TV Guide Is Officially Useless (July 21, 2004)

The Earth will be operational only between the hours of 7am and 11pm Monday through Friday, Saturday from 8am until 9pm, and Sunday from NOON until 6pm. From 2am until 7am, Earth will be closed and nobody will be able to live on it while the Earth sleeps.

Ridiculous, isn't it?

TV Guide sucks effective July 25 with the eliminations of providing listings for TV shows overnight for late viewers and early risers, as well as, get this, not listing the day's programs until as late as 9am? WTF?!?

I have decided to cancel my subscription of TV Guide. I am totally flabberghasted at what they have done to the once-great American institution.

On page 5, the headline: "Our Makeover Continues," and then it has the caption, "Many of you have told us that you want TV listings that are faster and easier to read." Well, they did just the opposite. Now I have to go to the Internet to get the listings for my favorite channels since effective next week, TV Guide removed the overnight listings, reduced the channel listings for late night, and the clincher? They are no longer listing Saturday morning shows until 9am! Great. Now I won't know when "Chalk Zone" airs on channel 8! If I were a kid, I'd be livid at what TV Guide did!

Here are the changes at TV Guide, or let's make that, TV Dead!

Details pages: Lists programming for most channels.
Old way: Sat 5am to Mon 5am, Mon-Fri 5pm-5am.
New way: Sun and Sat 9am-11pm, Mon-Fri 7pm-11pm.

Prime Time grids: Lists additional channels in grids only not seen on the details pages.
Old way: Sun 7pm-11pm, Mon-Sat 8pm-11pm.
New way: Sun-Sat 7pm-11pm.

Weekdays grid: Lists the same channels as the Details pages, except no details.
Old way: Mon-Fri 5am-5pm.
New way: 7am-7pm.

Late nights grid: Very limited channel listing offering.
New way: Sun-Sat 11pm-2am. This eliminates a lot of channels.

No listings: A time period when TV Guide lists no programs. What? A TV Guide that doesn't list shows at a given time? This is unheard of! Here's what is going away:

Sun and Sat: 2am-9am.
Mon-Fri 2am-7am.

This is TV Guide?

No way!

Go to tvguide.com and do what I told the editors these two words:

YOU'RE FIRED!

What's to blame?

Overemphasis on movies. Excuse me? This is TV Guide, not Movie Guide. I want listings for my favorite reruns regardless of what you think is favorites. If I want to know the listings of a rerun of "Sabrina the Teenage Witch," I have every right to know.

Overcrowding of non-essential channels. What's with all the digital movie channels? Digital basic channels? They're just a pay tier, and I don't care what's on it, except maybe Goodlife and Game Show networks. I can't find most shows I like in TV Guide anymore.

What happened to late-night listings? That's just about all of the TV I watch nowadays. I want to know who's on Letterman, SNL, Adult Swim, etc. Late nights are the best TV has to offer.

Lumping together of Mon-Fri daytime on Weekdays. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day were pure hell trying to figure out what was on.

I liked the detailed listings 24/7 far better than this lump of shit I'm getting in the mail nowadays!

I'm cancelling my subscription! Anyone wish to revive Tuned In?