Technology is expected to eventually kill off sweeps - including those "special investigations" viewers have come to expect quarterly on the late local news - thanks to the introduction of electronic Local People Meters in various markets. But even though Philadelphia got the meters in June, don't expect to be free of those newscast exposes.
While network sweeps stunts continue, their influence will continue to spill over into local news shows, where grainy video of sexual activity in public restrooms and investigations of exploding cell phones have become standards, along with reporters in hospital gowns getting medical tests. However, few journalists are likely to go as far as Cleveland anchor Sharon Reed, who once worked for WCAU (Channel 10). She got naked for a first-person report last November on a nude group-photo installation.
Here, there's still an "all-hands-on-deck" policy during sweeps, said Jennifer E. Best, public-affairs director at WTXF (Channel 29), echoing representatives of other local stations. In other words, the talent isn't allowed to take vacations.
In the long run, the meters will do away with quarterly gimmickry. Because they measure viewing habits continuously and transmit voluminous data electronically every night, the meters will make sweeps obsolete.
In the short run, local stations in cities with meters are grappling with how to do news now.
"The networks will still program their heavy-hitter shows in the traditional sweeps periods, since the [meters] are only in a few markets," Best said.
To capture the eyeballs of audiences who tune in to "event programming," she said, The 10 O'Clock News will focus on consumer and investigative stories during sweeps - and will promote those stories during commercial breaks.
