Must. Watch. TV

I have heard from several places that the vast majority of kids are reading below grade level. In a world of texting over talking, the English skills of young people everywhere is going rapidly to crap. If it can’t be said in 140 characters or less, some kids won’t even read it. With this reality, is rewarding watching TV a good idea?

Viggle is a new app for the iProducts that gives you reward points for watching TV shows. For a half-hour sitcom, you get 30 points. For an hour long drama, it’s 60 points. If you hate the show and give up after 15 minutes, it’s 15 points. Some nights you get bonus points for certain shows e.g. Reality Dance Show is worth 300 points or Teen Melodrama is worth 100 points.

So how long does it take you to get rewards? $10 for iTunes is 18,000 points. That’s 600 sitcom episodes, 300 hour long episodes, or a combination of different bonus shows. Fortunately it’s only 15,000 points for $10 from Sephora. That gift card will give you a lot of mileage.

Much like Shazam and SoundHound, the iProduct knows what you’re watching and rewards you accordingly. My first concern was whether or not channels like Discovery or History were in on this. Good news: Yes they are and Hatfields & McCoys is worth bonus points. Bad news: It’s not worth as many points as The Bachelor or the Bachelorette.

If I do this I may have to try out my drinking game just to make the Bachelor watchable. While I would enjoy the subterfuge of getting one over on the app and creators of what my friend calls Whore Wars, I don’t know if it would be worth it.

Part of my concern is the quality of TV programming in this country in the first place. Basketball Wives, both Bachelor franchises, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, and Bethenny Ever After are all worth bonus points. All of these shows are popular. Firefly died in obscurity and shows like Who Wants to Be an Engineer don’t exist. If you have to sift through hundreds of channels of crap to find three worthwhile things, it’s no wonder our population can’t read or pay attention to anything.

Here’s a link to their blog. If I decide to take this for a test drive, I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

Current Music: Dirty Work - Halestorm