Even Berlin Wall Didn’t Grab Viewers

Epochal. Earthshaking. Monumental. What’s happening in Eastern Europe ranks as one of the great news stories of the decade. Perhaps of the century.

But viewers in this country are not tuning in to see it, at least not in the kind of numbers one might expect. Not even when the Berlin Wall all but fell crashing to the ground.

“It just didn’t play,” says a spokeswoman for ABC News.

“The ratings are down a little bit across the board,” says a spokesman for CBS News. “They certainly haven’t gone up.”

But why? Here is a story of drama, significance and impact, told each night through pictures that are sometimes sensational: Families streaming through newly opened borders. Loved ones reunited. Masses marching. Decades-old barriers crumbling as whole societies make giant leaps toward freedom.

“Anyone who has touched this story saw their ratings go down,” says Richard Kaplan, executive producer of the ABC News series “PrimeTime Live,” whose program on the Berlin Wall was the lowest-rated installment that aired up to that time.

Viewership for the three network evenings newscasts is off from the same period a year ago. Special reports on Berlin that aired on ABC, CBS and NBC scored ratings that were mediocre or meager or worse.

“Everyone in network news is scratching their heads about this,” says Kaplan. “I can see where the average Joe might not care that much about Poland or Czechoslovakia, but the Berlin Wall is universal; you couldn’t grow up not knowing about it. . . . I can’t figure it out.”

Ed Turner, news director of CNN, says his network’s audience doesn’t seem fascinated with the story, either. “Much to my astonishment, I think that’s true, at least in this sense: The ratings have not shown a leap as they did with China earlier this year or with the earthquake in San Francisco.”

“I tell you what it may prove,” says Reuven Frank, former president of NBC News. “It may prove that Geraldo Rivera is right and the rest of us are wrong, God help us. Maybe he’s the one who knows what news is. Maybe if four people sat around and talked about it with Oprah Winfrey, people would listen.”