Just thought i'd chime in. A while back, when I saw the episode with the little boy and his tv tank, I was also quite distraught. So I looked at some other threads about it. One person was saying that they actually know Brett, and has talked to him before. This person said that they only stock the tank like that for the "reveal" at the end of the show (for the most part). This may not be true now, but I believe it is. Then a lot of the fish are taken out. They seem quite ridiculous in their stocking choices on camera, but in actuality they are pretty good. If you look in the background in some shots in their office, you'll see small tanks, probably about 30 gallons or so. I've noticed some of them are full reefs with only a few fish. So they might be educated after all... Haha.
Also, tanked isn't all that bad. About three years ago when I first saw the show, I was fascinated. A few weeks later, I got my first tank. I filled it with water, and you know what I did? No I didn't add fish I researched. I wanted to learn more, so I looked up some things. Good thing I did, because I figured out what a cycle is.
That saved a few fish. So I feel like not many people would research like that because they "saw it on the show, so it must be right". And many fish deaths can be blamed due to this. But still, tanked is what got me into the hobby.
So although tanked and it's producers have good intentions, they can be to blame for many fish deaths. They've said it themselves. The reason they wanted the show, was to attract more people to the hobby. This big reveal is what does that. But again, it's causing people to go in blind. What could fix this? Maybe a disclaimer at the beginning of the show. "Please do research before setting up an aquarium" or something along those lines. Or even blatantly say "Stocking numbers for these tanks are unrealistic. Please do research before setting up your own aquarium". That way everyone wins.
I still find it hard to believe that I didn't know what an hob filter was a few years ago. Now I'm educated enough to successfully care for reef tanks. It all started with a television show.