What do 'dumbed down' and 'high brow' mean here?

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
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Hi, guys

There is one paragraph below that I don’t make sense. Please help me if possible.

  1. Many people say that television has been ‘dumbed down’ over the past few years, with even the so-called ‘high brow’ channels broadcasting programmes…

‘over the past few years’, here, does it mean television has been dumbed down for around 2 or 3 years? The author wanted to emphasize that television existed for a very short time or a little bit years? My answer is television existed for several years. But I think maybe it’s not true in this paragraph.

  1. Another question is below.

Why the author wrote television and channels broadcasting programmes in the same sentence? I guess he/she wanted to say television has already replaced by channels programmes. However, in my opinion, television and channels programmes are the same terms. Please explain to me.

  1. And the term, lion. I know lion is a kind of animal. What does it mean here?

By the way,is this article a little bit old-fashioned? Like Chinese articles,the author always said Confucius had ever said something. Anybody knows this?

Thanks a lot.

Maggie :stuck_out_tongue:

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  1. I think the author simply wanted to convey the idea that the quality of programs has gone downhill – getting dumber over the years…there is no specific number of years here.

  2. The author meant TV broadcasting programs from the “high brow” channels, not TV versus some other forms of broadcasting.

  3. The term “lion’s share” means a majority. The term comes from a fairy tale where a lion and 3 other animals hunted a deer but he took most if not all of the meat because he’s a lion, king of the jungle.

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