As discussed on the Better Call Saul thread, I see a new trend in TV. There is a lot more filler.
"When we return in 3 minutes, here is what is going to happen" and then "Previously on the show you were watching 3 minutes ago, here is what you just saw..."
As a family, we watch a lot of documentaries. It's like a common denominator, so we can watch as a family. Regardless of the topic, it seems like the same footage is used a dozen times in a 60 min show. It works in football. I do want to see the same play over and over if it is good. I want to hear the commentary. I don't mind the commercials too much because they usually are targeting me as a consumer...beer, jeeps, hamburgers...
Anyone else notice a trend?
I would guess that this happens most on stations like The History Channel/Discovery/TLC/etc., which are basically making shows on shoestring budgets anymore (or so it seems). Doing actual documentary work -- like, say, Ken Burns' The Civil War -- is hard work, and requires good use of background visuals when you're doing primarily audio-driven material (e.g. actors reading letters, narrator talking about an event, etc.). You can do an animated map here or there, or an animated diagram of something, but eventually, you'll go back to the stock photos/painting of an historical event, and keep focusing on this or that part of the photo/painting with sound effects to convey whatever your story is. Or relying on terrible SCA reenactors and community theater folks to play the parts in your historical tale or whatever.
All of this saves money, which means your shows turn a profit.
I occasionally catch this or that National Geographic history show on a streaming service, but I gave those up a while ago because of the awful production values, and the fact that even they tend to be much more like trying to make a really cheap, not very good movie, and far less about actual historical insight.
I know you see it a lot on reality shows... but on written shows I don't see it getting TOO bad. It's tough enough to fit your story into a smaller and smaller time frame (due to advertising)
Though maybe there's a lot more "Here's what happened before the break!" moments because there's so much commercial time now, people need to be reminded what show they were even watching.
I haven't noticed that trend, but then that's because I watch literally NOTHING live. Everything is streamed/on demand now. There are still commercials, but in some cases there are fewer of them, and they never, ever do show "bumpers" where you see what's coming up/what just happened. My mom watches stuff like house hunting/remodeling shows, though, and they do it ALL THE TIME on those and other reality shows. Again, I think it's all about budgets and wringing every last penny out of whatever dreck you're putting on screen.
