It’s way easier to list things I will watch than those I don’t. We have basic cable plus HBO. HBO is mainly for the original series they have produced, mainly The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Sex And The City, and the Dennis Miller and Bill Maher things. There are quite a few HBO shows I skip. Their specials and original movies are also of interest – usually.
The “basic cable” we get includes the local broadcast network channels, a few “premium movie” channels (no commercials), some sports channels, way too many religious broadcasting channels, music channels (both the DMX kind and the videos kind), and some foreign language channels.
As a general rule, I try not to watch channels with commercials. I skip the commercials or mute them if I have to be on that channel for something I just have to see. AMC used to be a favorite, but I have to care a lot about a movie to use their services. Same with Bravo. Occasionally FX will have a decent movie, but I normally don’t even check to see.
Flix. Sundance, TCM and HBO are the usual movie sources I check on.
Except for football, golf, poker, pool, boxing and an occasional specialty sport broadcast, I skip the sports channels. No interest in basketball, hockey, tennis (I have watched a few “major” matches), and baseball (I will watch the World Series sometimes).
If there’s a war on or some major news thing, I’ll rotate through any news channel covering it, with emphasis on CNN. Otherwise I avoid the 24-hour news channels.
Zero interest in shopping, music videos, religious channels, infomercials, health shows, doctor shows, soap operas, daytime talk shows, old game show repeats (I do watch current versions of the trivia shows like Jeopardy! and Millionaire and Weakest Link). I don’t elect to watch the court shows (judge shows?) but they’re normally on in another room and I occasionally hear something I just have to go see – some absolutely incredible idiot in the middle of some horribly ridiculous legal spat.
The Biography type stuff on E! and the “true story” stuff are of occasional interest. So are the NOVA and Discovery and History Channel science and history programs. But I don’t care for the animal shows and National Geo sort of thing.
That’s mostly it. Aren’t you sorry you asked?