Exploitive television . . . Next! And some involved wonder why there is such an outcry over the state of daytime talk shows and their hybrids.
If you scan the log lines for several of these programs just on Tuesday, you get the depressing feeling that people are being preyed on for a few ratings points.
One can just imagine the “unusual love triangles” featured on Jerry Springer’s talkfest (9 a.m., WFLD-Ch. 32). Montel Williams has the ever-uplifting “girls who date their mother’s exes” (noon, WCIU-Ch. 26). Maury Povich’s topic would be innocuous enough, except for the key buzzword that ruins the thing: “New teenage marriages in trouble” (1 p.m., WGN-Ch. 9).
The rash of judge shows isn’t immune, either — “A women is accused of burning a car” is the tale on “Judge Judy” (4 p.m., WBBM-Ch. 2).
Feel free to shower afterward.
Elsewhere on the dial, country music singer Trisha Yearwood returns as feisty military forensic pathologist Teresa Coulter on a repeat of CBS’ hip action series “JAG” at 7 p.m. on Ch. 2; the end comes none too soon for NBC’s sad “Michael Richards Show” at 7 p.m. on WMAQ-Ch. 5; and don’t be fooled — UPN’s “Chameleon III: Dark Angel” (7 p.m., WPWR-Ch. 50) may have come before Fox’s “Dark Angel” (8 p.m., Ch. 32), but it still lags in comparison.
