CBS's risky ploy with Sunday's '9/11'

Robert De Niro hosts CBS's '9/11'

CBS's risky ploy
with Sunday's '9/11'

Will viewers watch or be turned off by brouhaha?

By Kevin Downey

  Normally, controversy over an upcoming show works to the benefit of a network, pulling in viewers, as Fox has shown over and over.
    But whether it will work for CBS and "9/11," its documentary on the September terrorist attacks airing Sunday night, is far from certain.
    While the network is giving the show heavy on-air promotion, the controversy surrounding it could just as well turn viewers away, leaving CBS with much egg to scrape off.
    Media people are split over whether the show will pull in or repel audiences.
    A number of politicians and family members of those lost in the tragedies of Sept. 11 have asked CBS to postpone the movie for several months out of respect to those still grieving. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey recently added its support to delaying the broadcast.
    But rather than postpone, CBS has opted to air the show anyway.
   Some media people say "9/11" is a desperate and inappropriate grab for viewers by CBS.
    Worse, they say that viewers are not yet interested in reliving the tragic events and will steer clear of CBS in favor of the competition, like NBC’s highly rated "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," ABC’s "Alias" and "The Practice," or even Fox’s "The X Files."
    "I think that viewers have had enough and will probably watch something else," says Roy Rothstein, vice president and director of national broadcast research at Zenith Media.
    "I don’t think controversy drums up interest. It’s not something we want to remember. We still have a war going on in Afghanistan with soldiers getting killed, which is enough of a reminder every day."
    Other media people think that CBS will attract a big audience because they say the movie is honoring the firefighters of New York, whose actions following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center are the subject of the film.
    "I think interest could be very widespread," says Shari Anne Brill, vice president and director of programming services at Carat. "It will do well in New York and could do well across the board.
    "Lighter viewers, who normally don’t watch a lot of TV, will probably watch this because it tells the human side of that day."
    CBS’s decision to air "9/11" will be something of a test.
    The media’s coverage of Sept. 11 has been fading in recent weeks, as could be expected after six months.
    Moreover, the networks have had little luck with programs related to the terrorist attacks, most of which have been celebrity fundraisers.
    ABC’s "United We Stand" and CBS’s "Concert for New York City", for example, both ranked No. 75 or lower and had fewer than 6.2 million viewers in November.
    "9/11," however, is the first documentary about Sept. 11 to air and includes new footage from inside one of the World Trade Center towers. The film was made by the brothers Gedeon and Jules Naudet, who were in New York making a film about firefighters when the planes struck.
    "I don’t think the morbid curiosity is still there," says Rothstein. "We want to move on. How many times can we see the same or similar footage?"
    Perhaps due to the questionable nature of the subject matter, CBS did not set out to find a number of advertisers for Sunday’s broadcast.
    Nextel is the sole sponsor of the two-hour movie, which will run with public service announcements but no commercials or promotional spots. The event is benefiting the Uniformed Firefighters Association Scholarship Fund.
    "It’s about heroism and not about horror; that’s the difference," says Brill.
    "The money is being donated to the firemen’s fund, so it’s being done as a charitable thing. What CBS is putting out is high quality. If they thought it glorified violence or if it was shameless, it would be on Fox."

-Kevin Downey is a staff writer for Media Life.

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