So I limit my 3y.o.'s tv to 3 shows most days - this gets exceeded when one of us is sick, or lessened if he's been naughty. I let him watch when I'm putting his baby sister to bed usually, to keep him out of the way/quiet. We mostly stick to the ABC stations, because there aren't any ads, and because there are so many kids shows on there you needn't go anywhere else, and most of them are age appropriate for him at the times he watches.
All of a sudden a few weeks ago, the ABC introduces a host for the children's shows...
http://www.abc.net.au/children/giggleandhoot/
Some twerp called Jimmy Giggle and his friend - an owl - called Hoot. Are you laughing yet? Me neither. My son's first reaction when it came on was "what's this? where's (insert favourite show title)?". Hoot has the kind of voice your creepy uncle puts on when he's pretending one of your dolls or teddies can talk. You know - that lame falsetto every male with a broken voice can do. Jimmy Giggle puts on this stupid overly-chipper pantomime voice, chats to his friend Hoot, and... what exactly?
They fill time. They apparently have kids write to them with proclamations of adoration, and send in pictures they've drawn. (I reckon they go down to the childcare centre underneath the ABC and get some of the older kids to do crayon pictures of owls then pretend a viewer sent it in - really - they're not that lovable). I can only think that the ABC is 1) trying to increase their Australian content, because there are actually minimums and many kids shows come from overseas, and 2) make up for the fact that they don't have ads and many shows are probably made to fit 30 minute time slots with ads, for example.
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