Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1960)

VOI.. 16; No. 48 11 Programming HOW SHOW TYPES RATE: The rating curse which descended on quiz & audience participation shows in the wake of last fall’s scandals has, apparently, been lifted. This fall they have increased in A A level 25.8% as compared with last. That’s one of the highlights of the chart below, prepared for us by A. C. Nielsen Co. It covers the rating behavior of nighttime TV’s basic program fare by category, as reported in the 2nd NTI reports for Oct. 1959 & 1960, and notes both percentage changes and shifts in the number of such shows on the air. Ratings have been adjusted by Nielsen to reflect 1960 changes in audience base. NIGHTTIME TV PERFORMANCE BY PROGRAM TYPES (2nd October NTI) 1960 Nielsen 1959 Nielsen Avtr. Aud. Ave. Aud. No. of No. of Typ« Mins. % Pern’s % Pern’s % Chanee General Drama ... 30 15.5 4 19.8 5 —21.7 General Drama ... 60 14.9 4 18.5 4 Suspense-Mystery ... ... 30 15.4 8 15.1 14 -1 2.0 Suspense-Mystery ... ... 60 19.1 11 16.9 8 -f-13.0 Situation Comedy ... ... 30 18.0 24 19.0 16 — 5.3 Western ... 30 21.4 12 20.5 20 + i-i Western ... 60 23.0 8 22.8 8 -f 0.9 Adventure ... 30 11.9 2 10.2 4 -fl6.7 Variety ... 30 21.3 5 15.1 13 4-41.1 Variety ... 60 19.6 12 21.0 10 — 6.7 Quiz & Aud. Part. .. ... 30 19.5 7 15.5 10 4-25.8 Other Programs ... 30 9.8 12 12.2 6 —19.7 ALL EVENING ... 30 17.0 24 16.9 88 4 0.6 ALL EVENING ... 60 18.8 43 19.2 36 — 2.1 Other significant changes; Variety Shows: Although the number of 30-min. shows in this category has dropped since last year from 13 down to 5, the survivors are in healthy shape. Sparked by such successful veterans as Red Skelton and Tennessee Ernie Ford, the shorter variety packages have scored the largest percentage rating gain for a program type: 41.1%. Westerns, drama: Although some individual Westerns (such as Riverboat & Wichita Town) have been axed. Westerns remain a strong force. There’s been a small increase (up 4.4%) in the AA level of all 30-min. Westerns, partially because the number has been trimmed considerably (from 20 down to 12 shows) and the strongest have survived. Longer Westerns are holding their own. Straight dramatic shows, however, have slipped. The 30-min. dramatic packages are down 21.7% and the 60-min. dramas are down 19.5%. Situation comedies: Although 1960 has been heralded as a major season for comedy, the addition of 8 new 30-min. situation comedies to last year’s total of 16, giving a bumper 1960 crop of 24, hasn’t helped average performance. As a program type, 30-min. situation comedies are rating 5.3% lower this season, on the average, than they did last year. All evening shows: Fewer in number this season, 30min. evening programs are doing slightly better in AA level than they did last season. More numerous (because of several new program entries on NBC-TV & CBS-TV), the average evening 60-min. show is drawing a rating lower than last year (down 2.1%) largely because of the battle for audience among longer program rivals, and a general narrowing of rating gaps between the networks at night. From the standpoint of total viewing, Nielsen’s findings for the 2nd two weeks of October show a pickup of 15 minutes of viewing in average hours of watching per day, per TV home. The figure is 5 hours, 13 minutes — which represents a gain of a quarter of an hour over October 1959’s 4 hours, 58 minutes. Final postscripts to TV debates came from NBC Chmn. Robert W. Sarnoff Nov. 21 in one of his periodic open letters to TV-radio editors. The Nixon-Kennedy clashes, Sarnoff felt, were “a key factor in the heaviest registration and the largest voter turnout in the nation’s history.” Reviewing the objections raised by critics to the debates (“directed mostly at the format ... the only one the candidates themselves would accept”) and charges that they were conducted in a circusy atmosphere, Sarnoff stated: “I think the advantages of the panel format for the Great Debate far outweigh the shortcomings. I hope that even those who differ with me will agree that the answer is not to go back to the clambake & the torchlight parade Any one of these programs offered the voter a far more solid basis of judgment than any number of rousting 8-minute speeches from the rear of railroad trains, or the exhortations at a party rally or the necessarily one-sided television talks given by each candidate alone.” Sarnoff added that a telegram from President-elect Kennedy praising the debate series (which Kennedy called “a notable public service”) was a good omen for a 1964 debate series. But “Great Debate” in 1964 on TV is unlikely, UPI White House reporter Merriman Smith told the Tenn Bcstrs. Assn, at a Memphis meeting. If John F. Kennedy runs again for President and is challenged by the Republican nominee, “you’ll hear a polite comment that the President does not debate,” Smith said. “If you are on top, you just don’t build up the challenger.” As for this year’s TV series, Smith said he thought the debates won the race for Kennedy. The White House correspondent criticized Vice President Nixon’s advisors for devoting too much time & argument to backstage problems of lights & studio temperature because of Nixon’s “tendency to sweat.” “You, the public, are to blame!” is the title of Hubbell Robinson’s piece on programming in the Nov. 26 issue of TV Guide. After pointing out the obvious but seldom stated fact that the public gets what the public wants, the producer nevertheless goes on to point out the responsibility of those who turn out TV programs: “The most effective use of TV requires that its creative talents accept the need to be popular. It should not be too heavy a burden. In their own way, in their own time, Aristophanes, Dickens, Ibsen, Fitzgerald, Wilder, Marquand and Faulkner have managed it. All of them are message writers. All of them are good writers. All of them are popular. They would seem reputable company to keep.” Canon 35 ban on camera & microphone coverage of courtrooms has been reaffirmed by the Okla. Supreme Court, which adopted the American Bar Assn, rule last year (Vol. 15:41 pll). Rejecting protests by NAB, Okla. Press Assn., and individual newspapers & stations in the state, a Supreme Court order written by Chief Justice Denver Davison said: “All petitions for rehearing & motions for oral arguments denied.” The order meant that attorneys for the media will have no chance to argue their case against Canon 35. Broadcaster-bar relations, including a report on camera-&-microphone coverage of trials under the American Bar Assn.’s Canon 35 (Vol. 16:36 p7), are on the agenda of the Dec. 8 sessions of NAB’s Freedom of Information Committee in Washington. The Committee is headed by Frank P. Fogarty (Meredith stations). Taped TV & radio service on “every major news break in the world” is offered by Jeff St. John’s Point of Origin Inc., starting Jan. 3. The new service operates from the Senate radio & TV correspondents’ gallery.