Crossword Genius

Wretched prime time, lacking content and comparatively worthless (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

emptier

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'comparatively worthless' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are comparative adjectives. Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?

'wretched prime time lacking content' is the wordplay.
'wretched' indicates an anagram.
'lacking content' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (the content of the word is emptied out).
'time' with its middle taken out is 'te'.
'prime'+'te'='primete'
'primete' with letters rearranged gives 'EMPTIER'.

'and' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for emptier that I've seen before include "More vacuous" , "Being more hungry" , "I'm Peter (anag)" , "Containing less" , "more in need of food" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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