• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, October 3, 2012

Help a TV brand out -- or any brand, for that matter. That's what we customers want  to do, apparently, according to a new survey.

Eight out of ten Internet users actually want to tell marketers ways to make better products and services. I'm guessing this pertains to TV shows, as well.

That means if you like any singing competition shows, from Fox'’s "American Idol" to NBC's "The Voice,” and want to see them get better --- you have been voicing your suggestions.

But most times that chatter comes in the form of complaints -- even from the principals involved. Right now you have Simon Cowell -- the former big-mouth, no-holds-barred judge of "Idol" and executive producer of "X Factor" --  whining that NBC scheduled one of its three times a week telecasts  of “The Voice” right opposite "X Factor" on Wednesday night.

Cowell seemed to think NBC's actions here were "aggressive and mean."  To be fair, programmers seem to avoid scheduling similar shows against each other, for the obvious reasons that both could get hurt.

Right now "Idol" averages around 21 million viewers in the spring, which amounts to the total of the two fall singing shows -- "The Voice" (12 million) and "X Factor" (9.5 million). Supposedly "Idol" pulls in around $780 million in national advertising dollar. If you can imagine that the two other singing shows do around half that amount each -- $340 million -- you wonder why people are moaning.

Rich TV executive  only want to get richer -- maybe bringing a little entertainment to the TV masses as a side bonus.

Still, we TV consumers should do our best to make those TV producers even happier -- because, god forbid, they might hold us ransom and give us some mediocre TV content.

Give them pleasing suggestions and comments, and there won't be any trouble.