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People’s Choice vs. Political Reality TV
Anybody else feel like they were wafting through a parallel universe last night? People’s Choice Awards versus New Hampshire Primary?
Both contests were pretty strange, but the one that was exciting had nothing to do with “favorite sitcom” or “most popular movie actor.”
The writers strike prompted a vastly scaled down People’s Choice telecast on CBS. Poor Queen Latifah had no live audience, no winners or losers attending. Instead, there were clips, taped acceptance speeches and highlights from previous award ceremonies. Zzzzzz.
Based on the results of public opinion polls, the People’s Choice Awards are usually well-attended if way too polite. They lack the spontaneous sparkle of the Gold Globe Awards, which should be uncharacteristically sleep-inducing this Sunday when the winners’ names are read during an hour-long “press conference” on NBC. Thank you, writers strike.
But we digress. Last night’s “ceremony” featured taped acceptance speeches from the likes of Katherine Heigl and Joaquin Phoenix that seemed to be culled from a performance of “Night of the Living Dead.”
By the time CBS News anchor Katie Couric cut into the dreary show at around 9:30 with results of the New Hampshire primary, it was clear that TV’s main excitement Tuesday night was in politics, not entertainment.
Which brings us back to politics …
So did all those folks who said they were going to vote for Barack Obama in the Democratic primary lie? Or were the polls just flat-out wrong? As late as the 5:30 evening newscasts, polls had Obama as much as 10 points ahead of rival Hillary Clinton. And yet …
The voting results came in consistently showing Clinton in the lead. Reluctant to veer from script, the TV folks remained skeptical — in fairness, so did the Clinton campaign folks, who seemed truly stunned by the time their gal was projected to win.
Lesson here? Take the polls with a grain of salt. Something’s wrong with them.
The New Hampshire primary also proved that the strike-crippled season doesn’t need new episodes of “CSI” to be exciting. This time around, reality TV has some genuinely interesting characters. Seriously, folks, Mike Huckabee is way funnier than Jim Belushi, and John McCain’s life story is a whole lot more interesting than anybody on “Cane.” Obama? Smart and charismatic … what’s not to like? And the Clintons have always been one heck of a traveling road show.
The primary season is shaping up to be reality TV at its best (just when we need it), and even if it doesn’t grab huge ratings, maybe the interest generated will spark people to go to the polls and vote.
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By Gordon
January 10, 2008 12:15 PM | Link to this
I happened to flip to CBS (from CNN/FOXNews/MSNBC flipping) to see if what they had on the primary a couple of times, and both times it was Queen Latifah scatting, what a train wreck... then I remembered Katie Couric was their talking head (I still switch to channel 7 half the time for CBS) and gave up...
By the way, isn't the people's choice selection process the same as the one that got all the polls wrong in the NH primary? hehh... makes you wonder...