So many lives

It’s pretty much - 2 videos, 1 live stream, 1-2 ads, repeat.

I don’t think I’ve ever had 3 videos in a row without either an ad (sponsored or a TikTok shop promotion) or a live in the last year

I totally get your frustration with the TikTok algorithm pushing all those live streams. It's super annoying when you're trying to enjoy your regular content and keep getting bombarded with people trying to sell stuff. The algorithm can be really stubborn sometimes, even when we explicitly tell it we're not interested.

Since you're mainly interested in actual content and not the sales pitches, you might want to consider creating a more controlled feed. I've found that being more active with specific creators and types of content you actually want to see helps "train" the algorithm better than just scrolling past or marking things as not interested.

If you're getting tired of dealing with this and want more control over your content experience, you might want to check out Manychat. It lets you set up custom content flows and automated responses, which can help you better manage your TikTok experience and focus on the content you actually want to see. The platform's pretty straightforward to use and might help you avoid some of these annoying algorithm quirks.