respublica

TV problems

The times we live in are easier than the old days, but when it comes to tech things it just gets more and more frustrating. We have 3 TV's, the main floor is hooked up to Spectrum and the basement and bedroom have Roku tv's. We have had the Spectrum app on the 2 Roku's which allowed us to see what programs we get on the main floor tv. But last night both stopped allowing us to get into spectrum.

I am at my wits end as to how to get this fixed and usable again. Do I have to update the Spectrum apps or delete them and start over. What would updating involve? I"ve done web searches with this question but got no where. I'd almost rather we just had the cable people come out and add two more of their boxes.

The worst commercials

I nominate Spectrum for allowing their ad agencies to create some of the most irritating commercials on the air. I'm convinced the Spectrum guy who keeps repeating Free Free Free, your next line is Free, must be the son of the ad agency or maybe the president of Spectrum.

Truly so annoying a commercial we've begun silencing the tv until this ad ends. Spectrum also has the second most irritating commercial as well. This one is the same guy but is shown as a college prof threatening a pop quiz. Same stuff, 29.99 and second line is free.

When Spectrum commercials come on we now grab the remote and silence the tv until they end.

Just awful and there is no end of these in sight.

Maybe a new time for Morning Joe

We watch the Morning Joe cable news program most mornings from 5 to 6 a.m. We mainly do this to see just how over-bearing Joe can be and to see how his wife Mika is acting. On election night the Morning Joe crew was on during prime time in front of a raucous live audience. This was only watchable for a short time because Joe and crew were really over acting and playing to a hugely partisan audience which kept applauding  and cheering until it became just too much. News reporting should really not be like watching a basketball game.

In any event the powers that be at MSNBC are considering giving  Morning Joe a once a month prime time special.  We will probably watch only a couple times if what went on Tuesday night becomes the norm for them at night. This could well be a test run for MSNBC and Morning Joe to see if they can bring in better ratings at night and if so, make it permanent on every weeknight. I get the impression Joe and Mika are getting weary of having to be up and out in the middle of the night for their current program.

Cable news ratings still have FOX News getting the largest viewership with MSNBC in second but pretty far behind and CNN well back in last place.

 

 

News about news

Once again Fox News has thoroughly beaten all the other cable networks in the weekly ratings. This is all day and all night. The number one cable news program is The Five on Fox. We watch this every afternoon at 4 because it is one of the more enjoyable news programs. The five people like each other, are able to laugh and there is always at least one person who takes a different point of view. We watch all 3 cable networks during the day and none but Fox ever has anyone with an opposing point of view.

MSNBC is the worst at being totally one sided. CNN has recently changed from totally liberal to adding other voices.

Sometimes Technology is a real pain

We've had Charter Spectrum cable since the mid-1980's. When we moved back to Collinsville two years ago we had the cable set up on the main floor where we watch most tv and the cable guy told us we didn't need another box upstairs in the bedroom to get spectrum programming, just go get a Roku stick which has the Spectrum app installed. We did this and had no trouble until recently. Now the Spectrum app seems to have stopped working. Why this is I don't know for sure, but am guessing Spectrum has put the kabosh on it.

I've tried the various, almost incomprehensible pieces of advice I found online, but none brings back the use of this app. We do like watching the end of Cardinal games when we go to bed or whatever else we've been watching. This is now super disappointing. After all these years with Charter Spectrum, you'd think they would not do this.T

We just don't want to be fooling around with a tv we have to be constantly downloading apps with their accompanying user names and passwords. That is why we have liked Charter.

Update: The next morning both computers working as they should for no rhyme or reason. I'd have to guess there was updating done by Roku without notice which had them out of commission yesterday.

The latest cable news ratings

I find this fascinating not only for the breakdown in how many viewers watch each of the 3 cable networks, but the headline seems weird.

Cable News Ratings Wednesday May 4: MSNBC Nearly Doubles CNN Across Prime Time — Even Without Maddow

I guess this is shocking, but the actual numbers come with this: Fox News continued its long-held dominance as the most-watched network in cable news.The distance between the three networks was on stark display, particularly across prime time on Wednesday night. CNN brought in an average of 654,000 total viewers, while MSNBC did almost double that with an average of 1.27 million total viewers. Fox News more than doubled MSNBC with a total of 2.82 million total viewers across prime time

I guess the fact that CNN is rapidly losing ground among news viewers is quite surprising. It isn't surprising that Fox News is still way ahead in viewership. Many people won't like this and have all kinds of reasons why this is, mostly partisan. Each week day we make a practice of watching each of the cable networks at some point during the day but we never, ever watch prime time cable news. Talk about rampant partisanship on each one.

The main point to note is that of the three, Fox News programs almost always has experts/guests/partisans with different opinions/views. The other two networks do not. Like Fox or not, at least you get a counterpoint.

The entire ratings list is here and is quite interesting.

It's coming up Roses...or not

Watching the Tournament of Roses Parade has always been part of our New Year's Day practice. Dale has been blessed to have been on one of the floats 3 different times so we have an affection for this parade and especially the Lutheran Hour Float.

In recent years watching it has gotten harder and harder. The major networks which broadcast it, ABC, NBC...are constantly leaving for commercials and often give short shrift to the Lutheran Hour float. That leaves the Hallmark Drama channel on cable which we do not get on our cable package. We don't speak Spanish so Univision is out. And RFD we have never heard of and do not have.

The best years recently were when HGTV covered the parade. They did it commercial free and had good commentary on all the floats. At the moment I'm trying to find a streaming channel but am not optimistic.

Last Man Standing

For the past year we have gotten into the habit of watching the Last Man Standing TV show which features Tim Allen. For some reason this program was not on our radar before the Covid shutdown, but we have found this to be one of the funnier series on television. The series is on CMT and tonight for instance, there are 8 if them in a row beginning at 3 in the afternoon. We normally watch the ones at 6 and 6:30.

We find the programs laugh out loud funny which is something we don't come across very often. Tim Allen was best known as Tim the Tool Man Taylor back in the old days, but his character on Last Man Standing is just as good as are those who play his family members.

Certainly this is much better than all the cable news and current sitcoms are just weird.

Ponderding the Discovery

We've all been bombarded with the ads for Discovery Plus. This new streaming arm of the Discovery network is working really hard to get us all on board. Their programs include some, but not all, taken from networks like HGTV, Food Network, Animal Planet, OWN, Lifetime, and ID. I don't know what the ID network is. I like the idea of seeing the Pioneer Woman, Chip and Joanna Gaines. I have no desire to see more of the touted Property Brothers, two guys who seemed to be on every hour of the day. It seems Discovery has taken some popular programs from these networks so we can't watch them without it.

Discovery won't have every program from these networks, but they are monkeying around with others keeping us from watching even re-runs. For example, on our Roku, we could watch old episodes of House Hunters. Now they are very sparse. And, I was watching a program on our main TV without Roku one night and decided to finish it upstairs in the bedroom on our Roku TV. We've always been able to watch "live" shows there, but suddenly a message came that we needed to have Discovery to do this.

If anyone has Discover I'd be interested in knowing just how worth it is. It seems like viewers have been robbed in some fashion, but there are shows I'd like to watch.

FYI to Fox Sports viewers

Beginning March 31, FOX sports regional networks will become Bally Sports. This will include our local FOX sports midwest. The channel numbers will remain the same and supposedly the programming we've currently had will be the same. What will be different with the nw company name?

The only thing I can find is one explanation: "they will unveil new graphics, music and more."

So basically FOX sports Midwest along with other regional FOX sports channels was bought out by Bally Sports. Time will tell if anything changes with the Cardinals.