In recent days we’ve moved beyond “reality TV” sleaziness and voyeurism into a new, more disturbing realm. So-called “reality TV” of late has demonstrated it can be truly dangerous.
First, the Heenes, Colorado’s own parents of Balloon Boy, caused airport runways to be shut down, rescue workers to be rushed into fields and helicopters launched into the sky, at taxpayer expense. That’s in addition to the angst the hoax provided viewers across the nation.
Then Michaele and Tareq Salahi, the White House party-crashers, demonstrated how easy it could be to get into the same room as the president of the United States, as long as you dress the part. The gate-crashers caused an embarrassed Secret Service to re-evaluate procedures for protecting the commander in chief, not to mention a house full of dignitaries. More than a humiliating goof, it could have been an international security nightmare.
The question now goes beyond taste to matters of law. At what point are the producers of these video tricks culpable? What kind of penalty should the creators of “reality TV” shows bear when a gimmick spills over into what might be a life-threatening emergency?
November sweeps.
Preliminary results of the local November sweeps are in. And while these ratings numbers can make your head spin, a shakeup in the order of things makes it interesting enough to delve into.
All in all, the month showed that an increased number of adults 18-49 and 25-54 are watching television in Denver.
Sorting out the spin, it looks like this: Channel 4 can do the loudest, longest happy dance. KCNC has climbed, with help from its network, CBS, to Colorado dominance in terms of overall households.
The station had a great month, ending November as the market leader in total households and among 25- to 54-year-olds from sign-on to sign-off. CBS is tops in prime time, with nine out of the top 10 prime-time series watched by Denver households. David Letterman is on a roll, Conan O’Brien is not. And Craig Ferguson is Denver’s new favorite at 11:30 p.m.
Channel 4 showed impressive growth in the weekday 10 p.m. news race. There, KCNC is No. 2 behind Channel 9- KUSA, improving from a 2.9 rating to a 3.2 rating. But don’t discount the powerhouse that Channel 9 truly is with viewers overall. KUSA improved from a 5.2 rating to 5.5.
KCNC boss Walt DeHaven said the network deserves only partial credit. “CBS was the only network that was up, that certainly helped. But Fox was up and (locally) they were down,” he said. “So we didn’t mess up a good thing.”
After years of trailing the competition, KCNC is “within striking distance now,” DeHaven said. “We’ve just got to do it well every day.”
KUSA saw some growth from a year ago in terms of the advertisers’ key demographics (age 25-54) and remains the late news leader, though not by the indomitable leads of years past.
The station continues its ratings leadership at 5 a.m., 5 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. (with Brian Williams on NBC). At 6 p.m. Channel 9’s local news remains on top, but with strong competition from “Jeopardy” on Channel 7 and “Two and a Half Men” on Channel 2.
KMGH-Channel 7 had better stick to bragging about journalism awards. (Word is, another big one is to be announced soon.) In terms of ratings, they’re down 17 percent in the key demographics at 10 p.m.
Fox affiliate KDVR can brag about . . . not much, either. Channel 31 lost a quarter of its 9 p.m. late-news audience, down 24 percent compared with a year ago.
November’s 10 p.m. news standings, Monday-Sunday, viewers 25-54: KUSA, 5.8 rating; KCNC 3.0; KMGH 2.6. And, while they’re apples and oranges, Nielsen groups them together under late news, so we might as well note in the same paragraph that Fox at 9 p.m. has a 2.2 rating.
If you look at the late news trends year-to-year, KUSA is up 13 percent. KCNC is up 3 percent KMGH is down 13 percent. The audience switches from CBS prime time to the NBC affiliate’s late local news.
Nationally, ratings for the last hour of prime time took a tumble for the broadcast networks. Clearly, Jay Leno isn’t helping NBC. But he’s not helping competitors, either. CBS is down on three of five weeknights, and ABC is also down. NBC is way down. The only winner is TiVo; DVR use in general is up.
The Denver market jumped two places in the Nielsen market rankings this year: from No. 18 to No. 16, with an increase of 15,170 TV homes, giving the market a total of 1,539,380 TV homes.
And while we’re throwing numbers around, Nielsen estimates the total number of U.S. homes with television in 2010 will be 114.9 million.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
