What do people find appealing about shows like Maury and Doctor Phil, and all that courtroom stuff?

Human Nature: People love to see others suffer.

It is a mystery to me. Perhaps the same gene that makes people want to gawk at accidents?

It is always good to know that someone sucks at life more than I do.

@Nullo: “The Powers That Be all glory to the powers that be~ decided to bless the break room with a television.”

Sorry for your loss.

I thought it was just a general affinity for junk thought and junk TV. Why people rush home to watch the latest survivor or whatever is beyond me. Maybe their lives are boring and need something to fill it that doesn’t make them think too much, who knows.

@tom_g Thanks. The Resistance lives on, though; I mute the sucker when I can, and hide the remote. I considered sabotage, but that’s an expensive TV.

You could get one of these

When the television was installed, was there a vote taken at work on what television channel would be on? If not, then it is time to speak up. Where I worked, the channel was set to a news station, and when the word got out that there was some type of crisis in the making, it became a gathering place.

There are probably many more in your workplace that feel the same way that you do and just choose to ignore it. How about asking them?

You need this device TV-B-Gone .

Don’t tell anyone.

@Pied_Pfeffer No vote – most people are content to watch what’s on, so long as the hell-box is on – and efforts to find a workable compromise (e.g. muted TV with Closed Captions) are typically met with angry suggestions that I remove myself to the now-decommissioned smoking room.
That TV-B-Gone is looking awfully tempting. Though folks might start getting suspicious if the ‘tube turns off whenever I’m in the room.

Do you have a co-hort at work that’d be willing to co-conspire with you @Nullo? ;)

@SpatzieLover I dunno, I’ll have to ask around discreetly. Though democracy seems to be the rule of the day, and the minority typically gets the short end of the democracy stick.

It’s unfortunate when the democracy likes something loud and annoying :/

@SpatzieLover Aye. It brings out the anarchist/vigilante side of me, and I don’t even like the first one.

Nothing about the content of such programs appeals to me at all. If I can’t choose the channel, then I can use my feet to change what I am seeing and hearing.

Watching these shows effectively illustrate:

No matter how bad I think I have it, someone else in the world has it a whole lot worse.

One walks away with a fresh perspective and a better attitude.

Besides…watching people make fools of themselves is amusing.

Anyone who denies this overlooks the appeal of some of greatest comedy acts the world has known ie. Laurel & Hardy, Martin & Lewis, Lucille Ball (& Co.), The Marx Brothers, etc. The fact that these tv shows present real people in real (?) situations does nothing to minimize the fact that a great deal of these…eh…predicaments are downright hilarious.

Most people can watch it and say, at least I am not that (__insert pejorative here__).