Facebook – How to mass remove all friends updates in news feed in Facebook

If you are using your iPhone then no you cannot pair them down. Your only option is to select what type of feed you want to read (posts, photos, games, etc) but you have to do it everything single time you open the Facebook App. I agree it sucks but Facebook has done nothing to fix it in the past 2 years.

Can I "like" a TV show on Facebook but not see news from it in my News Feed?

Yes, you can. Click on the x to the right of any such news item in your feed (it appears when you hover over that item), and choose "Hide [page name]".

This way you retain the "like" status (i.e. continue to be a fan, as it used to be called), but you won't get any more updates from them in your feed.

If you ever want to undo this for some page, you can do that in your news feed options: scroll down to the bottom of your news feed and click "Edit options" (Facebook FAQ item on this).