And Now . . . A Word From the Viewers

Now come the real people. For more than a month there have been stories about the February television sweeps: about the faceless Nielsen folks whose viewing habits set the ratings; about the hype promoting this program and that; about particular programs and their stars.

Last month The Times’ marketing research department put together a focus group of a baker’s dozen men and women of varying ages, occupations, ethnic backgrounds and life styles who live in different parts of Los Angeles County. They watched and listened. They tuned in, and sometimes they turned off.

With questioning led by Times focus-group moderator Cherie Sion, the paid volunteers--selected to mirror the general populace--initially met Feb. 1 at the beginning of sweeps month to discuss their TV viewing habits. When the sweeps ended, 12 of them gathered once again to talk about what they had watched.

They were, in effect, a jury of 13, monitoring and judging that crucial ratings period that comes four times a year when the networks, their affiliated stations and independents attempt to put their best stuff forward in hopes of attracting more viewers. The premise is that better ratings will mean bigger bucks from advertisers.

The 13 focus-group members might provide a clue about what real people really want to see on TV.

Hands down, the Winter Olympics drew the most group viewers, as the Games did nationwide--and consistently. Only one of the 13 did not watch ABC-TV’s broadcast from Calgary.

A number of participants, drawing murmurs of approval from others in the group, said they didn’t like “sensationalism” and they didn’t like “hype.” Most indicated that they switched channels back and forth, mainly during commercials, without a second thought. Miniseries did not draw them back night after night.Most stayed loyal to whatever local newscast they had watched prior to the February sweeps.

Raoul V. Flores of Inglewood, who works for the Automobile Club of Southern California, watched the Winter Olympics “probably almost every night. I was seeing each country’s best athlete in every particular event, whether it was bobsled, skiing, hockey, whatever. I enjoyed the competition. It didn’t matter who won.”

Randi Ruimy, an elementary-school teacher from Sherman Oaks, agreed: “Every chance I could get I watched, in between some of the movies. When you see the Olympics, the people get along with each other, they hug each other, and you say to yourself, ‘Why can’t politicians do this?’ And the other thing, there’s nothing dirty about it. There’s no hidden message. There’s no, ‘Gee, I didn’t get it.’ You’re just entertained, and your kids can sit there and watch it with you.”

Annie Szilagy, a Hungarian-born real-estate manager who lives in West Los Angeles, said she and her husband tuned in to the Olympics frequently because “once in four years there’s an opportunity to watch people do their very best, and it’s just such an uplifting kind of experience to see these kids doing it all.”

On the other hand, Szilagy said she was particularly disgusted by mini-docs on local newscasts that have “more and more hype and less and less content.” And she faulted Oprah Winfrey for being “so sensationalistic. Now she has gotten almost like the Enquirer.”

Only Stephanie Burke, a leasing manager, didn’t watch any Olympics programming. Among the relatively few programs she opted for was a rerun of “The Wizard of Oz”--”probably because the Olympics were too time-consuming.”

The 13th focus-group participant--Bob Iritani, a banker--was in San Franciso on business, but he reported that he mostly watched the Olympics, too. “I enjoy sports generally speaking, and they (ABC) did a good job, and the camera angles were excellent. . . . Being a part of this survey I tried to watch other shows. I hated them. I watched ‘Dallas,’ ‘Falcon Crest’--very boring. I saw ‘Dynasty’--very boring. Even ‘Bill Cosby’ wasn’t that great.”

As for the big miniseries during this sweeps period, ABC’s “Elvis and Me” drew six viewers out of 13, but only three of the six stayed tuned both nights.

Flash Lewis, who described himself as being “in equipment service” said he “gave up money for ‘Elvis.’ Instead of working time-and-a-half, I wanted to see the program. It was a good show.” But he also cited “Elvis” as one of the programs that had too much hype.

NBC-TV’s “Noble House,” based on the James Clavell novel about the powerful and the beautiful in Hong Kong, drew four viewers, none of whom stayed with the show all four nights.

CBS-TV’s “Windmills of the Gods” based on the Sidney Sheldon novel about an American woman from Kansas who becomes ambassador to Romania, also drew four group viewers, none of whom stayed with it both nights.

Gail Allen, a data processing technician and Colleen James, who lists herself as housewife said they stayed through both nights of CBS’ “Bluegrass” about life and horses in Kentucky.

None of the focus group members identified programs by network or channel except for local newscasts.

Guy De Angelis, an elementary-school teacher, said he “lost interest” in both “Windmills” and “Elvis.” He didn’t even try “Noble House” because he noted “that got some bad reviews and I didn’t want to take a chance on it. They kept hammering it so badly I thought it would be crazy to watch. I watched a dog show from Madison Square Garden that was pretty good. Somebody called me because I have a show dog, and said ‘Watch this poodle. . . . ‘ “

“I normally don’t like to watch miniseries,” said Hong-Kong born Susann Houston, member of technical staff in aerospace engineering, “but I did make an effort to see almost all of ‘Elvis and Me’ and ‘Noble House,’ and I was very disappointed with both. They emphasized the sensationalistic aspect of people’s lives rather than explain what led to what. Particularly ‘Noble House.’ They didn’t explain the history behind the vendetta and the characters very well. All it was was love-making and power plays. It was all hype.”

Some group members appeared drawn to nostalgia programming.

Sid Lewis--a financial administrator who said he watched the first and last episodes of “Noble House” because “in between that, all it was was the people making love with each other”--reserved his praise for the Olympics and CBS’ “Smothers Brothers” reunion at the beginning of sweeps month.

“I remember 20 years ago when they were on, and to see them again, I was disappointed it didn’t last longer,” he said. However, Lewis noted, he taped “Noble House.”

Three other group members also tried “Smothers Brothers” and reacted favorably. Movie reruns drew several focus members too, particularly “The Bridge on the River Kwai” which ran for two nights on KTTV Channel 13.

CBS’ “Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis” also drew several viewers, but the revival of the old TV series was panned.

“Now that was a dud,” commented Flash Lewis. “I talked about that all week to my wife, ‘I’m watching it honey, I’m watching it.’ I liked the original that came on when I was in my teens, but this was silly. The actors, their heads were swollen, they weren’t acting, they were all trying to be the star.”

Despite advertisements for mini-docs, most of the focus group members indicated they stayed with their usual stations.

Jerry Weidenborner, a photo department manager, said he had changed stations. “I’m rather enjoying (KNBC-TV) Channel 4 as a news station now. My viewing habits had been leaning toward (KABC-TV) Channel 7 but I was getting enough of Channel’s 7’s hype.”

When group moderator Sion asked why Weidenborner didn’t switch to KCBS-TV Channel 2, he replied: “Maybe because (Channel) 4 is on the way to 2 from 7. I might have just stopped on the way.”

Most of the focus group members indicated that they ooked forward to the sweeps period because of special programming. “Are we going to have a wasteland now for the next several weeks because they’ve shown everything?” asked Weidenborner.

However, Gail Allen said she doesn’t watch television that much, “and so the ones I do watch, like ‘227,’ ‘Cosby,’ ‘Golden Girls,’ when you preempt it or interrupt it or something, I’m annoyed because I look at those for entertainment. And when you cancel my show, I’m upset.”

Despite the best efforts by TV executives to lure viewers to the tube, life has a way of intruding. Collen James said she regretted that she was not able to watch TV more last month but “I had company quite a bit and my 10-month-old grandson for two weeks.”

“I didn’t feel the majority of those programs inspired me to alter my social schedule,” noted Stephanie Burke, the group member who didn’t watch the Olympics.

Asked what they would like to see in the next sweeps period, Sid Lewis said he longed for “more drama” and said he missed shows like the old “Playhouse 90.”

And Frank Garcia, who works in a hospital autopsy room, asked for “more musicals. It gets me away from my normal routine.”