• by Michael Shields , July 30, 2004

A decade ago, Ross and Rachel shoved aside Mary-Kate and Ashley and effectively destroyed the family hour.

That's the TV history that media guru Steve Sternberg, executive vice president and director of audience analysis at MAGNA Global USA, used to explain the death of the family hour, which he is pleading for the broadcast networks to reinstate.

In Magna Global USA's latest whitepaper, "More Family Programming Please," Sternberg said that back in 1994, NBC began airing adult-themed "Friends" at 8 p.m., a time slot which had long been reserved for family programming. The following year, the airwaves were flooded with "Friends" wanna-bes, soon after "Full House" was canceled, signaling the end of the broadcast network's commitment to family programming and the begging of more narrowcasting.

He said that conventional wisdom regarding modern TV viewing habits, where families are believed to be split up while watching multiple shows at one time, does not hold water. While acknowledging that 42 percent of homes have three or more TVs these days, and most families receive 100 channels, "During the average minute in primetime, roughly 80 percent of households have only one television set turned on," the report said.

Today, Sternberg's report said that "Families want to spend more time together, not less (particularly post-9/11)," but that TV programmers discourage them from doing so.

He also decried the network practice of trying to run racier programming, or programming that approaches the content commonly found in cable shows like the "Sopranos." Sternberg contended in his report that people aren't asking for that programming, but rather, "The one thing people probably are searching for (at least everyone I know), is more programming the family can watch together (after all, more than 25 percent of all TV households have at least one child under 12)."

Sternberg referred to recent comedy hits as being examples of non-edgy programming that deliver multi-generational audiences. However, while mentioning shows like "Everybody Loves Raymond" and "Roseanne" on his list, he also included "Seinfeld" and "Friends," both of which frequently pushed the edge in terms of sexual content.

In today's TV landscape, reality shows like "American Idol" and "Survivor" are the new family shows, the report said. "One reason for the success of such so-called reality series as "Survivor," "American Idol," "The Apprentice", and even "Fear Factor," is because families can and do watch them together (or can at least have them on with kids in the room)."

To make his case for more programming that is family appropriate, Sternberg pointed to recent minor hits like "Joan of Arcadia" and "Everwood" as an example of family programming that succeeded but was under-reported by the media.

There appears to be a significant hole in Sternberg's arguments, however. In drawing his conclusions on why the family hour has disappeared from prime time, Sternberg's report failed to mention the tremendous effect that Nickelodeon, and to a lesser extent competitors like the Cartoon Network, have had on family and children's viewing patterns. In the 1990's the availability and resulting huge success of 24-hour children's programming contributed to splitting viewing among families, or in many case dictated that the family simply watched more kid-based TV together.