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More often than I'd like, I hear from people who say, "You hate everything on TV." Which is clearly not the case.
Yes, I'm a TV critic. And that requires being critical. It's my job to tell you if a show is bad. And, yes, writing bad reviews is kind of fun, in a mean kind of way.
Hey, if I have to sit through terrible programming, at least I can have some fun writing about it.
But the fact is that I like a lot of television. Too much television. These days, there are too many good shows for one person to keep up with — but I try.
In the spirit of Thanksgiving … sort of … here's a way-too-long list of shows I watch every week. I'm confining this to shows that have aired this fall on the commercial broadcast networks; if I added cable and streaming, there wouldn't be room to print them all.
ABC • Yikes. Even I'm surprised at how long this list is.
There are seven sitcoms — "American Housewife," "Fresh Off the Boat," "The Goldbergs," "The Middle," "Modern Family," "The Real O'Neals" and "Speechless." Some are better than others, but I like them all.
And then there are the dramas … and I have to add a qualifier. I have great reservations about "Designated Survivor"; "Grey's Anatomy" drives me crazy; and I'm about to give up on "How to Get Away With Murder" and "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."
(I did quit "Quantico" and "Secrets & Lies" this season.)
CBS • I've cut back on my CBS viewing … because CBS has cut back on putting shows I like on its schedule.
I still love "The Big Bang Theory" and "Survivor," and I'm a fan of "Mom" and "Life in Pieces." I'm still making up my mind about "The Great Indoors," but I've liked it so far.
The only two CBS dramas I watch on a weekly basis are "Madam Secretary" and "Elementary."
The CW • Whoa … I watch a lot of shows on this network. Six, which is 60 percent of its weekly schedule — "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," "DC's Legends of Tomorrow," "The Flash," "Jane the Virgin," "Supergirl" and "Supernatural."
Although, truth be told, "Supernatural" — which used to be great — has become kind of a chore to watch after 247 episodes (and counting).
Fox • I'm kind of surprised at how few Fox shows I watch every week. Just four — "Gotham," "New Girl," "The Simpsons" … and "Empire," a show I really don't like at all. (This is a sign of a deeper illness.)
NBC • For the first time in years, I've added NBC shows to my weekly must-see TV list. "This Is Us" is my favorite new show so far this season, and I've been pleasantly — and hugely — surprised at how good "The Good Place" is.
Those are, ahem, the only two NBC shows I'm currently watching every week.
To be clear, I'm not saying these are the only good shows on network TV. I check in on lots of others from time to time.
I actually like everything from "Superstore" to "Bull" to "Black-ish," but there are only so many hours in a day. And there are all those shows on PBS, cable, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu.
Plus, there are a whole lot of midseason replacement shows — returning series and new ones that look promising — that will be on this list a couple of months from now.
I realize it's a national pastime to make fun of TV — of broadcast network television in particular — but among the dumbest things I hear people say is, "There's nothing good on TV."
Are you kidding? There's so much good stuff no one could possibly watch it all.
Even if watching TV is part of your job description.
Scott D. Pierce covers TV for The Salt Lake Tribune. Email him at spierce@sltrib.com; follow him on Twitter @ScottDPierce.