It’s “Spring Sweeps” for the TV industry – from April 25th
through May 22nd – and if you’ve been wondering why you’ve been
seeing a barrage of promotional announcements on the local news channels for
sensational stories coming up on the news at 6 or 10, you now know the answer.
It’s ratings time.
This is why one of the local news channels just did an
expose’ about prostitution in Madison. And why you’ll likely see stories about
germ counts in local restaurants (“would you eat here, knowing what you know
now?!?!?!?!), merchants caught swindling folks at the cash register (can you
trust ANYONE these days?!?!?!?!?), and bedbug infestations at local hotels (“would
you want to sleep here?!?!?!?).
OK, maybe it’s not that bad, but – there was that local
prostitution story.
Married, as I am, to a woman who worked in local TV news for
many years, I can attest that most of this sensational stuff is the bane of the
local reporter’s existence. The spring
rating period is one of the most important ones for the TV industry, and while
the local ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox affiliates can’t do much to control the ratings
for the network shows they carry, they can – and do – vie for your attention in
their local newscasts. And sweeps month
is when they do it the most aggressively.
In some markets, it’s far worse than it is in Madison. Reporters will be ordered to do outrageous
things like spend a week as a homeless person, to “show us what it’s like”; and
they’ll trot out the most absurd stretches of the concept “could this happen
here?”, which has been a staple in the broadcast news industry for
decades. Houses in a small subdivision
in northern California are slowly slipping into unexplainable sinkholes, and
people’s homes and huge investments are crumbling – COULD THIS HAPPEN
HERE??????????
Take it all with a grain of salt. They do what they have to do to get your
attention, to make you watch, to drive up the ratings. It’s simply the way the game is played.
What’s sad is the story behind the story, which you can hear
from broadcast news practitioners when they gather at local watering holes to
commiserate: the legitimate investigative stories that they’ve done,
documented, and produced – where they really get the goods on somebody – only to
have the story be “spiked” by the station’s legal counsel as “too dangerous to
air – we might get sued”. Well, that’s
the point, isn’t it: when you get the goods on somebody, they’re going to sue
you!
So, relax and enjoy the expose’s of dirty restaurant
kitchens and bedbug-infested hotels ….laugh at the outrageousness.
It’s sweeps month.
