Winter is Coming
Fansided

Bones and Pawn Stars can heal America, science finds

By Dan Selcke

BONES: L-R: Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz in the "The Donor in the Drink" episode of BONES airing Thursday, Oct. 15 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2015 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Patrick McElhenneyFOX
BONES: L-R: Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz in the "The Donor in the Drink" episode of BONES airing Thursday, Oct. 15 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2015 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Patrick McElhenneyFOX /
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Politics are a hot-button issue in the United States of America. That’s always been true, but these last few years…if you keep up with the news at all I don’t have to tell you that things have gotten pretty divisive, what with the president fighting with the media and congressional investigations and hate groups marching in the streets and on and on and on. It’s absolutely exhausting.

BUT! There’s hope, because of TV. The Norman Lear Center at USC Annenberg teamed up with the futurePerfect Lab to put out a very interesting report about the TV viewing habits of Americans with different political perspectives. The report divides Americans into three groups: the Blues, who lean liberal; the Reds, who lean conservative; and the Purples, who can swing either way. The full report is available to read, but here are some big takeaways:

  • Blues watch more TV than Reds, but Purples watch the most.
  • The Simpsons andThe Big Bang Theory and the only two shows in the study watched by half or nearly half of people in all three groups.
  • However, watching a show doesn’t necessarily mean people like it. Reds, Blues and Purples all had high opinions of Bones, Criminal Minds and Mythbusters.
  • Red, Blues and Purples also had strong opinions about Pawn Stars, but in this case, they all tended to hate watch it. Other widely disliked shows included Keeping Up with the Kardashians, 106 and Park, Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal. Hey, anything to get people with different political opinions on the same page.
  • Red, Blues and Purples all rated Game of Thrones very highly. However, a lot fewer Reds watch the show compared to Blues and Purples.
  • In terms of differences, Blues enjoy shows like shows like Saturday Night Live and Modern Family more than Reds, while the opposite is true of shows like America’s Funniest Home Videos and Deadliest Catch.

2020 is a presidential election year and I’m already getting anxious. But let this report be a lesson to the candidates: when things get heated, you can always unite everyone by hating on Pawn Stars.

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h/t Deadline, The A.V. Club

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