If you could only pick 5 cable stations

[Shirley Ujest]

If you had a choice and could only pick 5 cable stations (per person in the house) what would they be?

Mine:
CNN
CNN International
Fox News
Travel Channel
PBS


Husband:
ESPN
ESPN 2
Fox Sports
Some other sports channel that I forgot
Ditto on #4

Kids:
Disney
Nickelodeon
Cartoon Network

[demanton]

In no particular order:

HBO
Discovery Wings
American Movie Classics
Food Network
History Channel

[DaveX]

Discovery Channel
ESPN2 (sue me, I've got to have my hockey)
Local FOX affiliate (for the Simpsons in syndication)


I could only come up with 3... don't watch a ton of TV.

[Atreyu]

History Channel
ESPN
ESPN2
Sci-Fi Channel
CNN


CNN Headline News would have made this list once, but their god-awful new format has recently caused me to stop watching

[Amp]

Cartoon Network
Comedy Central
Sci-Fi Channel
Nickelodeon
Any available XXX porn channel

[Lucifer12]

Man, if only you could just pick 5 stations!

I just re-installed cable for the first time in 2 years and I'm still ticked that you have to pay, PAY(!) for home shopping networks and religious channels! I'm actually PAYING the cable company to peddle junk to me! Grrr!

Ok, with that out of the way, I'd pick:

Cartoon Network (I gots to watch Scooby Doo!)
Discovery Channel
Comedy Central
FX
AMC

[pezpunk]

Fox (Have to be able to watch the simpsons)
Comedy Central
Discovery
Cartoon Network
and I have to agree with AMP on any XXX porn channel available

[monster]

Me:
Comedy Central
A & E
TLC
VH1
E!

Husband:
ESPN
FOX Sports
CNN
HBO
Golf Channel

Son:
Cartoon Network
Nickelodeon
Disney Channel
Comedy Central (He LOVES Ben Stein)

[Schadenfreude]

Sci-Fi Channel
TLC
Comedy Central
Food Network (for Iron Chef!)
Discovery Civilization

I too dearly wish the cable companies would offer a cafeteria plan for channel lineups. AT&T recently started offeing add-on packs of about eight channels each, but in order to get the few that I would like to watch, I'd have to order every pack.

[Zumba The Cat]

HBO
Turner Classic Movies
American Movie Channel
Comedy Channel
Showtime

Can you tell I like movies?

[Jack Batty]

Comedy Central
Discovery Channel
ESPN
VH1
IFC - (which I don't even have now, and I miss it!)

[gobear]

Fox-The Sunday night lineup is Appointment TV
Turner Classic Movies-Gotta cover my noir addiction
Food Network-Can't miss Iron Chef
American Movie Classics-More monster movies than TCM
Sci Fi-MST3K reruns and Farscape

[delphica]

PBS is a cable station? I haven't had TV in a long time, but I am very sad to hear this.

I don't have cable, but I would if you could actually pick and pay for only the 5 stations you wish to watch. I would pick:

ESPN
ESPN 2
Classic Sports
HBO
Sci-Fi Channel

[blur]

History Channel
ESPN
VH-1
TLC
HBO

[finnofranco]

History Channel
Discovery Channel
Turner Classic Movies
Comedy Central
Cartoon Network

[Terminus Est]

TLC (Junkyard Wars)
Comedy Central (South Park, BattleBots)
Food Network (Iron Chef)
History Channel
CNN

[romansperson]

I'd take:

A&E
HGTV
Discovery Channel
VH-1
TECHTV

Mr. Romans would take:

ESPN
ESPN2
Speed Vision
Fox Sports
HGTV

[mouthbreather]

MSNBC
ESPN
HBO
Discovery
Telemundo

[Strainger]

1) Comedy Central (#1 by far--TDS, WBSM, Battle Bots, etc.)
2) Fox
3) History Channel
4) TLC
5) Sci-Fi (only for MST3K and Quantum Leap reruns)

[thermalribbon]

I couldn't live without:

HBO: (Sopranos/6ft Under)
ESPN: (Sportcenter)
MSNBC: (Hardball w. C.Matthews)
Discovery: (James Burke's Connections)
Comedy Channel: (SNL reruns/Daily Show)

I would like to be able to put MTV/VH1 on the list for music, but the NEVER PLAY MUSIC!!!! (and I don't have MTV2)

[yabob]

PBS is broadcast, so I don't think that counts as a cable channel, unless there's a "generic" cable PBS channel for dish services, as opposed to the local PBS station I watch. Assuming PBS is available as broadcast, and off the table, and judging by what I actually look at, rather than any image I would like to present:

Comedy Central
A&E
Cartoon Network
History Channel
Tossup between CNN, sports (I don't pay much attention to what channel a game is on if I decide to watch it), VH-1 and Nickelodeon (yes, I'm an adult. Really. It says so right on my driver's license. Maybe my second childhood is happening early. Does it help to know that I channel surf between "The Rugrats" and "Law and Order"? No? I didn't think so).

I would LIKE to say Discovery and TLC, but I tend to pick up that sort of fare from PBS (sometimes A&E), and never got in the habit of watching either of those.

It tends to change over time anyway.

[lieu]

HBO (Dennis Miller, Gary Shandling, Sex & the City)
Comedy Central (Jon Stewart, South park)
THC
TDC
NBC (Everybody Loves Raymond)

[Yossarian]

1) Comedy Central
2) FX (as long as Son of the Beach continues to air)
3) Nickelodeon (SpongeBob et al.)
4) Fox
5) Cartoon Network

[Kepi]

In no particular order:

HGTV (just bought a new house, need lots of decorating, gardening and fix-it advice)
The Weather Channel (never know what Texas weather is going to do)
Fox Sports Southwest (for Texas Rangers baseball and Big 12 football)
Nickelodeon (for Nick at Night)
CMT (hey, I live in Texas. I like country music. Sue me.)

[Agrippina]

1) Cartoon Network
2) The History Channel
3) TLC
4) The Weather Channel (it's so soothing, with their Muzak and their forcasts)
5) A&E

[Tequila Mockingbird]

1. Discovery Channel
2. The Learning Channel
3. Cartoon Network
4. History Channel
5. Food Network

I don't have cable, so just getting these 5 would certainly make me happy. If I could opt for a 6th, I'd say Comedy Central though A&E is sorely missed too.

[Necros]

Cartoon Network
HGTV
Food Network
TLC
Discovery

[Wolverine]

In alphabetical order:

Cartoon Network
Comedy Central
ESPN
ESPN2
SciFi

[PatrickM]

Tough question:

In no particular order:

ESPN
Fox Sports-Ohio
FX - for Buffy reruns!
E! - for "Wild On..." starring Brooke Burke. Yowza!
Comedy Central - for the Daily Show.

[Mr2001]

Comedy Central - Daily Show, South Park, BattleBots, Ben Stein
MTV2 - actual music videos
BBC - midnight Monty Python
Starz - they seem to have better movies than HBO
Sci-Fi - I hear good things about Farscape et al.

[Freudian Slit]

PBS counts as cable? I thought it was one that just always was there.

Comedy Central (South Park, That's My Bush, SNL, and all the movies)

Cartoon Network (Powerpuff Girls!)

Nickeloden (Spongebob, plus for Nick at Nite)

Sci-Fi (Tales From the Crypt)

Animal Planet (For all the cute doggies out there in TV Land)

[MovieMogul]

Heck, my building's not wired for cable, so I'd take anything. From what I remember, though...

American Movie Classics
Arts & Entertainment
Cartoon Network
Turner Classic Movies
HBO (for my wife)

[Shirley Ujest]

Ok, skip PBS, it is a Free station ( unless you have satellite tv and have to pay for local programming.)

Replace it with Comedy Central.

[Shirley Ujest]

re: the New CNN screen format

I second the hatred of it. It's way to busy. When I watch it I feel like I've just done some crack with an expresso chaser. Not that I would ever do expresso, it's too pretentious and tastes awful. and I too cheap dry clean my clothing, let alone buy crack.

[Oblong]

This doesn't exclude what comes on through the antenna does it?

ESPN(Baseball tonight, hockey, that trivia show)
ESPN Classic(love the old stuff)
HBO(Sopranos, Six Feet Under-only reasons I have it)
MSNBC(Political Junkie and Chris Mathews has the best show on politics)
Disney (for my 9 month old-he loves the roly poly thing that's on at 7 a.m.)

[longhair75]

good evening friends,

I don't watch much TV, but I love old movies. My choices would be:

AMC
TCM
TLC: (I like Junkyard Wars too)

My daughter (age 23) likes all the channels. Watching TV with her is like staring into a strobe light.

My younger daughter (age 20) runs MTV pretty much non-stop for Road Rules and Real World.

Mrs. Longhair watches:
Whatever channel it is broadcasts Friends and ER
Lifetime (the men are pigs channel)

[Anti Pro]

A&E [gotta have my 'Investigative Reports']
Discovery [ditto with 'Forensics' and 'FBI Files']
TLC [Medical Detectives]
WTBS [BRAVES games]
HBO [I'm still suffering withdrawal from 'Six Feet Under']

Hmmmm, except for the baseball, I definitely see a pattern here! ;)

[katiekilldare]

Comedy Central
Discovery Channel
Travel Channel
Sci Fi (MST3K)
A&E

[imthjckaz]

ESPN- Sports Center, MLB, College Football & Basketball

ESPN 2- College Football & Basketball

FOX Sports- Fox Sports News. Locally, they show Twins baseball, Timberwolf basketball, U of M Gopher football, basketball and hockey.

TNT- NBA basketball & NASCAR

Animal Planet- Crocadile Hunter Steve Irwin and his lovely wife Terri.

[Trucido]

I don't like forcing myself to pick, but I'd have to break it down as follows, in no particular order:

History Channel
Discovery
CNN
TLC
A&E (Cuz I like Law & Order, and those weird English murder mysteries they show late at night. No, I'm not crazy.)

[racinchikki]

TNN (rodeos)
TBS (nascar)
ESPN (racing)
ESPN2 (racing and once in a while rodeos)
Cartoon Network (fun)

[OxyMoron]

In order of priority:

Cartoon Network (Dexter, Sheep, Powerpuffs, Cow & Chicken, Courage, Chuck Jones Show, Four Luxuriant Hours of Looney Tunes on Saturdays and Sundays!!)
History Channel (Modern Marvels, the World War II stuff)
New York One (local all-news - their slogan is "The only local news worth watching!" Sadly, it's right. Only place to see local politics, budget issues, etc.)
VH1 (Pop Up Video, Behind the Music - my great sin)
TV Land (Mary, Retromercials - especially the Maxwell House ads)

When I got up earlier I also needed my Carol Burnett fix on USA. But USA has nothing else going for it, and they reduced her to a half-hour.

I'm glad to see that so many interesting, bright people picked Cartoon Network. My friends think I'm [Mr. Tudvold] a-luuuuuuney tuuuuunes![/Mr. Tudvold]. As it were.

[yosemite]

Well, I get the East Coast and West Coast network affiliates, which I HAVE to have. But barring those, my "cable" choices would be:

FoxNews (That Shepard Smith and Bill O'Reilly! Oh! Tony Snow!) Never mind...I'm weird...
SciFi (Farscape, Quantam Leap, Invisible Man)
TVLand (Paul's Ultimate Fan Hour - you NEVER know what he'll pick!) Oh, and Beverly Hillbillies.
AMC (Old movies! Love 'em!)
TECHTV

[MysterEcks]

History Channel (It was geeks like me they had in mind when they started it.)

Sci Fi (Mainly for Babylon 5.)

ESPN (Football, hockey.)

ESPN 2 (Football, hockey.)

Fox Sports (Penguins hockey.)

[Bottle of Smoke]

ESPN - Football, football, football.
ESPN2 - More football, more football, more football
HGTV - Norm, Steve, and Robin (less Dean please).
Food Network - Iron Chef, and anyone but godawful Emeril
Discovery Channel - There's always something interesting on.

[TroubleAgain]

TLC
TDC
History
A&E
TNT (I know they have cheesy stuff, but what the hey.)

[Olentzero]

In no particular order:

Nickelodeon (Gotta have SpongeBob! And Angry Beavers.)
Cartoon Network (For the new stuff, not the @$%#! reruns.)
Independent Film Channel
Sundance Channel

I've never actually seen IFC or Sundance, but I like independent/underground/alternative films so I figure I'd like them.

Slot #5 has a lot of contenders, but I guess if I really had to pick it would be this one channel - I think it's called the Cable Arts Network - it's kinda like MTV for cultural snobs. Snippets from art documentaries or classical music or film scenes. I just dig watching it.

[SpoilerVirgin]

Lifetime (It is the most watched cable network)
A&E
Nickelodeon
TNT (because now they have Law & Order reruns too)
E!

[TeaElle]

A&E
HBO
Comedy Central
Fox News
Tossup Channel: A choice between Lifetime (occasional Golden Girls reruns are a good thing) Bravo, TLC, Food Network, Court TV (for the Homicide reruns only), TNT (for Law & Order, Pretender and ER reruns only), F/X (for The Practice reruns only) VH1 (I'm a sucker for Behind the Music) and MTV (sometimes there's something worth watching -- sometimes.)

Maybe channel #5 could be a potpourri channel that features different shows from all of my tossup networks?

[Enore_Tsotset]

Gotta have my:
Animal Planet
Discovery
Fox (pretty much only for sunday though... and Dark Angel <drool>)
A&E
Comedy Central (South Park, I'm ashamed to admit)

I still get my cable modem with that though, right? :)

[Edwardina]

Tough to choose, because there are few channels that I enjoy in their entirety, many that I enjoy for just a few shows, or sometimes, just one show. But, these are my top 5, all things considered:

Sci-Fi
The Food Network
TNT
A&E
TLC

[elfkin477]

Hmmm...does "cable" mean premium channels, or ones you can't watch without having cable service? Reception is so poor here, I can't get channels other than ABC, PBS and occasionally WNDS without a cable hook-up.

The only channels I actually watch are:
WB
Fox
FX
UPN
NBC
So I guess those would be my choices, regardless if they're really "cable" or not since those and occasionally MTV and the Sci-fi channel are all I personally need. The bastards at our cable company won't carry the Sundance Channel or M(tv)2 so I'm s.o.l. until they see the light. I miss those channels.

[Invisible Chimp]

The five I must have:

ESPN
ESPN2
Fox Sports
Food Network
MTV2

Honorable mentions: Travel Channel, Game Show Network, and HBO

[The Bitterdrunk Kid]

Comedy Central ( I gotta watch Whose Line Is It Anyway?)
Fox News Channel (I know, but I'm a conservative, and I like it better.)
TV Land
The Weather Channel (I'm a farmer and I rely on the weather a lot)
MSNBC (I like to watch Imus In The Morning, and that's pretty much it. Chris Matthews yells too much, and seems obsessed with John McCain.)

[JessEnigma]

Here's my five:

Cartoon Network

BBC America-- I don't even have to hate A&E any more, since BBC America shows Monty Python and Blackadder for me

VH1

MTV-- I don't even like MTV...but Daria is one of my favorite shows

Food Network

I would like to replace MTV with programming from my local channels when Daria isn't on, though. I'm addicted to those cheesy "Judge ______" shows. They're a thousand times more enjoyable than the endless reruns of Real World or Road Rules.


jessica

[TheNewbie]

ESPN
The Game Show Network
Comedy Central
Fox
TNN (for the rest of NASCAR season anyways..)

[Typo Negative]

ESPN
Comedy Central
TNT
A&E
Fox Sports West

[Mahaloth]

In order of value:

1. Sci-Fi

2. Comedy Central

3. Fox News

4. A&E

5. The Learning Channel

I watch others, but if I HAD to choose, it'd be those.