What do Americans really want? TV and sex

From restaurant booths to voting booths, Frank Luntz has watched and assessed our private habits, our public interests, and our hopes and fears. What are the five things Americans want the most? What do they really want in their daily lives? In their jobs? From their government? For their families? In his new book, "What Americans Really Want ... Really," Luntz lays out a discussion of Americans' secret hopes, fears, wants and needs. In this excerpt, he writes about what he's found out about Americans' TV and sexual habits. 

What Americans do in their free time
Aside from entertaining at home and eating out at restaurants, these are some favorite leisure-time pleasures, according to the U.S. government:

39 percent read books

23 percent go to the beach

22 percent play cards

20 percent play computer games

18 percent go to bars and nightclubs

18 percent play board games

14 percent do crossword puzzles

What’s next? Eliminate the U.S. Postal Service from the process. It is increasingly easy to download movies from the Web and watch them instantly on your computer. Netflix has 12,000 titles that can be ordered à la carte in this manner, and they cut a deal with TiVo in the fall of 2008 to give TiVo users access to that rental library, combining the convenience of Netflix rentals with the ability to watch your movie on your own television (or computer) screen with the comforts of home.

True, life was simpler just a few decades ago before TiVo and video on demand (VOD), before satellite and cable, when just three networks and a few independent stations were enough to satisfy American entertainment appetites. Now there are hundreds of television channels to choose from, resulting in a painful exodus from the major networks as viewers explore a universe of TV options. More than 80 percent of Americans subscribe to cable or satellite TV. About half of those sign up for premium channels such as HBO or Showtime, where the raciest content is found, as well as a United Nations’ worth of international programming. The mandatory transition from analog to digital broadcast in 2009 has opened up a new world for viewers who switched to providers that offer channels they didn’t even know existed.

But it’s not just what we watch that has changed. It’s also how we watch. True, most of us still consume our television the old-fashioned way — in real time with segments separated by commercial breaks that allow us to get food and use the bathroom. But people are increasingly watching programming on their own timetable by using devices like DVRs (TiVo), DVD recordings, and VOD. About a third of homes now have this capability, and it continues to expand as people forgo more exotic escapes in favor of entertainment closer to home. The couch potato has given way to a newly empowered audience who wants the convenience of watching TV when they want to, and damn the commercials. This is especially true of people younger than forty, who are fully comfortable with digital technology and have a deep disdain for advertising.

Size is also an issue. One in five Americans owns a television 50 inches or bigger. At the opposite extreme, a handful of early adopters are beginning to watch video on the tiniest screen at their fingertips — their cell phones. Only a few million people watch mobile video now, but it will certainly thrive, especially among younger people who rely on their phones for all communication.

We’re a little embarrassed about how much time we spend watching TV and browsing the Internet — 68 percent feel guilty about watching too much television and 53 percent for spending too much time in front of the computer. For many, they start the day with TV and shut it off only when they turn out the lights. In many homes, TV is like wallpaper.

I know something about what consumers really want from television, having worked for NBC, ABC, Fox, MSNBC, CNBC, FX, and the BBC over the past decade. When I first came on board (to test promos for the NBC fall lineup), the network was trying to prepare itself for the eventual loss of two of its most popular comedies since Seinfeld — Friends and Frasier — and so it had to remake itself, or at least its content, to appeal to a different generation of viewers. But today, most of network comedy is gone or going away. Why? They aren’t listening to their viewers. In 1978, all ten most-watched shows in America were thirty-minute sitcoms, led by Laverne & Shirley, Three’s Company, and Mork & Mindy — shows still in reruns somewhere. Today, nobody is laughing at what network TV is showing, and in times like these, Americans really want at least a chuckle. To many of us, cable is the new king of comedy.

Why Americans don't like TV sitcoms anymore
There’s a reason why only one TV comedy in the 2008–09 season — Two and a Half Men — ever cracks the top ten most-watched shows in America. It’s because the networks have stopped catering to their audiences and started trusting their (unexercised) gut instincts. Having moderated dozens of television focus groups over the years, I have found there’s a pattern of desirability that could help someone launch the next Cheers, Seinfeld, or Friends. Here are the five guidelines for successful sitcom humor:

1. Hold up a mirror. Viewers like to see themselves in the comedies they watch. They want shows and characters they can personally relate to. To them, life is a series of amusing experiences that are even funnier when they happen to other people on TV who look and sound a little like themselves (only better) and their friends. They want quirky, but still grounded in reality.

2. Connect the dots. Viewers overwhelmingly prefer shows where the story lines are unique, so they can miss an episode and not lose contact with the characters. But they are equally clear that they want the characters to build from episode to episode, with occasional references to past episodes.

3. Relationships involving conflict. This is particularly important. Americans aren’t looking for sweet, innocent comedy. They want an edge, something a bit dark but still lovable. The Simpsons has lasted so long and Family Guy was brought back to life because they so perfectly illustrate the graphic humor behind real conflict.

4. Home is where comedy lives. People now prefer a home setting for a comedy rather than the office. It’s not a rejection of the office environment. It’s an embrace of the home and its richness of possibilities. Everybody Loves Raymond was a top-20 show for most of its run even though it primarily had only two sets: Ray’s home and his parents’ home.

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5. Go live. The spontaneity and pitfalls of live performances, including all the mistakes and outtakes, are a real crowd pleaser. Very few shows have done this because of the cost, but it changes the viewer dynamic from static to active — and so people tune in and stay with the program. The Drew Carey Show did live episodes — the only recent show to do this on an annual basis.

TV at its best mirrors the reality of our experience. We learn to cope with the lunacy of life by learning to laugh at it, and that is why we identify with characters on TV who are just a little crazier — but not much — than people we really know.

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