Recaps after advert breaks....half the show these days

[Tokoloshe]

They seem to have gone mad on this recently, you watch a show, they have an advert break (one of probably 4 or 5 in an hour show), then you go back to the show, and they give you a massive recap of what you were just watching before the 5 minute advert break!!

I was here!! Watching it!! and my memory is still good enough to remember what happened before a short break!!

I can only assume they are doing this more and more to help mentally restricted people from forgetting what happened 5 minutes ago, and the worst of it is either on fly on the wall type stuff, or car/house type shows.

Not only that, but as they break to the ads, they give you a preview of what will happen after the break, which usually includes the climax of the show. I dont want to know what happens at the end or Id Sky plus it and just fast forward to the last 30 seconds of the show!!

If you take out advert breaks, precaps, and recaps, how much actual viewing do you get out of an hour TV shows? Some of them must be 25 minutes of actual content, I wish they'd make them half an hour and save on pointless filling, Im sure idiots could keep up for 30 minutes without the need for recaps after every break.

Some shows are being ruined by this, not sure who they are aiming this at but it's a broad spectrum of shows, even stuff like Wheeler Dealers, you come back from a break and they tell you everything Ed just did!! I sometimes just ffwd to the end of the show now, but just imagine if there was no Sky plus, most of the shows would be virtually unwatchable by anyone with a memory greater than a gold fish.

[Shaw Tarse]

Tokoloshe said:

They seem to have gone mad on this recently, you watch a show, they have an advert break (one of probably 4 or 5 in an hour show), then you go back to the show, and they give you a massive recap of what you were just watching before the 5 minute advert break!!

I was here!! Watching it!! and my memory is still good enough to remember what happened before a short break!!

I can only assume they are doing this more and more to help mentally restricted people from forgetting what happened 5 minutes ago, and the worst of it is either on fly on the wall type stuff, or car/house type shows.

Not only that, but as they break to the ads, they give you a preview of what will happen after the break, which usually includes the climax of the show. I dont want to know what happens at the end or Id Sky plus it and just fast forward to the last 30 seconds of the show!!

If you take out advert breaks, precaps, and recaps, how much actual viewing do you get out of an hour TV shows? Some of them must be 25 minutes of actual content, I wish they'd make them half an hour and save on pointless filling, Im sure idiots could keep up for 30 minutes without the need for recaps after every break.

Some shows are being ruined by this, not sure who they are aiming this at but it's a broad spectrum of shows, even stuff like Wheeler Dealers, you come back from a break and they tell you everything Ed just did!! I sometimes just ffwd to the end of the show now, but just imagine if there was no Sky plus, most of the shows would be virtually unwatchable by anyone with a memory greater than a gold fish.

Blame the Americans or MBU

[ajprice]

Gadget Show. Its been said in its own thread and I haven't watched it for a while now but its really not surprising that Dave can cut an hour long show to a half hour slot. Preview whats coming up, review what's happened, competition, still to come, and now, end credits.

[Tokoloshe]

Gadget Show is seriously bad for that, from the persective of the TV studios, they get an hour of TV from 25 mins of content, plus all those ad breaks for revenue, must be a big earner for them.

As it pays them to draw the shows out, I expect it will only get worse

[Mr Whippy]

I think Mitchell and Webb did a really good piss take of this!

'previously on that mitchell and webb look'

Can't find a clip but it sums this up... the entire program is a recap and what is coming next mix up

[Mr Whippy]

Tokoloshe said:

Gadget Show is seriously bad for that, from the persective of the TV studios, they get an hour of TV from 25 mins of content, plus all those ad breaks for revenue, must be a big earner for them.

As it pays them to draw the shows out, I expect it will only get worse

Or just don't watch it?

Or if you do, record it, then FF all the junk.

[Eric Mc]

What's worse is that BBC are using similar techniques ion some of their programmes - which of course, contain no breaks. However, many of these programmes, such as Traffic Cops, have second lives on commercial channels such as Dave or Watch - so they are pre-designing them to be ad break friendly.

[bexVN]

It appears to be something the American programs like and do. There was a Richard Hammond series on recently can't remember the title but it did a lot of recapping and we figured it was purely so it could fit the American market as well. Doesn't stop it being bloody annoying though.

[youngsyr]

Eric Mc said:

What's worse is that BBC are using similar techniques ion some of their programmes - which of course, contain no breaks. However, many of these programmes, such as Traffic Cops, have second lives on commercial channels such as Dave or Watch - so they are pre-designing them to be ad break friendly.

Indeed - Countryfile, which doesn't even have any advert breaks, has two or three "coming up" slots in it. Why it can't just get on with the show I have no idea. It's not like the pieces that are coming up are the most dramatic events in human history, either.

[944fan]

I hate it too. Wheeler Dealers used to be bad for it when they did the 30 minute shows. You'd get a recap after the ad break, then another recap at the begining of the second show, even though they were scheduled concurrently. Now you don't get it on the hour long shows.

[Republik]

ajprice said:

Gadget Show. Its been said in its own thread and I haven't watched it for a while now but its really not surprising that Dave can cut an hour long show to a half hour slot. Preview whats coming up, review what's happened, competition, still to come, and now, end credits.

This.

You get some idea when you watch an episode on Dave. An hour programme which is edited into half an hour. It's better for it.

[lotus72]

it also means that when you produce the programme, you actually have less stuff to put in it, too! Brilliant!!

[Blue Meanie]

It's the recaps at the beginning of shows that annoy me most. Previously on XYZ...

Yes, I know what happened, I watched it. It's a series. Why would I not know what happened last week?

[ShiggyBiggs]

Shaw Tarse said:

Blame the Americans or MBU

That thread is probably one of the best things Ive ever seen on a forum.

[tank slapper]

youngsyr said:

Eric Mc said:

What's worse is that BBC are using similar techniques ion some of their programmes - which of course, contain no breaks. However, many of these programmes, such as Traffic Cops, have second lives on commercial channels such as Dave or Watch - so they are pre-designing them to be ad break friendly.

Indeed - Countryfile, which doesn't even have any advert breaks, has two or three "coming up" slots in it. Why it can't just get on with the show I have no idea. It's not like the pieces that are coming up are the most dramatic events in human history, either.

That annoyed me the other day. They had a piece about Thames sailing barges, but instead of doing a decent report, it was broken up into segments a couple of minutes long with repeated references to what they were going to be showing. When it got to the bit that had been 'coming up' it consisted of mainly what they had shown earlier, so there was very little point watching it at all. What could have been an informative item was reduced to the two presenters supposedly racing each other. I suspect that had they shown it as one continuous piece, it would have been extremely obvious that they hadn't bothered to write a decent script.

TV producers seem to be under the impression that people have an attention span that can't cope with watching something for more than 30 seconds at a time. I wish they wouldn't make programmes that are only aimed at the lowest common denominator.

[Funk]

I think it's also because a lot of people are skipping channels when adverts come on. If they recap something for someone who's just 'landed', they're more likely to stay as they will have some idea what's going on.

I rarely watch live TV now because I can't stand all the breaks and 'coming ups' and 'before the breaks'. Everything is recorded or downloaded and watched in peace.

[percymk4]

Tokoloshe said:

Not only that, but as they break to the ads, they give you a preview of what will happen after the break, which usually includes the climax of the show.

Mythbusters on Discovery is bad for this. If they're building some sort of machine or exploding something 9 times out of 10 they will show you said machine or explosion before the break in the "coming up" part.
Cheers for ruining the surprise, dheads.

[Northern Munkee]

Funk said:

I think it's also because a lot of people are skipping channels when adverts come on. If they recap something for someone who's just 'landed', they're more likely to stay as they will have some idea what's going on.

I rarely watch live TV now because I can't stand all the breaks and 'coming ups' and 'before the breaks'. Everything is recorded or downloaded and watched in peace.

it's what he said.
The ads all come on at the same time, so you're trying to snare a channel hopper during the ads, at the same time the precap before the break is to try keep you from hopping, 'look what you'll miss!' and so you'll also sit through their ads as ads pay for some of the programming, diy ads during those house home in thr country sarah beeney, etc, etc believe that or not!

I still hop though. Fools!

[monthefish]

Mr Whippy said:

I think Mitchell and Webb did a really good piss take of this!

'previously on that mitchell and webb look'

Can't find a clip but it sums this up... the entire program is a recap and what is coming next mix up

'twas very funny.

[anonymous-user]

Can someone recap this thread, i've forgoten how it started....... ;-)