When Citizens Asked the Questions, Viewers Tuned In

of viewers tuned in to televised political forums last fall

where real people asked real questions about real problems.

Here are three examples of how substituting citizen panels

for reporters at these candidate forums brought big ratings

boosts for the television sponsors.

In

Boston . . .

Disappointed with viewership of five televised U.S. Senate

debates between Sen. John Kerry and Gov. William Weld, a

partnership of The Boston Globe, The Boston

Herald, New England Cable News and the ABC, CBS and NBC

stations replaced the previous panel of journalists with a

citizens’ panel chosen from the database compiled by

"The People’s Voice" civic journalism initiative.

The

"People’s Voice" partnership of The Globe,

WABU-TV and public radio WBUR-FM used the citizens to help

guide reporting of campaign issues.

Producers at

WHCH-TV (NBC) worked with the panelists to insure that their

questions weren’t repetitive and that they were at ease

before the camera. According to the station’s Special Events

Executive Producer Kate Shaplan, the new combination of

citizen’s questions and a race that was heating up to a boil

made for something new and exciting.

"What was

especially exciting," she says, "is that questions

asked by citizens rather than reporters seemed to hold the

candidates more accountable in their answers."

Adding to the

excitement, viewership in the 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday night time

slot soared from the previous program’s 570,000 people to

754,000.

In

Wisconsin. . .

"We the People/Wisconsin," comprised of the

Wisconsin State Journal, Wisconsin Public Television,

Wisconsin Public Radio, WISC- TV and Wood Communications

Group, teamed with media partners across the state for the

first live, simultaneous broadcast of Congressional forums in

multiple districts.

Coverage kicked

off with programs reporting on the results of a statewide

poll asking the people their concerns. Then, citizen panels

in Wisconsin’s 2nd, 3rd and 8th Congressional districts

quizzed their Republican and Democrat candidates for Congress

in separate town hall programs. Segments from these programs

were then pulled together by Wisconsin Public Television to

make a two-hour show.

Ratings shot up

for all the programs, but in Madison, WISC-TV (CBS) and

Wisconsin Public Television racked up a combined 10 rating,

26 share in the prime time 7 to 8 p.m. Friday time slot. That

amounts to 60,500 viewers, and equals the leading network

programming for that time slot.

Collectively,

more than 100,000 viewers tuned in on one night to watch the

"Talk of the House" programs.

Dave Iverson, of

Wisconsin Public Television, calls the project "a

terrific example of how different media partners in different

markets helped to give an entire state a look at who their

next Congressmen will be."

In

Seattle. . .

Public television station KCTS more than doubled its

viewership for two primary election programs in which citizen

panels grilled Republican and Democrat candidates for

governor.

Partners The

Seattle Times, KCTS and public radio stations KPLU-FM

and KUOW-FM launched the project with a program based on a

statewide issues survey that revealed people were concerned

about ethics and morals. Then came the two forums, the only

statewide gubernatorial forums in prime time. The citizens

panel asked questions, then gave way to questions from the

audience.

Community

response was "overwhelming," according to Lisa

Smith, who was KCTS senior producer for public affairs.

"The middle school gymnasium from which we broadcast was

packed with hundreds of people, and our ratings were more

than twice what they usually are in that time slot," she

says. "I was surprised at the quality of questions from

the citizens and at the thoughtful and direct answers they

elicited from the candidates."

"I started

the project as a skeptic of citizen panels," Smith says.

"Now I’m at least a partial believer."

She’s not alone.

While all those involved caution against leaping to

cause-and-effect relationships between citizen panels and

viewer interest, they’re almost jumping for joy over the

audiences they attracted.

As Wisconsin

Public Television’s director of programming James Steinbach

put it: "These numbers show that citizens will watch a

political forum if they believe it reflects issues, values

and concerns of their fellow citizens."