• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, January 15, 2016

“Anger and energy is what this country needs," said Donald Trump, speaking to CNN on Wednesday.  Just in case you don’t know, this guy Trump is running for president -- and he can get angry on TV.

This makes sense, considering a recent NBC News/Esquire poll -- that there is a lot of anger around, especially at election time.

The survey says Republicans are way more angry than Democrat-leaning viewers -- 57% to 42%. Maybe that’s because Democratic voters have a two-term president from their party in power. Surely if a Republican gets that power, the poll will be reversed.

More importantly, what’s the current overall anger level on network TV?  In the recent past, you could see a lot of it on fictional scripted shows: “Breaking Bad,” “Scandal” and “The Blacklist.” And, of course, there was FX’s “Anger Management,” which lasted from 2012 to 2014. Now we have the nonfictional presidential elections to see some on-air fuming.

But most of the TV-related anger is probably off-screen, with consumers enraged about ever-increasing pay TV monthly prices. Many consumers want to pick and chose broadcast and cable networks; anger has given rise to new digital OTT (over-the-top) TV packages. And that has made TV executives furious.

What about TV marketers?  Not too much rage coming through via their creative in TV commercials. Marketers want people to like stuff they buy.

For sure you can find media agency and marketing executives upset about the likes of bad TV/media data, questionable return on investment, ad-blocking and media plans that go nowhere.

Some new frustration comes from TV network executives like Linda Yaccarino, chairman of advertising sales and client partnerships, for NBCUniversal, when it comes to the inaccuracies at Nielsen, for example.

And if that isn’t enough, now Vulture says there is a lot of “murder” on TV shows of late -- which would seemingly make sense with the anger stuff.

Mind you, presidential candidate Trump believes candidates need more “energy.”  That seems like a better spin on things TV might deliver in the coming months.