NEW YORK: A fixture on television, actress Julie Bowen of Modern Family is doing the same thing as millions of other people during the widespread coronavirus shutdown.

She’s sitting at home, watching more television than she normally would.

In a world turned upside down by disease,

TV viewership is growing. It’s a rare bit of good news for an industry that has steadily shrunk, and its executives hope to seize an opportunity by anticipating what a stressed audience wants to see.

Bowen and her children binged on the NBC comedy, Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

“I’d never seen it and it’s super fun, she said. I’m trying really hard to stay away from anything grim or reality-based right now. I don’t want any heavy drama. Can’t do it.”

Television usage last week was up 8 per cent over what it was in February, according to the Nielsen company. That may not seem like much, but this is the time of year when that statistic usually goes in the opposite direction: with Daylight Savings Time and moderating weather, more people spend time outside and away from the TV.

Not surprisingly, news programming is the biggest beneficiary.

In fact, if you’re looking for breakout coronavirus TV stars, consider David Muir of ABC’s World News Tonight or Lester Holt of NBC’s Nightly News.

Both broadcasts had larger audiences last week than anything shown in the prime-time hours.

Twenty years ago the network evening news was considered on the brink of extinction. But more than 32 million people tuned into these broadcasts, along with the CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell, each night for a rundown of the day’s top developments.

Other programs that reported, or talked, about the news hit milestones last week.

CBS’ Sunday Morning had its biggest audience last weekend since 1994, and Face the Nation since 1991.

The original TV star-turned-politician, President Donald Trump, is on cable television nearly every day with news conferences, and reached 4.4 million viewers for a Fox News town hall on Tuesday. The impact of that exposure will be seen in November.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, also on cable nearly every day with coronavirus briefings, has a growing fan club.

“I’ve started laughing at his little jokes,” wrote Rebecca Fishbein on Jezebel. “I catch myself touching my hair (not my face!) when he talks about an increase in testing capacity. I swooned when he told a reporter he had his own workout routine ... I think I have a crush???”

Anayo Michel, who owns a dance studio in Valley Stream, New York, credits her incessant watching of CNN’s Dr Sanjay Gupta for a decision to ask some of her instructors before most people realised how disruptive the outbreak would be to videotape classroom instruction.

CNN’s daytime viewership last week was up 132pc over the same week last year. Fox News Channel (77pc) and MSNBC (38pc) were also up, Nielsen said.

The news is seeping into prime time entertainment in an unexpected way. Broadcast networks see their 8pm shows doing well in part, they suspect, because many are being shown after expanded local news. Fox’s Last Man Standing last week, for example, was up 50% in live viewing, Nielsen said.

Otherwise, programmers are waiting to see what these captive viewers want to watch.

“We’re dealing with what everybody in the country is dealing with right now,” said Nancy Daniels, who runs the Discovery Channel, Science Channel and Animal Planet, “which is what will tomorrow bring? What will next week bring? Or next month?”

Animal Planet last week ran 94 straight hours of cuddly animals romping onscreen, figuring busy parents could run it as a pleasing background that’s also safe for the kids.

Fox feels it has an obligation and opportunity to give people a respite from the news with escapist and hopefully positive fare such as The Masked Singer, said Dan Harrison, Fox Entertainment executive vice president for program planning and content strategy.

“We are all assuming that people would be flocking to see whatever they consider comfort food when it comes to programming right now,” said Jeff Bader, NBC president of program planning, strategy and research. “For some people that would be comedy, but for other people it could be old movies or reality shows. One of my colleagues likes horror movies to escape reality.”

So far, Blacklist is NBC’s biggest coronavirus-era winner. Even a long-running success got a boost: CBS’ NCIS drew about 13 million viewers on Tuesday, its biggest audience in more than a year and a 22% increase over the previous new episode, on March 10.

Bowen’s Modern Family may benefit. The multiple-Emmy-winning ABC comedy signs off after 11 seasons on April 8. The network also hopes to gather families with a David Blaine magic special, while CBS will air a James Corden prime-time special.

“HBO’s streaming service just had its best week since last summer, as viewers have sought favorites like Big Little Lies and Westworld, and oldies like Sex and the City and The Sopranos,” said Cheryl Idell, WarnerMedia’s top researcher.

Closed schools have been a lifeline for networks aimed at young people, which for years have been hard hit by parents who prefer on-demand viewing or try to limit screen time. Daytime viewing of children’s programming was up 31pc last week over the same week a year ago, said the research firm Comscore.

Lisel Doreste-Hamilton, a teacher in Port Orange, Florida, said she just subscribed to Disney programming for her daughter, Celia.

Then there’s ESPN, left without the chief pillar of its business live sports programming, and no idea when it will return. It is scrambling to fill the time, importing professional wrestling, airing again its award-winning documentary, OJ: Made in America, and negotiating with leagues to rerun old games and events. There’s been a lot of talk about NFL free agency and the upcoming draft.

Under the circumstances, ESPN’s drop in viewership from the same week a year ago 820,000 to 550,000 could have been worse.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2020