I’m getting rather fed up with the dominance of sport on TV at present and know that most visitors to this site are unlikely to sympathise but I want my telly back! writes blogger Charlie Cashdan.
Last week, I settled in front of the telly with my TV dinner and my little brain buzzing away unable to shut down after a long day at work, really looking forward to Eastenders and a little absorbing escapism. But no, sports fans insistent on pushing their hobby on the rest of the nation had won a victory and displaced Eastenders from the schedules to make way for a Euro 08 match. England isn’t even in the contest!
This didn’t happen just once but twice! And for those of us who hate Big Brother too, it was a pretty disappointing telly week. On Sunday I was forced to watch Taggart, not ideal Sunday night viewing with all it’s murders, torture and such, because footie was on BBC One, BB on Four, naff film on Five and I can’t get reception on Two in the bedroom!
We’ve also had athletics, Ascot, cricket and now Wimbledon! I don’t care, I’m not interested and I’ve had enough!
Every time my husband has Radio Five Live on all they ever seem to talk about is sport, hours at a time as if the world depended on it, forget the terrible atrocities in Zimbabwe and other really important issues!
The Wimbledon slogan this year is ‘Greatness awaits’ what nonsense! Nelson Mandela is great, not Nadal waving his racket around looking miserable and earning millions for the pleasure.
We have to stop hero worshiping these people, particularly footballers with their ridiculous salaries whoss promiscuous partying ways should not be worthy of the absolute adulation fans give them, let alone all this air time.
The BBC breakfast news has been strangely taken over by sport of late so I can’t even escape from it in the morning schedules either!
They did loads of Ascot stuff, presenting the weather from there, wearing silly outfits, features on the catering, people’s hats etc. Now they are doing the same with Wimbledon, every morning!
In addition to all this madness, the business presenter is also now doing a feature every morning this week following some ridicous ‘boys with big toys’ power boat race all around the UK.
All this is on top of their usual sports reporting so out of the hour’s worth I watch every morning at least half an hour is given over to sport!
I couldn’t be less interested in the power boat race, Wimbledon bores me to tears and I think football just takes the mess out of it’s loyal devoted fans charging a fortune for season tickets, the kit, the merchandise and employing these silly conceited players with no attachment to the areas they play for, no local background and so much money that they are completely out of touch with their own fans.
Years ago, if you played for Wolves, you probably came from the area and had grown up loving the team. You worked really hard, drank in the local pubs with all your fans and earned an honest wage doing what you did out of love for the team and game. I know because my granddad played in the reserves (so my mom always told me but I suspect he was just really good mates with the team and they let him kick a ball around with them every weekend) and my mom’s tales of how local football was years ago are a world apart from today’s global industry.
In my opinion, sport separates families. How many times in my own household has football been on and my eldest stepson has sat in the living room glued to the telly with his dad, while I sit in the bedroom watching something else and the youngest plays in his room?
I hear this time and time again from moms who feel that the living room is a no-go zone for them when sport is on putting families in different parts of the house depending on their tolerance for sport. With all the abundance of it messing up the schedules at the moment, I’m guessing families are more divided than ever!
Agree with Charlie? Post your comments below.
2 Comments
I can’t believe what I am reading…its shocking to read that your lives evolve around the TV. Why not just try turning it off and focus on your family instead and do things together.
How can you live with the TV being the main focus in your lives??
Amazing!!!
Do give a thought to the disabled or elderly who cannot go out, they have no choice but to rely on t.v. and radio (which is also dominated by sport) not everyone is lucky enough to have the choice to go out like you or I ‘Niff’.