By Elizabeth White

    Whatever their merits as a TV genre, reality shows appear to have one quality that's just now becoming apparent. 
    Never mind that the shows are usually about people squabbling, backstabbing and siding against one another, they appear to have a unique ability to unite people across racial borders.
    Or so indicates a recent study by TN Media on the most popular programs for African-Americans.
    Looking at the most popular shows in black households from fourth quarter 2000 to first quarter 2001, the study found that ABC sitcom "My Wife and Kids" was the clear leader, despite having aired only during March 2001. The Damon Wayans sitcom topped the previous favorite, ABC's "Monday Night Football," by an average of nearly three rating points.
    But the study found that two other midseason shows, Fox's "Temptation Island" and CBS's "Survivor 2," also joined the top 20 programs in black households.
   "Temptation Island" ranked ninth, just above NBC's "ER," while "Survivor 2" ranked 17th, just behind its own lead-out show, "CSI," which was in a three-way tie for 14^th.
   "Reality is an easy way to assemble casts that represent many parts of the population," says Stacey Lynn Koerner, vice president of broadcast research at TN Media. 
   The other new program to the list was NBC's veteran show "Law and Order," which moved into 20th place.
    It was the success of the midseason shows that prompted TN Media to include the first quarter 2001 ratings in determining the top 20 primetime programs among black households. The report on television viewing among African Americans and Hispanics previously relied only on fourth quarter 2000 results.
   "The original report covered the fourth quarter, and since then there have been a number of big midseason shows, like ‘My Wife and Kids,’" says Koerner.
    The other important finding in the updated top 20 list is the number of networks with shows among the top 20 programs in black households: all six major broadcast networks.
   With only the fourth quarter 2000 numbers, Fox was absent from the top 20, NBC had only one show, the WB had three, ABC four, UPN five, and CBS seven.
   Now, the top 20 is more evenly distributed among the six networks. ABC, CBS and UPN have five programs apiece, NBC and the WB have two, and Fox has one.
   "Last year, all six networks were on the list, but before that it was a long time since that happened. It used to be one or two major networks that would cater to minorities. The needs were being served, but by different people," says Koerner. "It's not just that all six are represented on the list, but that three of them are very strong."
   Yet the number of programs common to the top 20 in both white and black households remained constant at eight, from the research report to the update, even with the addition of four new programs to the list of top 20 programs in black households.
   That's because three of the shows that dropped from the list of top 20 programs among black households were shows that were also in the top 20 among white households.
   After the update, CBS's "Judging Amy" and "Touched by an Angel" dropped from both lists. CBS's "60 Minutes" left the list for black households but remained on the list for white households.
   "Survivor 2" joined both top 20 lists, and "CSI," which was previously in the top 20 for black households, also made the top 20 in white households.
    Neither "My Wife and Kids" nor "Temptation Island" made the top 20 among white households. "My Wife and Kids" ranked 56th in white households, and "Temptation Island" ranked 22nd.

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