Kommersant-Vlast: "Arshavin Replaces Petrosyan"
Vlast is summing up the year in Russian television, as it always does. Analyses of programme ratings have brought our columnist ARINA BORODINA to the conclusion that the Russian public is becoming more sophisticated in its preferences, though within limits set by the higher authorities.
However imperfect and controversial, public ratings have for years been the only indicator of which programmes the public prefers. It would be wrong to say that 2008 was an especially fruitful year for television. Censorship is raging as before, and we have no political analyses or information news updates to arouse mass interest. As for entertainment, television offers a great choice of programmes and is not getting any worse. Figure-skating galas, for instance, still attract the largest audiences and have not deteriorated for the three years since they were launched. Yet again, they appear on both state channels at once, and bored viewers might say, "Enough is enough!" any day.
Previous years offered landmark series, such as The Penal Battalion, Master and Margarita, The Idiot, The Fall of the Empire, Dr Zhivago, and Liquidation, whose ratings were noted in Vlast's annual summaries. 2008 was not memorable in that respect, which is normal-masterpieces are rare things. Simple sagas that can be understood by the masses appeared instead. Three series-Tatyana's Day, The Gromovs: Home of Hope, and Still I Love-became cult movies, especially the latter. However mundane they might be, they present the routine the way it is, especially in Russia's outlying regions. Tatyana's Day is a contemporary Cinderella story of an ambitious provincial girl in Moscow, complete with no end of problems and a happy ending. I wonder if anyone was perseverant enough to watch it throughout its six months on Channel One. Anyway, the concluding episode (symbolically shown on January 25, St. Tatyana's Day) gathered almost half of the national television audience-so the series evidently aroused curiosity, if not enthusiasm.
The action of retro melodramas The Gromovs and Still I Love was set in the 1970s and 80s to arouse nostalgic interest in a majority of viewers.
The ratings in 2008 differed from the previous year. It is a welcome difference, as complaints are coming from all sides about TV fans' hopeless mental degradation. First, the year's twenty most popular programmes do not include comic shows by Yevgeny Petrosyan and his colleagues. True, the Laugh of the Year compilation show (Russia Channel) was among the national leaders-but then, it was broadcast on January 2, with viewers at their most indiscriminate on the "morning after". Moscow proved the most sophisticated of Russian cities, as comic shows and other New Year's projects gathered the smallest audiences there.
No less encouraging than the new unpopularity of vulgar humour was the primacy of sport programmes all over the country. They are broadcast live-a rare occasion on present-day Russian television, since censorship cannot find its way into them. Huge ratings show that the energy and spontaneous emotion of athletic events attract even people who generally detest television. Even Vladimir Putin, whose New Year addresses to the nation gathered record-setting audiences over the last eight years, could not compete with the European football championships, especially the Russia-Spain match in the semi-finals and the Russia-Netherlands in the quarter-finals. Hardly any programme gathered more than 60% in the past ten years, while 70%, a national record, belonged to the Russia-Spain match. By all appearances, the record may be beaten only by the world football championships in 2010 if Russia makes it to the play-offs, to say nothing of victory.
Similarly vast and eager audiences gathered for the world hockey finals, when Russia won gold against Canada after a 15 year losing spell. Almost half of the total television audience also watched the UEFA finals, featuring Russia's Zenith.
Television ratings from 2008 reveal that the conservative Russian public retains moderate patriotism. More than a half of the total audience watches Victory parades on May 9 year in and year out. Eurovision contests have gathered many fans for several years even though the shows finish in the wee hours of the morning. More than 50% of Moscow viewers watched the 2008 show, while viewers in the provinces were much more indifferent to it. Dima Bilan's fans were amply rewarded-he was the first-ever Russian to win.
The entire nation mourned Alexander Abdulov, one of the most popular Russian actors, who died early in January. A third of the entire national audience watched In Memory of Alexander Abdulov on Channel One. Alla Pugacheva remains the brightest Russian pop star. An issue of The Protagonist broadcast on the eve of her birthday, with a blunt interview, was the only NTV project on the top list. Things were different a mere two years ago, when audiences liked gory sensations more than now. NTV had another project to compete with the leaders at that time-Open-Hearted Confession, a programme about domesticated predators. People sat glued to the television watching pets bite and scalp their masters. Surely, television was much more respectable in 2008.
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A Conversation and a Funeral
Two December live broadcasts stood out among the year's programmes.
On December 4, Vladimir Putin had his 8th Q&A session. This was the first time he addressed his country as Prime Minister and United Russia party leader. The scope and technical support of his hot line was downgraded somewhat due to his new office and, possibly, so as to not outshine President Dmitry Medvedev, who has not yet talked to the nation over the television, if we do not consider occasional video clips on the Kremlin website. Russia Channel and other outlets in the VGTRK government holding were alone in broadcasting the session countrywide for the first time since the first session of 2001. The programme was named simply Conversation with Vladimir Putin, without specifying his status. His Q&A sessions have always been among the most popular official programmes, scoring 50% or even more on the two channels, One and Russia, put together. Conversation with Vladimir Putin lasted more than three hours and received a 7.4% rating on Russia Channel with slightly more than 43% all over Russia, beating all television ratings since September, including series.
Huge audiences gathered again on December 9-this time on a dramatic occasion. 50.7% watched the funeral of Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia, as both government channels cast the funeral service from the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour live for many hours. Each channel's audience exceeded 20%-a very high number for a daytime broadcast.
The audiences were even greater, however, when the country lost Boris Yeltsin, its first President, in April 2007. 59.7% of the total audience watched the funeral service and 64% watched the burial at the Novodevichy Cemetery. Four channels-One, Russia, NTV, and TV Centre-broadcast it live simultaneously. This time, the Russian Orthodox Church objected to a live broadcast of the interment at the Epiphany Cathedral, so the broadcast stopped abruptly. The ratings might have been even greater if the broadcast had gone on.
Arina Borodina
