A scene from television series Country Calendar.
One thing working with Farming Show host Jamie Mackay has taught me is the value of a good old-fashioned bandwagon jump. He's made that many jumps on to popular bandwagons he's turned it into an art form. I mentioned Twitter last week; this time it's TV programming.
To be fair, Jamie is up front in the driver's seat on this one and, via Twitter and other social media platforms, it's gained massive support -- this wagon's pretty full.
The issue is the screening of the ANZ Young Farmer Contest Grand Final at the ungodly hour of 11.40pm on a Saturday night. The argument goes that it would be far more pertinent to screen the hour-long show at 7.30pm, straight after the country's longest-running programme, Country Calendar. There's clearly an appetite for it. It's once a year, it's good TV in a pseudo-reality genre and highlights a positive aspect of the country's biggest industry. A sound and logical case.
However, the problem lies with a subset of species that inhabit our fair shores: television programmers. I put them up there with traffic wardens and referees on my list of scurrilous creatures, a list I've called George's Compendium of Reprehensible Individuals, or GCRI. The GCRI comprises those who spurn soundness and logic either through devious intent or plain stupidity.
The list of nonsensical acts performed by TV programmers in this country is too comprehensive to fit into a newspaper column but there are various trends that have emerged over the years. For example, a show that hits the screens with very little by way of a build-up manages to capture viewers' imaginations and develops something of a cult following, will find its second series buried at 11.30 on a Friday night.
They lack any kind of imagination whatsoever because they've developed a bad habit of relying on the cheap, lowest common denominator bollocks like DIY shows, endless cooking crap and B grade drama.
Ironically, we live in a truly golden age of television. Regular Farming Show correspondent Massey University vice-chancellor Steve Maharey and I have discussed the virtues of Breaking Bad on air before -- a show widely regarded as the pinnacle of them all. Others would argue The Wire takes top place, while The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, True Detective and The Walking Dead are all first-class television dramas. That is why the internet and MySky are truly wondrous things. You can choose what, when and where you watch TV, taking the programmers completely out of the game. The issue for older viewers is that many lack the desire or means to change a lifetime's habits; they like to watch the news at 6, Country Calendar at 7 and Miss Marple, Bergerac or Taggart, or whatever light British crime drama is served up later in the evening.
Agriculture is a far more sophisticated beast than it was decades ago. Many urban dwellers are aware of the significance it has for the country, its increasing reliance on digital technology and the career paths it can offer. Showing a small slice of the young talent coming through at a reasonable time would have been a great idea, but the major failing of the programmers is their failure to read the public mood. Instead, they play the safe option of DIY and food shows.
Maybe they could try to search out a show about one of the latest fads at the moment -- the ice challenge. I can't be bothered explaining what it is, but I've skipped an insufferable staff meeting to write this column by deadline and thankfully missed a ridiculous attempt to do a mass ice challenge involving all staff.
What sort of intrusive, meddling species have we become? I know it's for cancer. So don't write stupid comments about charity. I can donate to whatever cause I want without freezing my balls off in the process.
That is one bandwagon I won't be jumping on.