10-Question Quiz: 'On the Media'

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Brian Lehrer: It's the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again everyone in our spring membership drive trying to reach our goal of 10,000 donors. Thank you for being one if you can. And you know our philosophy on this show during membership drives, if we need to do the whole pledge week thing, let's have some fun with it. Once again, this drive, we're doing a 10-question quiz every day.

Right around this time after the news, get two in a row right and win a Brian Lehrer Show baseball hat or Brian Lehrer Show mug. Your choice. Each quiz during this drive is having a topic derived from a different public radio show. We did New Yorker Radio Hour, there were questions about New Yorkers, about radio, and about hours.

Last week that was Wednesday, we did 1A First Amendment questions on Thursday, science Questions in Honor of Science Friday on Friday, and today questions about the media for our 10-question quiz, because don't you know, we produce a show called On the Media. So who wants to play? Get two in a row right and you can choose between a Brian Lehrer Show baseball hat and a Brian Lehrer Show mug. 212433, WNYC, 433-9692. Abel in Brooklyn is on line one. Hi, Abel. Ready to play?

Abel: Good morning, Brian. Yes, I'm ready to play.

Brian: All right. 10-question quiz question 1. Ronna McDaniel, former head of the Republican National Committee was hired and then quickly unhired as an NBC News political commentator after a staff revolt. What was the staff's main objection to McDaniel? In one hint, it was not that she's a Republican.

Abel: I believe the primary concern was that she promoted the idea that the election in 2020 was stolen.

Brian: That is exactly right, that she was involved in promoting the stolen election lie in 2020 and the NBC staff members who revolted saw that as disqualifying. Very good. 10 questioned quiz question 2. CNN has announced that it will air a special program next month, but they'll allow any other network that wants to to carry it at the same time. What special program will that be with unlimited simulcasting rights granted by CNN?

Abel: If this is what I think it is, that's very magnanimous of them, that's the presidential debate.

Brian: That is absolutely, the Biden-Trump debate. You got two in a row, right? You want a hat or you want a mug?

Abel: Oh, not a really a big hat person, but I think I would like a mug.

Brian: Okay.

Abel: Thank you, Brian.

Brian: Abel, hang on. We're going to take your mailing info of course off the air, and we're going to go next to Stefano in Ossining. Stefano, ready to play?

Stefano: Hi, Brian. Yes, I'm ready to play. Thank you.

Brian: Okay. Question 3. The first Biden-Trump debate in 2020 was aired on 16 networks according to account by the Associated Press, and got 73 million viewers. Was that more people or fewer people than watched the first Clinton-Trump debate in 2016?

Stefano: Ah, that's not an easy one for me. I would say it's more than the [crosstalk].

Brian: You're saying more watch Biden-Trump, right?

Stefano: Yes, exactly.

Brian: And that unfortunately is wrong, Stefano. Thank you for giving it a shot. In fact, Clinton Trump drew 11 million more viewers at around 84 million. The most-watched debate since the modern rating system began. However, the Kennedy-Nixon debates in 1960 are considered to have had the largest percentage of American households tune in.

They measured it by percentage of households at that time, which was 60% of households. They did not measure number of viewers, but that was considered the biggest percentage of the country watching at that time. Jacob in Brooklyn, ready to play?

Jacob: Yes.

Brian: All right. We're still on televised debates here.

Jacob: [inaudible 00:04:31]

Brian: Can you hear me okay? You know what?

Jacob: Yes, I hear you.

Brian: You should turn off your radio so you don't get the ten-second delay.

Jacob: I apologize.

Brian: Question number 4. In the year that Richard Nixon was elected president, 1968, which one is true? Nixon and Humphrey debated one-on-one. Nixon and Humphrey had to include the segregationist George Wallace as a third-party debater. Or there were no televised debates in 1968.

Stefano: There were no televised debates in 1968.

Brian: That is correct. There were no debates. Nixon felt he lost in 1960 because of the televised debates against Kennedy and declined to debate. All right. Question 5. Last year, 2023, as we are off presidential televised debates now, 2023, 1 type of TV broadcast accounted for 93 out of the top 100 watched shows. What kind of broadcast?

Jacob: I'm sorry.

Brian: You want me to repeat the question?

Jacob: Can you repeat the question?

Brian: Sure. Last year in 2023, 1 type of TV broadcast accounted for 93 out of the top 100 watched shows. What kind of broadcast? 3, 2, 1.

Jacob: I'm sorry, I don't know.

Brian: Okay. Sorry, Jacob. Thanks for giving it a shot. Listeners, how many of you know it was NFL football games. If you want to know where money is made in television land these days, there you go. 93. And of course, the strike, actors' and writers' strike contributed to that a little bit but it's still way, way up there as a percentage of the most-watched shows. NFL in particular, football games. Rebecca in Park Slope, ready to play?

Rebecca: Yes.

Brian: Okay. Speaking of football on television, question number 6. Within 10 million, how many people does Nielsen say watch The Super Bowl this year? It's always the most-watched show. This year was the most viewers ever. Within 10 million, how many?

Rebecca: I have no idea. So I'm going to take a guess. 90 million.

Brian: It was even much more than that. Sorry, Rebecca. It was 123.7 million. Super Bowl ratings have been going up in recent years while almost all other TV shows ratings have been going down. All right, Eric in Harlem, ready to play?

Eric: Hello.

Brian: Eric, that you? Eric in Harlem?

Eric: Yes.

Brian: Hey? All right.

Eric: Hi.

Brian: Here we go. Question number 7. Super Bowls are most of the top 30 watched TV shows of all time, but coverage of a news event in 1969 holds the record by far for most total viewers of one thing ever according to CBS News. What was it?

Eric: Was it the launching of--

Brian: Close. Keep going.

Eric: Moon Landing.

Brian: [laughs] It was the moon landing on July 20th, 1969. They say 650 million viewers watched the moon landing live according to CBS News. One more and you win a prize. 20 years ago, there were about 9,000 newspapers in the United States. Within a thousand, how many are there now?

Eric: There were 9,000?

Brian: Yes, 20 years ago. Within a thousand, how many are there now? According to Northwestern University's journalism school, which counts these things.

Eric: 3000.

Brian: It's not quite that bad, so sorry, Eric. Thanks for giving it a shot, but it's pretty bad. 6,000. About a third of the newspapers in America have disappeared according to the journalism school at Northwestern. Of those that survive, the large majority publish weekly, not daily. John in Bradley Beach, you're on WNYC. Hi, John. Ready to play?

John: I am ready, Brian. Yes.

Brian: All right. We've only got two questions left. You have a shot here to win a hat or a mug. Question number 9 in this 10-question quiz, who is the co-host and managing editor of On the Media?

John: It's Brooke Gladstone? [crosstalk].

Brian: It is Brooke Gladstone. No, no. Brooke Gladstone is right.

John: Great, thanks.

Brian: Last question for the hat or the mug, who hosted On the Media before Brooke from 1997 to 2000?

John: Bob Garfield.

Brian: No, he was a co-host with Brooke for that period. The question is before Brooke. I'll give you a clue. He hosts a daily news-oriented call-in show on the station today.

John: I think it might be a guy named Brian Lehrer.

Brian Lehrer: [laughs] That is true. Are you a hat or a mug guy?

John: I will take a hat.

Brian Lehrer: All right. Hang on, we'll take your address to send you that chambray blue unisex Brian Lehrer Show baseball hat. Yes, it's true. It's a little piece of obscure media and BL history. I did that in addition to this show, from '97 to 2000, but then the station decided they need a full-time host to make the program the best that it could be.

I had the choice of applying to be that host or just staying with the show, and I chose to stay with this, and the world is so much better off for that decision because the Brooke Gladstone lead On the Media is so much better. That's for sure.

All right, that's a 10-question quiz based on the fact that we host a show called On the Media. We'll have a 10-question quiz tomorrow based on the idea of another public radio show here on The Brian Lehrer Show. Brian Lehrer on WNYC, much more to come today.

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