So it’s hardly shocking news, but there’s a gulf between conservatives and liberals when it comes to TV viewing habits. That chasm was the subject of a recent survey revealing what kind of programming the Blue and Red halves of the nation most enjoy on their booboise tubes.
The first thing that jumps out at you like a Mississippi water snake is that conservatives love reality shows, especially those pitting Man vs. Beast, Man vs. Nature, and of course Man vs. Man. Swamp Loggers and American Pickers rank high, as does The Biggest Loser and Dancing with the Stars (but just the results show). Even shows that pit women against women do well with this set. Not in the oil wrestling way, but in The Bachelor way. The reality of conservative support for marital fidelity may be murky, but their love of seeing total (and partially scripted) strangers attempt to make the walk to the altar is apparently unequivocal.
Sure, liberals have a thing for reality shows too, but they prefer the aspiring fashionistas of Project Runway to the perspiring rednecks of Swamp People. Maybe the two groups can be brought together in the style –– no pun — of What Not to Wear, in which the daughter of the former president of the Hudson Institute and the fabulously fatuous Clinton Kelly serve up thousand dollar makeovers to residents of flyover country. Swamp dwellers might resist the metrosexualization of their appearance something fierce however, so we’ll have to see if anyone at TLC’s got the Cajun cojones to pull that off.
Premium cable is fodder for liberals. Whether it’s Weeds, United States of Tara or Dexter, the lefties eat it up. It’s been said that conservatives have a problem with ethical ambiguity, and these shows have a lot of that, from serial killer killing serial killers to moms with split personalities that include a potty (and pot) mouthed teen named “T.” Elsewhere on the executive level dial is HBO’s Treme, another favorite of Dems. It’s been called boring by some, but its depiction of life in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans is apparently just too juicy a drama for the SWPL crowd to pass up – and about as far as you can get from a rival conservative favorite: Only in America with Larry the Cable Guy.
So unless the HBO of 2002 calls and wants its Dennis Miller back, the network can likely expect to see its right-leaning viewer contingent continue to shrink. And speaking of that old Dennis Miller Show, it was apparently taped on the same stage as The Price is Right, another favorite of the red team.
And what’s with the right and game shows anyway? It’s not just The Price is Right – hosted by libertarian stalwart and newly skinny Drew Carey – but Wheel of Fortune too. Is there something in the conservative gene pool that predisposes them to getting off on these retro games of chance that won’t die? The only thing beloved by liberals equally past its expiration date is the cast of The View.
Liberals love television that references other television. And film. Not to mention music. The chattering class calls it being “media savvy,” but some might call it being a pop culture junkie, a kind of media meth head. 30 Rock, Saturday Night Live and The Soup! demand a familiarity with everything else on the air and screen in a way The 700 Club and This Old House don’t. Then again if the latter are what you consider entertainment, perhaps you’re better off with the kind of track marks only a remote control can leave.
James Hibberd at Entertainment Weekly sums it all up:
In the findings, “sarcastic” media-savvy comedies and morally murky antiheroes tend to draw Dems. While serious work-centered shows (both reality shows and stylized scripted procedurals), along with reality competitions, tend to draw conservatives.
If the left loves sarcasm and irony, the right appears to appreciate sincerity. Where the left has the invincibility of Alec Baldwin’s snide humor, the right has the vulnerability of the elderly woman hoping her great grandmother’s crystal stem goblet is worth a fortune on Antiques Roadshow. Take your pick.
Mupetblast writes at Entitled to an Opinion.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Premium cable is full of deliberate, in your face progressivism. I noticed this while watching Boardwalk empire, when I also had the idea that premium cable was programming, literally, for swpls, in this case to acquaint them and get them to identify with corrupt elitist politicians. Also the premeire of “shameless” seemed like it was specifically written to alienate and drive away conservatives, and at the same time, assure the SWPLs that the whites who were dropping into the underclass were actually having a grand old time
Yeah but Spartacus and Rome are awesome. The ethical ambiguity is part of what drives the plot. It’s a spice that makes it interesting. Their main audience thinks in terms of individuals more than groups or tribes, so showcasing the conflict of intentions and the character psychology makes it fun. It’s overused on cable TV shows now though.
Could you say that about HBO’s Big Love?
I never did get around to Boardwalk Empire. Or Shameless…
“Premium cable is full of deliberate, in your face progressivism. I noticed this while watching Boardwalk empire”
Indeed. This explains the following observation:
“And what’s with the right and game shows anyway? It’s not just The Price is Right – hosted by libertarian stalwart and newly skinny Drew Carey – but Wheel of Fortune too. Is there something in the conservative gene pool that predisposes them to getting off on these retro games of chance that won’t die?”
Compared to the other shit on television, I actually like these shows, because they AREN’T full of liberal propaganda. Why? Because they are game shows based on skill, and so there’s really no platform there to push liberal propaganda.
And Boardwalk empire was boring crap. I heard it was supposed to be good but after two episodes it was clear it was going nowhere and there were absolutely no characters to identify with.
Finally, most of the people you call “conservatives” aren’t actually conservatives at all; they’re merely not as far to the left as the “progressives”. True conservatives are rare these days, and they aren’t watching reality TV on a regular basis.
Lol okay maybe they aren’t game shows based on skill, but they’re based on luck, numbers, and short phrases, not trivia. There’s very little room in these shows to push an agenda.
I have the viewing habits of a lefty but I canceled cable last week so now I read more.
Lol, love the Osbourne pic.
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I don’t watch any of this shit.
Kill your TV !!!
I’d be more interested in seeing who watches more TV overall.
A weird thing I’ve noticed about myself, is that I definitely conform to the ‘lefty’ temperment – I like their shows, moral ambiguity, my disgust reaction is low, I tend towards psycopathy, and I have the tempermant that would make a good professor (ergo me trying to be a writer).
On the one hand, I do have a lot of sympathy for leftist positions – gays, abortion, none of that bothers me, and I think conservatism is fighting a losing battle – and yet, my right-wingedness is more extreme than most conservatives – I support corporations over democracy, and beatings over prison.
Not sure if I reached this point through reason, or if I’m just a lunatic.
Which all leads me back to … my library.
I had my cable TV unplugged in 2002, after my Mom died – she watched it, I only sat in front of it to keep her company. When she Went West, I called Comcast to have it discontinued. They told me I needed a doctor’s signature to unplug life-support equipment …?
Last book I finished: COME ABOARD, which is Eric & Susan Hiscock’s tale of their third circumnavigation aboard their 49-foot ketch Wanderer IV. I found it an enjoyable read, and very instructive, even though it was written in 1978 … electronics have changed navigation & communication since then (think GPS, sat-phones and the Internet), but the winds and tides have changed not at all. (And they went by way of South Africa, so the Somalian pirates would be no factor in their same route today!)
“Romantic escapism” perhaps, but a true story by a couple who were “old salts” before they even set out on this voyage. Besides, I may set my bow in their wake someday; so I want to learn what I can from them.
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