Saturated television coverage draws viewers
Television viewers were not completely indifferent but neither did they show any particular enthusiasm for programs about the election campaign that the channels showed over the past two-and-a-half weeks. That is what emerges from statistics compiled by AGB on around 60 programs screened during prime time – from 10 p.m. – from August 27 to September 12 on seven channels that broadcast throughout Greece (Skai, NET, ET-3, Mega, Antenna, Alpha and Alter). Initial reluctance The grim atmosphere caused by the recent fires put viewers off at first, but there were other factors, too. It was partly the voices of those who kept interrupting the speakers because they wanted to be heard but didn’t know how to listen, and partly the pomposity and empty rhetoric of the various party leaders, regardless of how much of the vote they command. Then there were the presenters themselves, who resorted yet again to the tired old recipe of rowdily argumentative panels, and didn’t even bother to examine the serious issues and dilemmas of the elections (with the exception of Skai, which ran such programs as «Experts’ Debate» and «Political Stock Exchange»). And there was a general fatigue with the electoral face-offs that had filled the main news programs during the same period but which however did attract daily audiences of some 2 million, with the morning news programs garnering some 650,000 viewers a day. Only five of the 60 programs, which usually screened in competition with each other and which were also up against the national basketball team defending its Eurobasket title in Spain, managed to break the barrier of more than 400,000 viewers. Two of those programs were screened immediately after the debate among the six party leaders. «Elections: Toward the Ballot,» with Penelope Katsatou presenting politicians’ and television personalities’ first impressions of the debate, came first (NET, September 6, 649,000 viewers, 21.6 percent of the audience), while the two-hour «Elections Mega,» with Pavlos Tsimas and guests commenting on the debate came third (Mega, September 6, 424,000 viewers and 21 percent of the audience). In second place was «Elections Alter,» with Nikos Hatzinikoalou and guests (Alter, September 10, 452,000 viewers and 14.1 percent), which started in prime time. Fourth came «Elections Alpha,» with Elli Stai and guests (Alpha, September 11, 411,000 viewers and 18.7 percent), and fifth was Nikos Evangelatos’s program «Diaploki» with members of the public questioning politicians (Antenna, September 3, 401,000 viewers and a 20.6 share of the audience).
