Hate-watching

Hate-watching is the activity of watching a television show or film with the intention of acquiring amusement from the mockery of its content or subject. Closely related to anti-fan behaviours, viewers who partake in hate-watching derive pleasure and entertainment from a show's absurdities or failures. The act of hate-watching is premised on the audience engaging with media through a satirical lens.

Relationship with anti-fan culture

Contrary to typical fan behaviour where audience members consume a piece of media with the intent to acquire pleasure from its contents, the pleasure anti-fans derive from a piece of media is rooted in its perceived shortcomings.

In a study conducted in 2005 on Television Without Pity, a since-defunct website that hosted discussions about television shows, Gray points out the patterns of anti-fan behaviours exhibited by its users. Unlike individuals who participate in fandom culture out of love for a particular piece of media, anti-fans engage with a piece of media out of dislike for it. The forums hosted on Television Without Pity expressed anti-fan sentiments where users would watch a television show, often critiquing and pointing out its perceived shortcomings.

History

A 2012 article from The New Yorker described the short-lived Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip as a show people loved to hate-watch, as "it was bad in a truly spectacular way—you could learn something from it, about self-righteous TV speechifying and failed satire and the dangers of letting a brilliant showrunner like [Aaron] Sorkin run loose to settle all his grudges in fictional form".

Entertainment Weekly and other publications noted the difference between hate-watching and watching as a guilty pleasure. "You wouldn't tune in every week to hate-watch a really bad reality show—that's a guilty pleasure. Generally speaking, hate-watching requires a TV series with high ambitions and features a certain amount of aesthetic perfection".

In a Los Angeles Times article describing the complexity of effects of U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump's appearance on Saturday Night Live as host, writer Mary McNamara references the hate-watching phenomenon as a reason that ratings alone are not an indication of support. An article from The New York Times also pointed out the successful ratings for Trump's presidency.

In a February 2020 article, Spanish television reviewer Borja Terán described the concept of hate-watching as "enjoying watching shows to be able to criticize them", citing it as part of the reason behind the success of Telecinco and its reality show-based lineup (specifically mentioning Supervivientes, the nineteenth season of which had premiered the night prior to the post): "the viewer feels superior to the guinea pigs taking part in the televised competition. They feel better with themselves and evade from personal problems by spending energy torpedoing a mere entertainment they follow through a screen."

As the term gained popularity, many anti-fans have asked others to not hate-watch, as they believe doing so will have the unintended effect of making the media they dislike seem more popular than if they had not hate-watched. Velma is one such example of this phenomenon, where hate-watching is supposedly the lead cause of the show being renewed for a second season.

Examples of hate-watching shows

• 13 Reasons Why
• The Bachelor
• The Big Bang Theory
• Chrisley Knows Best
• Emily in Paris
• Entourage
• Euphoria
• Family Guy
• Flavor of Love
• Game of Thrones
• Girls
• Glee
• The Hills
• Hollywood
• House Hunters
• The Idol
• Keeping Up with the Kardashians
• Love Island
• Pretty Little Liars
• Real Housewives
• Riverdale
• Say Yes to the Dress
• Selling Sunset
• Singapore Social
• Smash
• Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
• Survivor Spain (Supervivientes)
• The Magic Hour
• The Millionaire Matchmaker
• The Newsroom
• The Simpsons
• True Blood
• Velma
• Vinyl

Examples of hate-watching films

• Rebecca
• The Ridiculous 6
• Secret Obsession

See also

• Anti-fan
• List of television shows considered the worst
• Quality television
• Binge-watching
• Cinephilia
• Doomscrolling

References

External links

• Hate Watching Is Still Watching: How Shock Value Changes TV
• Hope-watching vs. hate-watching in TV's new golden age
• Data Proves TV Viewers Love to Hate-Watch Shows — Variety