We remember when we were children, back when we had three commercial networks, a couple of indies and a PBS station to choose from – none of which catered to us during primetime. But last week in this day and age, children came within an eyelash of giving cable’s Disney Channel the top-rated show.
According to an AP report on Nielsen Media Research numbers, the premiere of “The Wizards of Waverly Place” movie by the Disney Channel is the program that almost knocked adult fare out of first place. Only NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” with 11.46M viewers, could top the 11.43M pulled in by “Wizards.”
A lock on the 15-and-under demo is what propelled “Wizards” past almost all comers. The show grabbed 7.1M of them. The kids propelled “Wizards” past two other high-powered NBC offerings, another episode of “Talent” and an NFL broadcast.
RBR/TVBR observation: It is amazing that politicians are still able to score points by making sure that our children are being served by the media. They have never been better served than they are now – in fact, as parents, we’d say the problem is just the opposite: nowadays they are TOO well served.
We would much rather that there were times – hours on end, in fact – when the television leaves them utterly uninterested, encouraging exercise and sports, imaginative play, reading, artwork and other mind-engaging activities.
All of you watchdogs, bureaucrats and legislators trying to force even more children’s programming onto the airwaves, please hold you horses. You are NOT doing us any favors.
