What's gone wrong with Channel 4?

Glenn A · 21/04/13 - 00:27

In the eighties they had fantastic drama, made their own mostly excellent films, Brookside was the best soap on earth and their music shows like The Tube were excellent. Also they had offbeat sports like martial arts and American football.
Nowadays Channel 4 is complete rubbish and their digital channels just show repeats of not very good American sitcoms and Come Dine With Me. Yes they might have ditched the reality rubbish like Shipwrecked and Big Brother, but they have replaced them with endless Deal or no Deal, the most useless game show ever, Come Dine With Me and endless shows about people with deformities. Also that stupid soap Hollyoaks seems mostly to concern 19 year olds clubbing and having sex and the acting is abysmal.
It really grieves me to say this as I loved Channel 4 in the eighties and nineties, but it has become awful and unwatchable now.

shadowplay · 21/04/13 - 01:01

Blimey, I don't recall the last time I actually watched Channel 4 or even Channel 5 for that. A majority of the times I skip over More 4 as there is so much trash on from what comes up in the listings. Film 4 is pretty good sometimes. The main problem is major channels now have their hands in too many pies and the result is spreading the muck very very thinly across the networks, with endless repeats. I don't see it changing anytime soon, it makes me wonder how they survive even with stability from advertising.

JordyD · 21/04/13 - 01:03

I think this thread title should be, 'Whats gone right with Channel 4?'

EastEnders-1105 · 21/04/13 - 01:05

no good shows besides the simpsons and come dine with me?

Glenn A · 21/04/13 - 01:06

JordyD wrote: »

I think this thread title should be, 'Whats gone right with Channel 4?'

But surely a film like Another Country is vastly better than people opening boxes and Channel 4's remit was to be a commercial BBC Two, not yet another commercial channel showing substandard programmes?
In response to another post the only time I watch Channel 4 is for racing and the odd film.

swingaleg · 21/04/13 - 01:07

I'm another that rarely finds anything on C4 these days

The only show i can think of is 8 out of 10 cats and Time Team (but thats gone now)

BBC4 is the new C4 and BBC2..............

Glenn A · 21/04/13 - 01:10

swingaleg wrote: »

I'm another that rarely finds anything on C4 these days

The only show i can think of is 8 out of 10 cats and Time Team (but thats gone now)

BBC4 is the new C4 and BBC2..............

BBC4, Sky Arts and to a lesser extent BBC 2 are like Channel 4 in the eighties.

zoepaulpenny · 21/04/13 - 01:22

they all show crap TV...on all channels.

IzzyS · 21/04/13 - 01:26

I like Channel 4 News, they have some good reports and I like the reporters (Jon Snow, Krishnan Guru-Murthy etc.). Other than the news and the ocassional documentary, I don't tend to watch it. I hear 10 O'Clock Live starts a new series soon but I felt the format was a bit tired by the end of the second series (if not mid way through).

suesuesue · 21/04/13 - 01:49

When C4 started in was innovative and IMO the best channel around offering a good mix of comedy, drama, documentary and film. Now? Can't remember the last decent, well made doc or drama. Enjoyed The Mimic but C4 has very little comedy output. Don't understand why they've gone so downmarket, surely their ratings have dived?

degsyhufc · 21/04/13 - 01:56

Hugh's Fish Fight: Save Our Seas was a good series - I suppose you could count it as a documentary. It was informative but not overly preachy which he has become in some of his series in the past feew years.

Jimmy Connors · 21/04/13 - 01:59

I liked the show they did called 'The Family' - but they seem to have scrapped it for some reason. I hardly ever watch C4 these days. Big Brother used to keep me on C4, but they dropped that too.

Tassium · 21/04/13 - 02:05

CH4 Ltd began their decline with a few trashy programmes (like Big Brother)

This obviously worked for them, money-wise. The problem was that it overwhelmed their channels, pushing away their previous audience.

I know that with the rise of Big Brother I watched CH4 less and less, even when the programmes were ok the smell of BB was stinking up the place.

Maybe they thought they could produce such dumb programming in addition to their other stuff, the best of both worlds? Easy money!

But it's like Waitrose selling Iceland Vol-au-vent's, you can't service such a wide social range within one brand.

guy60 · 21/04/13 - 02:10

Still like Countdown and Time Team but not much else

malcy30 · 21/04/13 - 02:46

swingaleg wrote: »

I'm another that rarely finds anything on C4 these days

The only show i can think of is 8 out of 10 cats and Time Team (but thats gone now)

BBC4 is the new C4 and BBC2..............

Time Team was also the last regular show of theirs I watched.

Will tune in for the Paralympics but the rest of their schedule these days is absolute rubbish. Far and away the worst of the main broadcasters.

P.Ramlee · 21/04/13 - 02:46

I agree, it used to have pretty good programs.

I think Sky has pinched quite a few of the best U.S. dramas. CH4 is now sinking deep into the depths of tabloid tv.

mike65 · 21/04/13 - 02:47

Channel 4 doesn't stand for anything particular now, its just another station which now and again comes up with something reasonably ambitious like Utopia or Red Riding but is essentially just "meh".

Alrightmate · 21/04/13 - 03:07

They don't appear to be innovative and fresh like they used to be in the 80s and 90s.

They also used to show some great late night television. I say 'great' but what I mean is cheap, but very unconventional and engaging. Usually under the '4 Later' tag.

They just don't seem to have anything about them any more. They may as well be any old freeview channel.

Cestrian18 · 21/04/13 - 03:17

Not to defend Channel 4 but when they can bothered to air them, their home grown drama's have been excellent, Any Human Heart, The Promise, Secret State, Utopia were all very good in addition to Homeland and other American imports so its not entirely fair to slam its entire output- They can do it when they try, its just they seem content in their rut of Come Dine With Me, Embarrassing Bodies and anything Gypsy related but I suppose thats because it all rates better than anything else they try?

IzzyS · 21/04/13 - 03:18

They recently showed Dreams of a Life, which I thought was thought provoking - I think that was a Film 4 part production(?).

allthingsuk · 21/04/13 - 03:23

Channel 4's schedule is a mess. Ratings are low, programming is boringly derivative. The schedule is so bare and it's even more apparent following the loss of Big Brother. I think C4 needs a new juggernaut in its schedule and it needs to be the "alternative channel" it set out to be in the beginning and not just a poor imitation of ITV.

Prince Monalulu · 21/04/13 - 03:39

IzzyS wrote: »

They recently showed Dreams of a Life, which I thought was thought provoking - I think that was a Film 4 part production(?).

Channel 4 like the BBC is still involved in, interesting films, but they usually go unnoticed by the vast majority IMO.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfilms
http://www.film4.com/film4-productions

I think Channel 4 have shunted their more interesting/alternative work on to More 4, where it gets ignored.

degsyhufc · 21/04/13 - 03:56

Prince Monalulu wrote: »

I think Channel 4 have shunted their more interesting/alternative work on to More 4, where it gets ignored.

That's a good point. Programmes don't seen to get advertsied on C4 so unless you're always watching More4 or regularly checking the listings it's quite easy to miss what could turn out to be a very good programme.

hyperstarsponge · 21/04/13 - 03:58

Saturday Night is a good example, I think a good film with sex scenes and violence will do well here. But not a repeat thats been on Film4 dozen times

roger_50 · 21/04/13 - 04:11

Audience share is now shared out amongst far more channels compared to their heyday - to fight and scrap for as many viewers as possible for the ad revenue, they have to aim further towards what's popular with the dumbed down masses.

They're just another channel these days. No identity, no vision, etc. But it's just the natural order of things in this multi-channel digital age. Back in the 80s/90s they had the perfect UK environment for being a unique, individual channel up against only 3 other channels. They could play with the formula and push some boundaries.

Nearly everything on TV just blends into eachother nowadays.

peach45 · 21/04/13 - 04:17

Channel 4 was always the alternative channel but it has really changed and I rarely watch it now.

It was always known for thought provoking shows but even

the documentaries that were great, like the Nick Bloomfield ones have gone,

After Dark was worth staying up for and yes Brookside was

soap with a message, before it lost it's way. Now the

documentaries are shallow and untrustworthy and the soaps are for kids only.

Not interested any more.

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