A question of degrees

Ever wondered why the most popular TV programs are not your own favourites. 

The antique road show and their cousin the bric a brac auction where "tat" is offered for sale and prices are quoted for piles of rubbish. Another popular series are the cooking shows, where  virtually every day there is a celebrity chef doing his thing titivating our over extended stomachs to try more.

House buying is another boring way to pass your time as glamorous, pseudo estate agents pass banal commentary from room to room repeated from house to house program to program. They make even the second hand car salesman sound glamorous.

The cops squaring up to the drunken imbeciles who populate our town centres. Shows depicting the poor in all their decrepit glory. And the ever popular 'escape to another country' where the sunshine and beaches will be the balm to make you happy.

But other than the last which is pure escapism, why do we rate and watch this banal mind -boggling sameness, week in week out.
Why is the Jeremy Kyle show and the equally hideous Big Brother, both shows showing people at there worst, egged on to further exhibit even more outlandish behaviour. 

Have we progressed no further than the Roman amphitheatre where slaves were pitted against wild animals or the Edwardian peep shows were people used to pay to gawk at deformity.
What is it in our make up that turns to the outright ungracious.

I suppose It is ridiculous to carp at the programs shown on our TV when, on another channel, the dreadful scenes of the bombardment of Aleppo brings home how lucky we are to live here.