Okay, I REALLY have way too much time on my hands, I KNOW!
But I can barely read TV Guide anymore! Over the past several months they've changed it. First it was arranging the movies into Categories instead of in alphabetical order. Then they removed all the daytime listings and stuck a generic "Weekday Listings" page instead. They didn't start show listings until 6 PM.

Now they've started listing only what's showing during Prime-Time hours, 7-11 PM. They have a small grid showing only selected channels from 11pm-2am, with no desciptions. And a half page of late night movie listings for all kinds of weird stations I don't get. Then they go black until 7 PM the following night. They've cut down the show directory from 24 hours a day to 4 hours a day!

I don't like the grids, don't know why they say they're easy to use! I have to flip ahead several pages to find what's on next and I get all muddled and can't make comparisons for time slots. They added lots of idiotic stations in their grid descriptions, too. I know the next thing they'll can is the paragraph-style listings - because that's the OLD style.

Yeah, I'm an old coot standing here shaking my fist!

I'm right beside you threatening to whack them with my cane.

I actually wrote them an email congartulating them on making the magazine unreadable.

I hit all your points and added the fact that the 7-11 grid starts with pages of 7-9PM and then pages of 9-11PM so you can't see one nights lineup on a channel in one view.

ITA and the other stuff too. That pissed me off when they went into category. That was ridiculous. Instead of keeping it the logically way it'seen for years, they switch the movie listings into friggin' categories. Great, make me figure out what type of movie I'm looking for now!

TV Guide sooo hard to read. Millions of channels in tiny tiny lettering. You need a magnifying glass to read it almost, and I have good eyes too! I get my guide through my cable company. I don't know,I've been thinking about canceling it. My local TV guide that I get in the Sunday paper is so much better and easier to read. Sometimes I long for the days of the good old TV Guide little book with limited amounts of channels.

I've used TV Guide religiously for... well, more years than I wish to admit. But now I'm not even going to renew my subscription. I get the information I need online and in the paper, without the headaches that come with trying to decipher the 'handy' new format.

It all goes back to the old saying, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'.

I totally agree!

I agree about the stupid movie categories.

I agree about the dropped daytime listings.

I agree about the dropped late night listings.

Yes, the free guide that comes with the Sunday paper is more useful these days.

Who are these readers who asked for faster listings? I think they're a figment of TV Guide's imagination. I don't get TV Guide for their celebrity articles. I get it because I want to be able to find out what's on TV at all times. And I want descriptions!

Thank goodness for the digital cable guide, but I still miss the old TV Guide.

Okay, whose got the petition to sign?

As soon as I saw this topic, I knew I was among friends. I've been a subscriber for almost 25 years now. But my subsription ends this December, and I'm not sure I'll renew.

It's like TVGuide is trying to be all things to all people, and failing miserably. As you can see by the time I'm posting this, I'm a night owl. I'd like to know who's on Letterman tonight. Or what's on after 1 AM. But sadly, I'm neglected.

And the weekday grids? Look at it when you get a chance. Look how many times they list "various programs" as what's showing.

"Various Programs"? No kidding. All stations are showing various programs. I get TVGuide to find out what the various programs are.

Or at least I did..........

The only new thing they've done that I like is the page titled "Classic Movies. Have you seen these great films?

I enjoy this feature because it has introduced me to some movies I've never seen. It's really vaulable for the lesser known films.

People have been teasing me about my TV Guide addiction for years but now I know for sure I'm not the only crazy one.

I still really enjoy the glossy pages in front but these days pretty much the only time I look at the listings is to see what movies are premiering on cable on Saturday night. They really are unreadable unless all you care about is what's on the major networks during prime time. Even looking for movies on the premium channels using the grid is nearly impossible. There isn't enough room so they often cut off the titles so you don't even recognize them.

Add in the fact that they've raised the price of TV Guide so much in the past few years, I think I may just give it up and stick with the Tivo listings. It would be extra incentive if I put what I would've spent in a fund every week to splurge with at the end of the year.

I gave up on TV Guide when we got digital cable, which features an info window and guide at the touch of a button. Time Warner usually does a pretty good job of keeping it correct and up-to-date, but last night they broke my heart. They PROMISED me that the Disney Channel would show the Leslie Ann Warren version of "Cinderella", the one from my childhood that I loved even more than the annual airing of "Wizard of Oz". I was so looking forward to watching it with my seven-year-old daughter. What did we get? The recent Brandy/Whitney Houston version, which is okay, but NOT THE ONE WE WERE PROMISED! I checked the info bar throughout the broadcast and it continued to tell me I was watching Leslie Ann Warren. Rub it in, why don'tcha.

Oh, that would have made me mad too, divasahm. I loved the old version.

Here's what ticks me off about TV Guide (other than all the other stuff that's already been mentioned): the blatant pimping of whatever blockbuster movie happens to be on the verge of gracing the silver screen, usually in a big-feature cover story.

The last time I checked, it was called TV Guide, not It's Going to Show Up on TV Someday Guide.

ETA: Oh! And I forgot to snark about how they have reversed themselves from designating when a show is a repeat to only telling us when a show is "new." Probably because the networks rerun everything into the ground (yes, Law and Order franchise I'm looking at you) and they just don't want to call attention to the fact that there's really nothing new on.

Big.Ass.Word, Eliot. Also, they got on a Britany Spears kick for a while. If I want to read about the film and music industry, I'll fucking buy magazines that cover them. And, half of the TV Guide articles actually about television suck ass of late. I've been a subscriber for over eleven years and I'm considering not renewing my subscription.

Now, I can kind of see why they're cutting back on the listings for someplace like the Bay Area, where there are dozens of cable companies and hundreds of possible channels before you even get into digital cable (though they could at least pick a set of 50 most common), but I was in a hotel in the middle of nowhere; one cable company, a reasonable number of channels, and they still cut the listings off at night. The listings section was thinner than the "article" section.

So there I was in a hotel in a town with nothing to do at night but watch TV and no idea what was on, not even on the movie channels.

TV Guide doesn't sell many issues in my town. The copies in the stores have these proud little stickers that say "Comcast Edition". Comcast is not the local cable provider. Never has been, probably never will be. Comcast is not available in my town, nor the towns to our north, south, east or west. And maybe that would be tolerable, since, hey, you could see some of the cable net listings and the local listings... except those "Comcast Editions" also give only the listings for the Philadelphia broadcast stations. Yeah, we get the NYC stations, and while the prime time schedules are often similar, they aren't identical, especially if you are trying to plan around sports pre-emptions. So, in summary, TV Guide? Completely useless as a guide for television. Thank goodness one of the local papers has a kickass weekly insert, with 24/7 accurate grids.

And what about that nifty section at the beginning of the book. It gives all the shows with "new" episodes in an alphabetical listing.

So I can find out if a show is "NEW" in the nightly listing, the grid listing, or the alphabetical by title listing.

But what's on TVLand after 11 PM? No can do.

Here's a word for you, TVGuide: Redundant

That's opposite of (NEW).

Thank god for TiVo's automatic listing features, that I don't have to navigate through TV Guide anymore.

Just chiming in..

Firstly, I subscribe to two papers, one local the other from a nearby major city (Houston) . For years now, everything has been fine. Until recently, they stopped putting my their version of TV Guide in the paper. So I email me them to find out and they tell me that it is not an error. They have decided to only put the TV Guide in for those residents in Houston. All others will get nothing.

Secondly, while I understand people's complaints about the new TV Guide (I agree it sucks) it's not like there are other options. The Internet has dozens of sites that offer listings and each day your local paper should have a TV Grid listed.

Back in the late 80s or early 90s, the Guide used to run a section called "What I Watch", where celebs talked about (of course) what they watched on TV. They stopped running it - probably because everybody loved to say they watched PBS: Nova, Masterpiece Theatre, and such. Occasionally, someone would admit to "slumming it" with "Frasier" or "Larry Sanders". Whatever - you know they were watching "Melrose Place" with everyone else.

There isn't a whole lot in the mag, considering how much they want to charge for it. I really don't even buy it anymore. You can get listings and many of the same stories online. I'm not spending $2 per week for listings that are wrong anyway and "Cheers and Jeers" (which they removed from online - like it's a big draw).

Plus, their "reporters" are a bit full of themselves. I totally think one of them was rejected for the Culture spot on "Queer Eye", because he has nothing but scorn for that Jai Rodriguez. Either that, or there's some history. I will give them that their general cattiness makes for some good reading, though.

Here's a fun activity, but it requires a trip to the library: Think of a show that is now considered a classic. Then, go to Periodicals and pull the Fall Preview issue for the season that it first started, and read their thoughts on show. While there, scan the pages for all the Shows That Didn't Make It - all those people in cute poses, thinking of all the residuals that they would never earn because networks don't buy a show that lasted 6 weeks.

Aw, I just go to the box I keep my FALL PREVIEW TVGs. The only issue I insist on having and keeping. For that fun exercise specifically. I have the ones from 1987-88 and then all of the ones from 1992 to this year's edition.

I'm goin' through them to see what I can glean, though I doubt there's anything too surprising to be found.

Word, word, word to everything that's been said about TV Guide. The newest format totally sucks. Just how many more little "grids" can they chop the listings into? (I want to barf when I see "various programs", or "science fiction programs" for the SciFi channel -- what good is that?)

Many channels are covered only in the prime time grids, and for several hours of the day, there is no coverage at all. None.

This may be great for people who watch only network TV and only during prime time, but for people like me, who almost never watch either network or prime time TV, we might as well just go back to channel surfing.

The guides in the local newspapers are no good, either -- they omit at least half the channels, and don't seem to realize that the day has hours past 11:00 PM.

I hope I don't sound like an old fogey, but I wish TV Guide would just get rid of all the grids, and go back to the original format -- one series of continuous, 24-hour-a-day listings, including all the channels. (For what it's worth, I go back a long way -- I remember when TV Guide placed the letter "c" next to a show's listing to indicate it was in color!)

One final comment, I am getting TV Guide for free (someone is responding to one of those "Renew your subscription and we'll send a free one to a friend" offers). There is no way in God's green earth I would pay for TV Guide the way it exists now. And I am searching for an internet TV listing that will alllow me to print the entire day's schedule, neatly and easy to use, on a page or two.

I'm just curious: has anyone noticed what's been missing from TV Guide for the last few months? (Actually, it's still in the DirecTV editions, and I think it's still in the "cable" editions, but I know they took it out of all the regional "broadcast" editions.)

I don't notice anything missing from my cable edition, other than most of the listings for 2:00 AM - 9:00 AM, and all of the listings for several of my favorite channels.

I'm curious, now, though...

(And sheesh, they can't even start their miserably deficient weekday listings at 6:00 AM or 7:00 AM? That's prime-time before-work viewing for me!)

I wish I had a TV listings channel in my cable service, but that is reserved for the people who pay higher fees to get digital cable.

The only thing that's still worth it is the Fall Preview Issue, so I can figure out what new shows I like. Thankfully, I don't need to subscribe for that, I'll just buy it once a year at the grocery store.

Well, I haven't found a place that prints a whole day's schedule like that, but zap2it lets you view up to 6 hours at a time on their grid, and there's a printable version too, although that may take up a few pages depending on how many channels are available on your cable/satellite provider.

In their "broadcast" editions, TV Guide took the page(s) showing which channels are listed. I guess they decided that their readers will have no problem remembering whether they get the black-on-white Channel 9, the white-on-black Channel 9, or the half-black-half-white Channel 9.

The pages are still available in the form of PDF files on their web site, although I think you have to sign in as a subscriber to be able to find them easily (because they're accessible from the page where you can change which edition they're sending you).

Have they done away with the Mushnik on Sports column in the print versions? I don't remember seeing one for a while now. I'm sorta glad because he was beginning to sound a bit Andy Rooney-ish.

Andy Rooneyish, hell! When we dropped TV Guide -- which we did because digital cable makes it superfluous, thanks to the sweet sweet on-screen listings -- I wrote a letter to the editor saying that the real reason was that I was sick of reading Phil Mushnick pissing and moaning about how the world is going to hell in a handbasket and it's all professional sports' fault!

Oh! I thought it was all Vince McMahon's fault. *g*

The other thing that is ticking me off about TV Guide is the sudden preponderance of all those "Editor's Choice" call-outs spotlighting a particular episode or show. They used to be reserved for series premieres or finales, or - dare I say it - "very special" epsides. At any rate, the purpose was to single out what they deemed "exceptional" viewing.

Now the damn boxes are everywhere! With no regard to whether it's "exceptional" or not - it's just more clutter to sort through.

I've found TV Guide's website to be somewhat useful (far more than the magazine itself), but the biggest problem I've faced is that I have basic cable and the listings there seem to include all 10,000,000 channels in existence.

Does anybody know a way to do a search for when a show/movie is going to be on, but only on the channels I get?

Thanks.

Michael1973 I get my TV listings from Yahoo.
They ask for your zip code, then your television provider, and only list channels covered by that provider.

I do like the onscreen listings that I now have with dishnetwork. The TV Guide channel used to really bug me because you had to wait and wait and wait while it scrolled through everything. The only thing I don't like about the onscreen listings with dishnetwork is that I can only get three days worth at a time. Which puts a real cramp in trying to tape anything a week from now.

Comcast's onscreen listings have really improved recently -- they used to only go about 18 hours into the future, but now they usually go several days!

I'm still using the TV Guide Channel's scrolling listings. I do really wish they'd go faster, especially when I can't stand what's happening on the top half of the screen.
There was some glitch a coupld of days ago, and they kept repeating the same promo over and over again.

Gemstar-TV Guide, the publisher of TV Guide, is starting up a new magazine called "Inside TV," which is going to compete with "People," "Us Weekly," and such. Just what America has been crying out for! They claim it's going to be different because it will solely focus on TV, but given that TV Guide doesn't solely focus on TV anymore, I'll believe it when I see it.

It would be great if this means the stupid celebrity-puff-piece articles will no longer be in TV Guide because they're all in Inside TV, but I have a feeling that's not going to happen.

TVGuide online does it this way also. The problem is, my cable company offers at least three times as many channels (if you order the super-deluxe package) than I actually receive. Hence, I am seeing my cable company's exact lineup when I log on, but if I do a search for, say, a movie, I might get feedback showing it on a premium channel that I don't pick up.

Did that make sense?

Then you might try zap2it, I guess. With their listings, you can view by cable provider, and I think if you register with them too, then you'll have the option to pick only the exact channels on that provider you want.

Yes it did. I've never searched for a movie title on Yahoo, so I didn't know it worked that way.
Hope zap2it works for you, as suggested by Cress.

My Best Bets is another site that will allow you to take a peek at exactly which channels your provider has and which you subscribe to.....

I have a software TV guide I recommend that just came back for the US (It was gone for a couple years since it's a UK-based company, but they now have US funding again); you get a free month's trial and after that ends you have to pay $50 for a year of listings, but the program is very customizable and its very detailed with its program listings. My favorite feature is the reminders and color coding for your favorite shows. Another great thing; you can print out listings just about however you want, grid, whole-day description for a channel, or with a template.

MyTVInfo Digiguide

I also pay $8 a year for my TV Guide (cheap as I can find); I really don't see the point of it anymore with all the overgridding of the listings.

I just got my TVGuide for next week. TPTB must have listened, or read our posts. Most of their "new and improved" features? Gone.

All is well.

I just renewed my subscription after weeks of inner debate, so I'm glad to hear it.

Big changes for TV Guide. I guess that's that.

That's certainly that as far as my subscription goes. I don't think I really need another big, glossy, gossipy rag about tv stars.

I note that the publishers say their research indicated that their subscriber base wanted the change. Guess they didn't ask me. Or they don't care. So goodbye, TV Guide - it's been a wonderful [mutters number indistinctly] years.

Wow. I stopped using TV Guide for the television listings years ago, so I guess I am part of the problem, but I can't imagine life without the little, traditional TV Guide . It seems like such a part of America. But then again, Life magazine died, and then Ladies Home Journal , so I guess I should not be surprised.

Thanks for the link Josette. The article makes me wonder about us neglected middle Americans living in the Central and Mountain time zones. As a Mountain Time Zone dweller, I suffer from low TV self-esteem when I hear "9 PM Eastern and Pacific, 8 PM central". Now even TV Guide is writing us off!

At least y'all get that. TV Guide acts like the Moutain Time Zone doesn't even exist.

So, basically they're going to cease publishing the TV Guide that we all know and are ambivalent about...and then, they're going to slap the TV Guide name on their shitty Inside TV magazine (like nobody will notice)? Is that right?

Okay, let me get this straight. TV Guide is not making as much money as they used to. To combat this problem, they are changing their magazine so drastically (after 55+ years) that they fully expect to lose 66% of their subscribers. They are also lowering the price, so that the 33% who remain are paying less money for it. And why are they doing this? Because...

research shows this is what the readers want!

Look, I tend to be a very logical thinker and I see nothing logical about this. As far as I'm concerned, this ranks right up there with "New Coke" as far as marketing decisions go. But what do I know? I'm only one of the 6 million customers who will be cancelling come October...

Why wait? I think I'll beat the rush and cancel now.........

They'll stop publishing TV Guide, but it won't stop Archie from publishing Archie Digest, Jughead Digest, Betty and Veronica Digest...

Anyway, I guess I might pick up the last digest edition before they kill off TVG. I remember collecting TV Guides as a kid. My favorite part was the show ads in the listings that had promo pictures of the actors. Those were starting to go extinct in the last few years, anyway.

I don't understand how they know the exact estimate of how many people will cancel. Are they just going to cancel these people without warning? What if they don't lose enough subscribers to make it worthwhile?

I've been getting TV Guide for free for the last couple years. Not sure exactly how. I think my brother signs me up on one of those sites. I find it useful. Sadly, I like the parts in the front the best. The listings are hard to use because they are so filled with other crap. There's a lot of channels that don't even show up, like all the extra Showtime and HBO channels. So for listings, I usually use my Direct TV program guide. TV Guide is useful for seeing what's on in the week ahead, though.

The Soap Opera "what's happening" section is also useful, because I get it in the mail on Tuesday and their "week in review" covers the rest of the week. So I can get a bit of cryptic spoiler info a few days in advance.

I used to save all my old TV Guides, like George Costanza's dad, but then came to my senses and threw them out.