The Voices of Reason: Your Only TV Station
by Various Authors

With hundreds of TV channels to choose from, we live in an era of microscopic attention spans and incessant channel surfing, with the viewer placing her "vote" with a zap of the remote (and, in some cases, a quick text message to 86653).  But it wasn't that long ago that there were only three networks to choose from, and people tended to be relatively loyal to one of them.  Imagine living in that world today...

Question:  If you could only watch one television channel for the rest of the year, what channel would it be and why?

Oliver Butterick—To understand my selection, you need to know two facts:

  1. I live in Argentina, and the cable/dish companies generally do no broadcast (North) American sports here.

  2. The Slingbox is the best and worst invention of all-time.  It is a device that allows you to control and watch a cable/dish box through the internet.  This is amazing and wonderful.  What is frustrating it the poor video quality, probably because of bandwidth issues.

So, by a landslide, my choice is ESPN.  I recently found a (North) American bar here in Buenos Aires that advertises that they show all NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, NASCAR, and I think even tennis and golf events.  Upon arriving in the middle of the first quarter of Game 6 of the 2006 NBA Finals, I discovered two things:

  1. This must be the only (North) American bar in Bs As, as it was crowded and there was no place for me to watch the game comfortably.

  2. The bar has (just like I have on my computer) a Slingbox connection, with all of its choppiness that makes it impossible to watch the minute details of the game, which are exactly the most exciting events of any sporting event.

Vance Macdonald—I have become addicted to High Definition, so the channel must provide most, if not all, programming in HD.  While the major networks are finally starting to provide significant HD content, for the most part, that content is not worthy of a b+w security camera .  As delightful as it is to watch sports or nature documentaries in HD, I really need movies if this is going to my only channel.  And while I would certainly miss Entourage, I think the movie selection on HDNet Movies edges out HBO-HD.

Brenda McAlice—I pretty much hate TV with the exception of Comedy Central, and specifically The Colbert Report and Mind of Mencia.  Those two shows have somehow become a part of my weeknight routine.  If I had to live with only one station, Comedy Central would be it.  I'd continue to be "in the know" about what's going on in the world through the biting, sarcastic humor of Steven Colbert and through the stand-up hilarity of Carlos Mencia.  Yay, Comedy Central!!

Bob Jensen—Only one television channel?  That is easy for me.  ESPN.  My TV watching is dominated by sports and ESPN shows more sports than any other channel.  Choosing a second channel would be tougher.  And I am torn between two.  Fox would deserve a nod because they show a lot of sports, and a lot of the high-end sporting events.  Plus they have a watchable show or two, like House, to fill the void between sports.  And while Fox is tempting, if there were some sort of timer on my TV tracking the channels that I watch, the Food Channel has to be right up there; in fact if Emeril were NOT on that channel it would come close to competing with ESPN.  God, I hate that guy and all his 3 jokes.  ABC would be in contention, just for Lost and Desperate Housewives, but they give those up on their website now, so nada problemo with them.

So Young Kim—What a tough question.  Most of my TV viewing time is split between USA Network for The Dead Zone and Monk and KSCI for Korean programing.  Occasionally, I watch the Food Network for food competitions.  There are only a few programs that I actually TiVo and they happen to air on KSCI.  I'm sucker for Korean dramas (it's like a cross between a soap opera and a mini-series) and the current one that I'm addicted is called Geen Cha, Geen Cha, Jo Wa Hae (which translates to I Really, Really Like You).

Most of these Korean Dramas pretty much have the same basic premise (Rich guy meets poor girl...they fall in love...parents don't approve....they can't be togther... yada, yada, yada).  I'm not the only fool that falls for the same story.  Korean dramas have gained popularity all over Asia (China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan, and Thailand).  In fact, whenever I tune in to the Japanese or the Chinese networks, I will find my favorite Korean dramas dubbed their language.

So, to finally answer the question.  Since I'll be attending culinary school for six more months, I would have to select The Food Nework.  I chose this channel for learning purposes while I'm in school.  Besides, it would only be for one year and I can rent the Korean dramas at my mom's favorite video rental store.

Ruth Torres—I would say NBC because most of the shows I watch are on that channel.  I love The Office and Scrubs.  Also my favorite entertainment programs are on NBC—Access Hollywood and Extra.  And I usually watch the news at 11pm and Jay Leno before going to bed.

Jeff Lewis—About half of the shows we watch are on PBS, so this didn't take much analysis, especially now that Arrested Development has been cancelled.  The only networks that commands our attention for more than two shows are NBC (The Office, Scrubs, and the original Law & Order) and Discovery Channel HD (at least until the novelty of the HD wears off).  For some reason we don't watch HBO much anymore—perhaps it's because their shows devote too much time to cutting off thumbs.

PBS provides us with these stodgy necessities:

Plus they recently showed one of my favorite movies, The Philadelphia Story.  PBS, you are yar.

Martell—My initial response to this question was to select ESPN, mostly because of SportsCenter and Baseball Tonight, but also because now that they will be airing Monday Night Football.  But over the past two years in B-school, I've become accustomed to either watching live baseball on the internet (through MLB TV) or following games through the live trackers provided by sites such as CBS Sportsline.  So I realized that, in a pinch, ESPN was a station I could do without.

My next choice was USA Network, on the strength of Monk and The 4400.  I also am interested in the new show Psych, and would be satisfied watching The Dead Zone.  But in a world where I rarely watch a TV show duirng its original broadcast (God bless TiVo), it seemed a waste to select my only station based on programs that I could rent on DVD in six months. USA was out.

In the end, my decision came down to finding the programming that I could not do without—which meant shows that either had an expiration date (such as the news) or shows that were not available on DVD.  Well, I don't watch the news, I don't watch Leno or Letterman, and I don't watch The Daily Show.  But there is one show I do watch that isn't available on DVD, and that show is Jeopardy!  So for me, without a doubt, the one station I would have to have is ABC.  And if it was all I had, maybe I'd start watching Lost mid-season.

To submit a topic for The Voices of Reason, or to be added to the VoR Shout Out List, send an e-mail to martell@babblog.com.

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