Is there a word for a "cheap page-turner"?

The word page-turner describes a book that is so exciting or gripping that the reader feels compelled to keep reading. It seems that the connotation is more-or-less positive.

Is there a negative equivalent of this word? Doesn't have to be specific to books. I'm looking for a word that describes a piece of media that, although is compelling enough to keep its audience going, is otherwise of poor quality, or it uses questionable methods to achieve this compulsion, hurting its quality in the process. Some examples of said methods might be:

• Stretching out a romance


• Delaying the main plot by adding low-quality filler such as sub-plots


• Contriving plot twists or crises for beloved characters


• Using cheap tactics like cliffhangers, or

Answer

I think what you are looking for is a potboiler.

A potboiler or pot-boiler is a low-quality novel, play, opera, film, or other creative work whose main purpose was to pay for the creator's daily expenses—thus the imagery of "boil the pot", which means "to provide one's livelihood". Authors who create potboiler novels or screenplays are sometimes called hack writers or hacks. Novels deemed to be potboilers may also be called pulp fiction, and potboiler films may be called "popcorn movies."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potboiler

Also there is a term specifically used for written work: dime novel.

In the modern age, "dime novel" has become a term to describe any quickly written, lurid potboiler and as such is generally used as a pejorative to describe a sensationalized yet superficial piece of written work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dime_novel