Will 9/11 change the way America watches TV?


November 10, 2001


BROOKE GLADSTONE: A lot of people -- us -- have criticized 24 hour television news for hyping recent events in a naked grab for viewers. We know that ratings skyrocketed in the first two weeks after September 11th. We don't know if those viewers stuck around and whether they liked what they saw. TV Guide did a survey on precisely those questions. The results are out on Monday. And that's why TV Guide's Max Robins joins us now. Max, thanks for coming in!

MAX ROBINS: Pleasure to be here, Brooke.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: So go through some of those survey results for us.

MAX ROBINS: Well we found out some very interesting things. We asked which best describes your TV news viewing since September 11th. We found out that 38 percent said they were watching more news, which doesn't surprise me. In fact I think I would have expected that number to be higher. Eight percent said they were watching less. Eighteen percent admitted that they were watching more news, but they've cut back as the weeks have gone by. Thirty-five percent, which I thought was an interesting number said their TV news viewing hasn't changed at all.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And how did those numbers reflect the Nielsen Ratings?

MAX ROBINS:We found after September 11th that news ratings for the all news networks, for the, the network news operations -- it went through the roof, and it has stayed strong -- but we have seen, as we've moved out of that kind of breaking news, exclusive period, we have seen it decline. Still, news levels are high. CNN's numbers, Fox's numbers are probably two to three times higher than what they are - what they were prior to September 11th.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Now CNN was number one, finally outstripping Fox in the wake of September 11th. Has that changed?

MAX ROBINS:It has changed! We, we found out last week for the first time since September 11th in prime time Fox was a little bit stronger than CNN, and that's even given that they're in 11 mil-- Fox is in 11 million fewer homes.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Does that suggest that people are ready to go back to the yelling and screaming and aren't looking for breaking news any more?

MAX ROBINS:Well I think when you don't have that kind of urgency - when, when you don't have every day is another big anthrax story for example, I think that people do kind of drift back into their previous viewing habits and are looking more for that personality, loud driven talk that, that Fox has made its bread and butter.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: How do people feel about what they've been seeing on television? Is it meeting their needs?

MAX ROBINS:Seventy five percent are really giving news a, a vote of confidence! I think 75 percent is a pretty high mark given that -- look, the news media - TV news media exactly hasn't been winning any real popularity [LAUGHS] con--contests as of late.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:What about all we've been hearing about the endless parade of anthrax stories and threats and stories fomenting a sense of panic? In your survey did people feel panic?

MAX ROBINS: We asked viewers have you generally found watching the news to be A) reassuring -- 10 percent said yeah, indeed they had! Then we asked had they found it to be frightening --13 percent said yes! [LAUGHS] Then-- I think maybe I'd be in this category, Brooke - they said what about both? [LAUGHS] And we found 37 percent said yes, indeed. Then 38 percent said they find-- [LAUGHS] found it neither reassuring nor frightening!

BROOKE GLADSTONE: So this strikes me as, as an-- as an overwhelming lack of consensus.

MAX ROBINS: It does indeed. It does indeed.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: You said that 13 percent of the audience found what they saw to be frightening. Did they keep their kids from watching?

MAX ROBINS:We asked if you have children under the age of 13, are you limiting the amount of TV news they're watching? Well, it was pretty evenly divided. 51 percent said yes indeed, that they were being careful of what kind of images were going to in front of their children. Let's face it - the news - a lot of the images are quite horrific. 49 percent however said no, they were letting their kids 13 and under watch what they were going to watch in terms of news.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:I wonder if it's changed people's viewing habits in any substantial way. I remember that after the O.J. trial dominated the airwaves, 10 million new people seemed to have been brought to cable. Is there some sort of long legs change that you think is going to come out of what happened after September 11th?

MAX ROBINS: I think that we may find that a young audience -- not in any kind of mass numbers - not in the kind of numbers that turn out every Thursday night at 8 o'clock to watch Friends -might be paying more attention, and that there might be some more patience for substantive news.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Well, Max Robins, once again, thanks for dropping by.

MAX ROBINS: Hey Brooke - as always, a pleasure to be here!

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Max Robins writes the Robins Report for TV Guide.