What would everyone watch?
A new Deadspin column asks some intriguing questions: why haven't more 80s celebrities died of AIDS, why isn't there a Cadbury Creme Egg Blizzard and what kind of event would at least 80% of Americans watch on TV.
I love questions like that. The author hypothesizes that you could only get an audience like that with one of the following:
- A major US city is nuked
- First contact with aliens
- Second Coming
- Elvis actually alive, holds press conference/concert
- Tiger Woods climbs to top of Empire State Building, threatens to jump off, DOES jump off
- Presidential assassination
- President murders someone and it is caught on tape (I've always wanted that to happen, regardless of President)
- Verdict in the President's murder trail
- Execution of the President
- Steve Jobs finally introduces flying car
With the exception of that last bullet (maybe if it were jetpacks), that's a pretty good list. But is there anything else that could triple the Super Bowl audience? I think it depends. Analysts have noted that social media increases television audiences for big events. The theory is that people want to be part of the online watercooler for these events, so they watch them. So as we get more connected maybe it won't take as much to get us watching together. Balloon Boy is evidence of that.
While 80% of Britons will probably watch William & Kate tie the knot someday, we won't. Likewise, while the rest of the world will be glued to the set watching the World Cup final this summer, Americans will be blissfully unaware. Unfortunately, it seems like only traumatic events get huge American audiences. But then again, maybe I'm wrong and the introduction of jetpacks will be the iconic televised moment that children of today will remember most!
Posted by kris at March 30, 2010 06:24 PM
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Comments
| # March 30th, 2010 8:34 PM BVBigBro |
| 80% of Britons won't watch a wedding because about 50% of them are men. You need to look at this from the perspective of what would men and women watch. That's a pretty short list. |
| # March 30th, 2010 11:12 PM kris |
| Ha ha. But remember that 10% of that 50% are gay and they'd all watch and then you factor in other reasons men might watch and you might be 80%. Although, it might not be the wedding - Charles III's coronation might get that big of an audience just because there's a couple of generations now that have never seen a coronation. |