Television criticism

Television criticism is the act of writing or speaking about television programming with a view to evaluating its worth, meaning and other aspects.

Such criticism can be found in daily newspapers, on culture discussion shows (on TV and radio), and in specialist books and periodicals, all of which are in direct competition for audience from television.

Where television criticism appears

Since television is so accessible to so many people, most newspapers carry TV listings and these are often accompanied by criticism even just to the extent of recommending a particular programme or programmes from that day's selection of viewing.

Television will often provide a forum for criticising itself. In the United Kingdom, The Review Show on BBC Four hosts a monthly discussion on the arts with a television series often featuring. Also in the UK is Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe which takes an incisive though humorous look at current television.

Due to its nature of episodic review, it was hard for TV criticism to really take off before the internet age. Now TV critics have the luxury of covering a weekly television show nearly instantaneously via a website.