9/11 Tops Study On Most Memorable TV Moment Of Past 50 Years
The September 11, 2001 terrorist attack is the most memorable TV moment of the past fifty years, according to a study conducted by Sony Electronics and the Nielsen television research company. The attack topped every age group in the survey, which ranked TV moments by people’s recollection of the event– if they remember where they were when they saw it, who they were with and if they talked about it with others.
TV news coverage dominated the top positions of the survey. The second most memorable TV moment was the coverage of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, followed by the verdict of O.J. Simpson‘s trial in 1995 at No. 3, the Challenger space shuttle explosion in 1986 at No. 4 and the announcement of Osama bin Laden in 2011 at No. 5.
Brian Siegel, Sony’s vice president of television business, told AP he was surprised entertainment events didn’t top TV news coverage in the survey. Major entertainment events were further down the list, including the M-A-S-H finale at No. 42, the Beatles’ first performance on The Ed Sullivan Show at No. 43 and the “Who Shot J.R.?” episode of Dallas at No. 44.
The survey showed differences among people of different generations and gender. For respondents over the age of 55, the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy came second to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. For younger respondents, President Barack Obama‘s inauguration in 2008 came in No. 4, but it was No. 24 for older respondents.
For women, the death of Princess Diana in 1997 was ranked No. 4, while for men it was ranked at No. 23. But men ended up ranking the bombing of Iraq in the opening days of the Iraq War in 2004 higher. It ranked No. 14 for men and No. 37 for women.
The Super Bowl continues to be the biggest television event year after year, but that doesn’t make it memorable. The only game that made the list was Super Bowl XXXVIII. Remember that one? The Patriots over the Panthers in a nail-biting 32-29 game? Actually, the game had nothing to do with it. Although Sports Illustrated called it the “greatest Super Bowl of all time” at the time, the reason Americans remembered it was for the halftime show where Justin Timberlake exposed Janet Jackson‘s pasty-covered nipple for half a second. The television event that got MTV banned from the Super Bowl and gave us the phrase “wardrobe malfunction” was ranked at No. 26.
The 2012 American Idol finale when what’s-his-name beat that-one-girl did not make the list. Neither did the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards when Madonna kissed Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, which is baffling because there’s no way that’s not in the top ten of everyone who watches TV between the ages of 25 and 35.
The study included 1,077 adults selected from Nielsen’s pool of people used to measured for television ratings in February. The survey ranked top TV moments by asking respondents if they remembered watching it and if they could remember where they watched it, who they watched it with and if they talked to others about what they watched.
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This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
