8 TV Shows People Love to Hate

Cable TV is filled to the brim with shows everyone seems to hate, yet they remain inexplicably on the air.

TV is, in many ways, the great equalizer of all media. It is ubiquitous and accessible to just about everyone, and it can be discussed casually or with intense academic scrutiny. It also contains the entire range of human creative output — from pure drivel to scripted genius, and everything in between.

Still, it is impossible not to notice that there are some shows which absolutely everyone seems to hate. By all the known laws of economics, these programs should disappear from our watchlists within a season, yet so many of them keep going for years and years. There is only one explanation for this phenomenon, and it is simultaneously simple, obvious and infuriating: hate-watching.

Just about everyone knows what it is like to hate-watch a show. Certainly, anyone who every fought with a sibling over the remote knows the experience of grudgingly accepting their choice, and then becoming fixated on something they never wanted to watch in the first place. Hate-watching is a uniquely modern experience — a product of the adage “100 channels and nothing to watch.”

Hate-watching can become an emotional roller-coaster, forcing viewers to confront their preferences and the reasons behind them, perhaps even resulting in a profound personal metamorphosis. Over time, many hate-watches even achieve the liberating experience of admitting — to the world and ourselves — that we actually like the show we’re griping about. We accept it as a part of who we are, and our worlds expand a little bit. It may draw scorn from our peers, but we accept the solemn duty of defending our favs to the death.

Here are some of the shows people absolutely love to hate.

Bachelor in Paradise

Bachelor in Paradise takes all the twisted social warfare of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, and ups the ante. The show adds cast members and removes some stakes, as a final proposal is not imminent. However, the Tropical location ensures at least some drunken beachside drama.

The Walking Dead

Some time in the last two years or so, The Walking Dead crossed a threshold for many viewers. It could have been any one of countless, grisly deaths featuring a beloved hero. Suddenly, even dedicated fans found themselves wondering: what is this headed towards? The post-apocalyptic nightmare showed no signs of an upturn, and the surviving characters had all been scarred far beyond comprehension countless times already. Still, many of the hangers on continue to watch, grumbling all the while.

Dance Moms

Dance Moms is one of those shows that an unitiated viewer looks at and wonders why anyone would watch it. Then, by the end of that episode they are a true convert. The show draws and holds attention like a powerful magnet, completely rearranging the standards for childhood competitions. The fact of the matter is, shows that don’t get ratings don’t get made, and Dance Moms is coming back — along with Abby Lee Miller — this year.

Big Bang Theory

Big Bang Theory is constantly panned on social media as the archetypal mainstream sitcom. The show is considered predictable and formulaic, especially after 11 long seasons. Somehow, the people who mock the show tend to have an in-depth knowledge of all its characters, relationships and storylines. Meanwhile, CBS successfully funds the show, its constant celebrity guests, and its cast members’ massive salaries.

The Newsroom

Aaron Sorkin made a political classic with The West Wing on NBC. Years later, with The Newsroom on HBO, he made another TV show. The Newsroom was filled with long monologues that many viewers found preachy and overwrought, not to mention unrealistic. Few people get to speak as long uninterrupted as Sorkin’s characters do. However, the show made it through three seasons, all with huge viewerships.

Hoarders

In many ways, Hoarders is not so different than shows like Intervention. In one particular way, however, it is: there are piles and piles of junk. The show has achieved a unique longevity among reality shows since it has all of its subjects’ neuroses physically manifested in their stuff. Beyond that, many people watch the show with a guilty fixation, wondering if their own messy rooms are a slippery slope to real mental illness.

Lost

Lost took over the pop culture conversation for years, though many viewers were not satisfied with its controversial ending. Still, once the show reached online streaming platforms, many people began binge-watching Lost, either as a re-watch or for the first time. To this day, it is hotly debated among TV classics, with many trying to convince their friends to watch the show knowing that they won’t like the end.

House Hunters

HGTV programming follows a simple template, and many of the shows look the same. Yet none of them seem to inspire as much vitriol as House Hunters, the show that sets unrealistic stakes for its prospective homeowners. The segments have developed into something of a meme, mocking how the show’s contestants always seem to have enormous budgets for their dream houses and obscure, niche jobs that do not sound lucrative.