Hate-watching is the activity of consuming media, usually a television show or a film with the intention of acquiring amusement from the mockery of its content or subject.
Early online hate-watching communities emerged with sites like "Television Without Pity" in 1998, which gleefully criticised every new episode of the teen series Dawson's Creek, before New Yorker critique Emily Nussbaum theorised the phenomenon in 2012.
[3] She described in an article the short-lived Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip as a show people loved to hate-watch, as "it was bad in a truly spectacular way—you could learn something from it, about self-righteous TV speechifying and failed satire and the dangers of letting a brilliant showrunner like [Aaron] Sorkin run loose to settle all his grudges in fictional form".
Shows like "Emily in Paris," which have high production value but are considered poorly written or unrealistic and ultimately fall short of expectations, are prime examples.
[7] However, some, like Andrew Fleming, producer of "Emily in Paris", doubt the existence of genuine hate-watching, suggesting that viewers are simply driven by a desire to mock popular entertainment.
[7] In a Los Angeles Times article describing the complexity of effects of U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump's appearance on Saturday Night Live as host, writer Mary McNamara references the hate-watching phenomenon as a reason that ratings alone are not an indication of support.
[3] Eventually, some hate-watching communities can demonstrate an even stronger engagement for a piece of media than traditional fandoms through a genuine, albeit negative, attachment.
Watching something that elicits negative emotions like hate, disgust, or contempt allows viewers to release aggressive impulses without guilt or harm.