THE SECOND GREATEST REALITY SHOW ON EARTH

So, a few months ago I made the case that the Olympics were the biggest reality show on Earth. I’m going to add to that a tie for first place - The US Presidential Election.

For anyone crouching round a tv anywhere in the World this week you would have seen something pretty amazing. But, the election of Barack Obama wasn’t the only amazing thing you might have seen on Tuesday night.

 

You would also have seen a LOT of the footage being made which you’ll see in archive clips in movies in the future. Imagine all those clips you see of JFK talking about ‘choosing to go to the moon’… or FDR talking about wanting to build a lot of bridges.

But, it wasn’t so much the history making moments on Tuesday that have scored their mark in TV history. From Obama’s use of buying enormous amounts of airtime, to his understanding of the language of TV. For my money, it wasn’t any of the technological or Gen-X elements of Obama’s campaign that proved the most powerful, it was the fact that in this day and age it’s still the simplest understanding of TV language that I think for me stands out the most.

I want to talk today about the role that the different approaches to televising the candidates may have played in this historic election, and how having a basic, yet clear understanding of how people watch tv that can make the difference.

First, we have to agree to ignore WHAT is was the candidates saying in this little breakdown, because we’re talking about how things looked - how the quiet tv in the bar, or the hubbub of CNN passively in the corner of the living room, still managed to project an idea of power or weakness, into the brains of the voting public.

This is the very language of TV we’re talking about - this is the same language that governs Reality TV whether we’re thinking of Rock of Love, a Survivor episode - or electing the most powerful dude in the World.

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher used to ensure that the press-pack was always placed somewhere BELOW her eyeline. The result was that every photograph or TV news shot of her ended up looking up at her. And what would a psychologist say about this? He’d say that subconsciously to the viewers at home she looked powerful and we felt subject to her.

So, let’s think about some of the iconic moments of the election.

My favorite was those much vaunted Town Hall meetings, and principally the Town Hall Debate, which the McCain camp had lobbied for and been ‘victorious’ at getting. Do you remember these? These were the debate which occurred ‘in the round’ with audience members all around, and with none of the familiar officiousness of a regular debate, allowing the candidates to walk around, pause, or hang off a bar-stool like Tony Bennett. In my view, watching these debates avidly as a reality TV producer, I thought these were colossally BAD for McCain. He looked shorter, older, and more distant and less at ease than Barack Obama, who calmly swooped around the stage, walked like a young man and, frankly, looked better from behind.

Now, content-wise, who knows, they stuck to their talking points - but the distinct impression I took away was that like him or not, the people watching at home would somehow feel that Obama was a stronger leader. Somewhere, something in their minds would have tripped.

The second most important moment in the race was Barack Obama’s fantastic acceptance speech on Tuesday night. First off - get extras - for any epic you’re going to need extras. If you can count Oprah in amongst them you’re all good. He had 250,000 people there, he had, I counted, 6 cranes, a blimp and as many helicopters as they have available in Chicago. McCain’s camp had a good number of extras, and only an endless supply of Country and Western singers rather than Oprah - but there was something restrained about it - almost like those times I’ve produced the last episode of a series nobody expects is coming back. It’s all there, but not quite.

The important thing about Tuesday night’s speech was to unify, to project Presidential qualities, without too much fanfare, because this was an acceptance speech rather than a victory party. That was smart producing, anyone who wanted to party was already partying - it’s the glum faces flicking over from the McCain concession speech who Obama’s event was aimed at impressing.

My final - extra special favorite tv moment on the trail was Sarah Palin’s Katie Couric interview… I think even more people saw that interview than who watched the acceptance speech. Now, in this case let’s definitely not forget the amusing content, or the absolute twaddle spoken. Just because here, the TV made more of an impact on the race than any number of posed debates, or spun press conferences. Here’s tv at its very best. No amount of editing could possibly have rescued that mess - indeed, I suspect the editors at CBS news did their very best to clean that interview up to make it clear they weren’t trying to totally trash Palin. They had the material they needed.

I LOVE TV.

So, I’ll keep it short this week - I’m off to shoot a nature show this week - something I’ve not done in a while, I’ll be looking forward to filling you in next week!