The original post: /r/television by /u/AWeb3Dad on 2026-01-07 20:15:35+00:00.
I get we can consume what we want now instead of being programmed on our regular schedule, but curious about the history there. What in the world happened to tv culture that led us to opt out of syndication and start consuming on our own schedules. DVDs and vcrs or recording tv shows?
Hopefully this is the right sub to ask, as I’m also interested in what content we lost along the way. Seems wholesome shows like home improvement and other things just aren’t watch when we have gorey content like game of thrones and breaking bad.
I can’t tell if that’s because I’m older now, or that it’s because Kings of Queens and other shows just aren’t what I would watch if given the choice in an arena where I’m allowed to choose. Hell, I’m even wondering if having syndication is more of a novelty / luxury now, because frankly it seems like everyone is busy consuming content from social media. And it feels like the brain can only handle so much digital content until it explodes with out of context conversations that make people want to crawl back into their phones.
But you guys tell me. Am I stretching this too far, or is it our lack of attention span nowadays that killed syndication, or is syndication still alive outside of news… and I’m the one that’s just disorganized