
Of course I missed that episode because Bob thinks the series is moronic. And it’s true that lately I have won the battle of the remote, making him watch a bunch of cable’s new summer debuts. That evening I decided my own marital bliss was more important than watching Dog and Beth’s wedding.
Yes, it’s nice to do things as a couple, but if he were home tonight he would be flipping through all of the cable news nets, C-SPAN and the History Channel, hitting the remote every time a commercial pod appears. Last night I actually saw Lifetime’s new documentary “The Fantasia Barrino Story: Life Is Not a Fairy Tale,” in real time and in its entirety.
But home alone, even I was torn. I also wanted to see HGTV’s “Designed to Sell” and several other shows. And I don’t pre-record anything anymore because I never watch any of it later.
And that’s the boon and bane of watching cable during the summer: There are so, so many good things to sample, all vying for the same eyeballs in the same time period, truly making a cable programming scheduler’s job a nightmare.
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Comments (8)
We'll win your husband over yet!
Posted by Rob Sharenow | August 22, 2006 2:04 PM
One show we would agree on is another A&E'er, "The New Skinheads" which is the lead in to "Dog The Bounty Hunter" tonight.
Posted by Marianne Paskowski | August 22, 2006 2:48 PM
The battle of the TV set certainly is something that won't go away in our household anytime soon -- although my man and I are total DVR nuts and can usually negotiate something mutually entertaining ... But as for your Verizon posting the other day: Did you get a load of how V. and Bell South are replacing a government fee that's going away with a new fee all their own -- so consumers end up spending the same amount of money and they pocket the change?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115618741102541278-search.html?KEYWORDS=verizon&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month
They have their stated reasons. But I found the fancy footwork -- and the timing -- very shrewd.
Posted by Janet Stilson | August 22, 2006 4:37 PM
Well cable ops are no saints. Today most MSO's are trying to renege, also change the rules and get out of local origination altogether.
Verizon is nimble, for a telco. Totally muddying up the waters: going after state wide franchise approval in some states, which they won several ; others pending. In other states like Mass, Verizon is seeking shortened franchise approval lengths.Thanks for the link on the latest telco moves for our readers.
Meanwhile, just back from a cable/telecom town meeting on the Cape. Oy. BTW, still in charge of the remote control. Need a little New York levity now. And that will be back to back episodes of Seinfeld on TBS.
Are you back from Costa Rica? Enquiring minds wanna know.
Posted by Marianne Paskowski | August 22, 2006 10:00 PM
Hey you can always get 2 TVs and 2 DVRs and then you are 100% set!
Great blog ... so far.
Posted by Char Beales | August 23, 2006 1:04 PM
Then I'd have to clone myself to watch all the stuff. Welcome back from vacation and glad you like the blog
Posted by Marianne Paskowski | August 23, 2006 2:11 PM
one thing my girlfriend and i agree on re the remote - when fashion house comes on sept 5th, no one changes channels. we both want to see morgan and bo in a catfight! hot.
Posted by alibaba | August 24, 2006 2:02 PM
Key operative word here: "girlfriend." Marriage makes the remote an issue.
Posted by Marianne Paskowski | August 24, 2006 3:52 PM