"Like a rock," Dan Rather remarked, "we are hard news. We want (our news) to constantly be a beacon of real hard news. 'News lite' is not our game." But one news producer reasoned, "In the long term, people will still want a mix of news, entertainment and drama and the news audience is sizable." Dan had hosted the evening network news as well as the newsmagazine '48 Hours'. "If '48 Hours' is up against 2 dramas," it was explained, "you can expect it to be a hit. If you schedule another magazine against it, you end up dividing the share points." For instance when 'Eye To Eye' went head-to-head with 'PrimeTime Live'. Although 'Eye To Eye' was not a success, the show's producer insisted, "The show was designed to be lively, interesting and irreverent." In 1994 there were 50% more newsmagazines than in 1993. By 1995, 'Dateline' was on 4 nights a week. "The early ones, '60 Minutes', '20/20' or '48 Hours' commanded one part of the audience on particular days," one network chief observed. "There was an enthusiastic demand for that and I think we misread that demand."
It was the sort of scandal which did for figure skating what 'Who Shot J.R?' had done for 'Dallas'. The climax took place in 1994 at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. "It's a sports story that became a national story," Connie Chung told viewers at the time. "Violence brought it into the national realm..." At the center of this skating controversy were Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan. Brian Boitano, the 1988 Olympic gold medalist remembered 15 years later, "I thought 'What is Connie Chung doing here?' The way she came in, I was like 'This ain't the Olympics anymore.' We went tabloid. It was very dark." Out of that darkness however, a somewhat rosy future for the sport. When Connie interviewed Tonya, over 15 million TV homes in America were watching. After football, baseball and basketball had always been America's 2nd best-loved sports. Tonya and Nancy had been credited for at least raising the profile of figure skating by generating the level of interest, many believed, was second to none. Their story started in Detroit, also in 1994. Tonya had won the women's U.S. figure skating championship but in controversial style. Nancy, her rival, who was the 1992 Olympic bronze medalist, had withdrawn from the competition after she was kneecapped. At the 11th hour, Tonya went public, "...I learned that some persons close to me were involved in the assault...I have since reported this information to the authorities...How sorry I am about what happened to Nancy Kerrigan. I am embarrassed and ashamed to think that anyone close to me could be involved...I have a great deal of respect for Nancy." At the time, one newspaper columnist wrote, "...Tonya Harding always has been married to trouble." A figure skating coach added, "(She was) a girl who was never taught or trained in how to deal with life."
Roughly 204 million viewers were counted watching the 1994 Olympics (about 93% of all households) making the Winter Games the 6th most watched broadcast in TV history. "I don't think if we sat down to try to script an Olympics we would have done much better," one network chief acknowledged. Some 82 million viewers in 94.2 million homes alone watched the first day of competition. Tonya and Nancy's dramatic showdown round one was watched by over 126 million viewers. The decider attracted 119 million viewers.
"Once I got started in this business," Stone Phillips shared, "it's so engaging because everyday there's another story and it's important. The public service aspect of it appeals to me." Stone co-anchored 'Dateline' with Jane Pauley. From the outset, 'Dateline' producers made the point of 'PrimeTime Live', '20/20' and '60 Minutes', "The only reason they are still on the air is that they adopted the format of what works...They are completely different in the types of stories they cover and how they cover them. That's what will set us apart." Of women occupying high-level positions, Jane made the comment in 1999, "It's just not a shock anymore to my children's generation. They take that absolutely for granted that there are women at every level...There just isn't any going back. That door has been closed - the go back door...All in all I am tremendously amazed at how the world my daughter will grow up in to that she can take for granted things that never occur to me that she would be able to. Looking back 20 years ago, I thought it's going to be an uphill struggle...The barrier has collapsed."
It was the sort of scandal which did for figure skating what 'Who Shot J.R?' had done for 'Dallas'. The climax took place in 1994 at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. "It's a sports story that became a national story," Connie Chung told viewers at the time. "Violence brought it into the national realm..." At the center of this skating controversy were Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan. Brian Boitano, the 1988 Olympic gold medalist remembered 15 years later, "I thought 'What is Connie Chung doing here?' The way she came in, I was like 'This ain't the Olympics anymore.' We went tabloid. It was very dark." Out of that darkness however, a somewhat rosy future for the sport. When Connie interviewed Tonya, over 15 million TV homes in America were watching. After football, baseball and basketball had always been America's 2nd best-loved sports. Tonya and Nancy had been credited for at least raising the profile of figure skating by generating the level of interest, many believed, was second to none. Their story started in Detroit, also in 1994. Tonya had won the women's U.S. figure skating championship but in controversial style. Nancy, her rival, who was the 1992 Olympic bronze medalist, had withdrawn from the competition after she was kneecapped. At the 11th hour, Tonya went public, "...I learned that some persons close to me were involved in the assault...I have since reported this information to the authorities...How sorry I am about what happened to Nancy Kerrigan. I am embarrassed and ashamed to think that anyone close to me could be involved...I have a great deal of respect for Nancy." At the time, one newspaper columnist wrote, "...Tonya Harding always has been married to trouble." A figure skating coach added, "(She was) a girl who was never taught or trained in how to deal with life."
Roughly 204 million viewers were counted watching the 1994 Olympics (about 93% of all households) making the Winter Games the 6th most watched broadcast in TV history. "I don't think if we sat down to try to script an Olympics we would have done much better," one network chief acknowledged. Some 82 million viewers in 94.2 million homes alone watched the first day of competition. Tonya and Nancy's dramatic showdown round one was watched by over 126 million viewers. The decider attracted 119 million viewers.
"Once I got started in this business," Stone Phillips shared, "it's so engaging because everyday there's another story and it's important. The public service aspect of it appeals to me." Stone co-anchored 'Dateline' with Jane Pauley. From the outset, 'Dateline' producers made the point of 'PrimeTime Live', '20/20' and '60 Minutes', "The only reason they are still on the air is that they adopted the format of what works...They are completely different in the types of stories they cover and how they cover them. That's what will set us apart." Of women occupying high-level positions, Jane made the comment in 1999, "It's just not a shock anymore to my children's generation. They take that absolutely for granted that there are women at every level...There just isn't any going back. That door has been closed - the go back door...All in all I am tremendously amazed at how the world my daughter will grow up in to that she can take for granted things that never occur to me that she would be able to. Looking back 20 years ago, I thought it's going to be an uphill struggle...The barrier has collapsed."
