Viewers Aren’t Switching Channels, Poll Says

TV watchers who change channels during a program or zap to another station during the commercials are in the minority, ABC said Tuesday.

The results of a 1989 Roper poll were presented during the first day of ABC’s annual press tour at the Century Plaza, where television journalists from around the country have gathered for two weeks of back-to-back news conferences on the fall television season.

The poll found that only 11% of a sample of 1,000 adults flip channels while watching prime-time programming.

The poll results, gathered from Jan. 29 to Feb. 11, also showed that the relatively few viewers who flip from one program to another are young, especially young males.

One more finding: the degree of channel flipping was not changed significantly by the presence of children.

Although ABC’s advertisers may rest easier knowing that viewers usually stick to the program they plan to watch in the first place, 7% of viewers are still “grazing” around the dial during commercials, while a total of 3% change channels during the program itself.

Reasons cited for flipping channels include “boredom” and “seeing what else is on.”

And, although ABC advertisers may be comforted to know audiences who begin watching an ABC show will watch until the end, they now also know that people watching NBC, CBS, Fox or cable are equally unlikely to pop over to ABC.

Anyway, ABC hopes that audiences this fall will tune into and stick with “Chicken Soup,” a new comedy starring Jackie Mason, produced by TV’s Hitsville, Carsey/Werner Productions, which also produces “The Cosby Show” and “Roseanne.”

Mason and the show’s four producers--Marcy Carsey, Tom Werner, Saul Turteltaub and Bernie Orenstein--turned out in force to reassure journalists that the comedy, about a Jewish man falling in love with his Catholic neighbor (Lynn Redgrave), would play in America’s Heartland.

In response to a journalist’s suggestion that Middle America might not relate well to Mason’s character, who will rely on the same sort of ethnic humor and dialect that is part of Mason’s stand-up comedy act, the ever-tactful Mason said: “Whoever says that, in my honest opinion, has to be stupid--and I say that with the highest respect.”

“It’s all Jewish nonsense,” Mason continued. “While I do my stand-up act all over the country, I am watching Gentiles laugh at my humor, and afterwards, Jews come up to me and say: ‘It’s a little too Jewish.’ ”

Mason said that, following years of obscurity, he was propelled to stardom following the success of his stage show, which recently played in Los Angeles. The success led to numerous television offers, and critics suddenly begin praising his “one-man performance.”

“I always did a one-man performance--what did they think, that before I was working with a choir?” Mason grumbled.

Mason said he took the role because the writers allowed him to be himself: “In the pilot (episode), I forgot that I didn’t write it myself.”

Following the news conference, Mason said that anyone who objects to the Catholic-Jewish romance in “Chicken Soup”--or anywhere else--is “an idiot.”

Mason said he doesn’t mind making fun of the nation’s favorite controversies, including abortion and flag burning. “This is the only country in which you’re allowed to burn the flag, but you’re not allowed to tear the tag off the mattress,” he said. Mason also does a routine about a newsstand owner who offers this opinion on abortion: “I’m against it--unless of course the girl is pregnant.”

In the news conference, producers Carsey and Werner were asked for their formula for making hits; they attributed their success to simplicity, honestly and a respect for the audience. Mason eyed them suspiciously: “So, if it’s so easy, why did it take you so long?”