Unseen Must See TV

Apparently, everyone is watching Love Island.  Except that they're not.  I mean, I'm not - and I'm pretty sure that Mrs Miggins from the Pie Shop isn't either, (although she is bedridden from the nose down, (that's a Blackadder II reference btw) ).  Don't you just hate all that bollocks the media like to whip up about how everyone is watching whatever the current 'big thing' is, when, in reality, you don't know anybody who actually does watch it?  What they really mean is that they and all their media buddies are watching it, failing to grasp that they don't actually constitute a typical sample of the average TV viewing audience.  Even The Guardian does it theses days:  if its columnists aren't warbling on about Love Island (which, I assume, they watch 'ironically'), then they are gushing forth on whatever's currently 'big' on Netflix or whatever the current favourite subscription service is.  I even heard a debate on Radio Four the other day during which it was suggested that BBC News should report on 'reality' TV like Love Island so as to make it 'more relevant' to 'young people'.  Jesus Christ!  That's so moronic on so many levels, not least  in the implication that the only sort of 'news' the 'young' are interested in is 'reality' TV wank.

It also supposes that Love Island is sufficiently popular that 'reporting' on it could actually draw in viewers.  Sure, I know that the debut of the latest series was the most watched programme on ITV2, EVER - but let's face it, if ITV2's viewership gets into double figures then it is considered a major success.  Which, of course, brings us back to my perennial complaint about all of these supposedly popular 'must see' programmes: the fact is that relatively few people actually are watching them, meaning that they simply aren't true popular successes.  In this age of digital TV, TV on demand, streaming and the like, viewing is so fragmented, that even the most popular of shows on the major terrestrial networks can only dream of getting the kinds of viewing figures which were seen in the pre digital era.  TV is no longer the truly communal experience it was during the sixties, seventies and even eighties, when you knew that just about 'everyone' had seen whatever the TV event of the week was.  The fact that the likes of Netflix refuse to give out viewing figures for individual shows is a sure indication that their actual viewing figures are nothing like those seen in the days of traditional TV.   'Everyone' most certainly isn't watching these programmes.