There was much hype before the autumn television season started. Expectations were raised. There was controversy surrounding the programmes that were to be aired on the national television station, PBS. There were launches, premieres and clips of what we were to expect.

After all, with the weather turning somewhat colder, schools opening their doors and people staying indoors rather than go for a walk by the sea, the autumn TV season is when TV stations come back to life after the summer lull, a summer of repeat programmes that are sometimes ridiculous – seeing Father Christmas during a heat wave in the mid-August is rather silly, isn’t it?

But, now that we are a few weeks into the autumn season, viewers cannot but help think that they are being given more of the same. Same programmes, same presenters – perhaps on a different station – and the same approach too. It’s like watching last year’s programmes over and over again.

For one thing, tele-serials are being stretched too much. They have thankfully not become something like the never-ending “Beautiful”, which has been running for 20 years or more, but we are risking moving down this road. Yes, they seem to be popular, and producers believe that they should take advantage of this popularity to continue stretching the story, but at the end of the day they should know that the best foreign productions stopped at their height. We still have to learn this lesson, it seems.

Actors and actresses who have been appearing on our screens for many years continue to take part in these productions. It could mean two things – that they are still the best in the country and that unfortunately no new talent has emerged; or that the producers have not looked hard enough in the many local theatres to find new blood. Patrons of such events know that there is a lot of talent which is not being nurtured.

The same can be said for the discussion programmes. Sets have been changed, production days have been moved but the same presenters are inviting the same guests to ask them the same questions they asked them last year, and perhaps the year before that too. And probably they are getting the same answer too.

Subjects are being rehashed and, when there was an attempt to do something different, like Xarabank’s investigation of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance in Portugal, the matter was tackled four months too late.

With an election getting closer, politics will dominate discussion programmes even more than they do at present. We have already had a lot of it in these first few weeks of the new season, and so the dose will get stronger the more election day approaches.

The morning and midday-afternoon programmes are also a “repetition” of what we have seen over the years. Nothing new, nothing fresh – except perhaps the vegetables that are used in the recipes that viewers have to endure time and again. Switching from one local station to another at this time of the day will only serve to “change” presenter, as otherwise the content is very much the same. Very poor indeed.

Like with actors and actresses, it is high time that local TV stations go for some new faces. Some have been there for far too long. Maybe the new ones will serve to bring about a change in the way programmes are conducted, and bring about new ideas that local TV stations seem oblivious too.

Local viewers deserve something better from our TV stations. Few, very few, are the productions that are worth watching.