Ben on crappy Chinese TV

Former hairdresser Ben Ross is now co-host of a show at his local TV-station. Just as when he was cutting hair, as a participant Ben comes with valuable observations. It helps of course that he confirms my worst believes about Chinese TV.
Why is it - compared to US TV - so crappy, he wonders. We in Europe always thought US TV was pretty crappy too, so you can imagine. (Now, this is an observation from ten years ago, and European TV seems to have degraded also a bit.)

But another reason I am finding for the severe lack of quality programming in China is massive dilution of the talent pool. Much of this is because the Chinese media is still runs essentially like a 单位 (danwei), the old work units which were the building blocks of Socialism. While private enterprise is rapidly rendering the concept of a danwei job obsolete, government offices, schools, public hospitals, and the media all still operate under the old danwei system.

The people who make the TV are very young and unexperienced, he observes:

Ting Ting does an excellent job preparing the material, and coaching Zheng Zheng [the other host] and my performance. However, she just graduated college this spring…with an advertising degree…and she is the writer for a TV show. I know friends in the US who studied screen writing 4 years in college, waited tables in
Hollywood another 4, and still never got their chance to write anything.