WEEKLY WHINE

Focal Plane: Interaction

This is the fourth instalment of the GoobNet Focal Plane, an occasional series wherein we highlight an unimportant social problem, trying to make you care about it. Previous edition: Compulsive Correctors.

Of the fifty million people who viewed Interaction last week, probably the most influential is UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. However, independent observers have had trouble confirming that Blair did indeed watch it last week, as he was at home.

And this, in a nutshell, is the problem of Interaction. It looks like it's bringing light to important issues in such a way that the issues will be addressed so that all humanity will benefit, but when you get down to it, you can't really be sure that it's made a difference.

"I don't know how much more of this I can take," says Debbie Myers the day of Interaction's most recent edition. The programme has aired every Saturday evening at 19:00 UTC for the last twelve years, and Myers has hosted every edition - without exception. Myers says she joined the show in search of a news programme that would tell viewers what they wanted to know, rather than what some reporter thought was interesting.

The new formula worked. Myers has led the programme to dozens of critical accolades during its run, though ratings are the most satisfying result for the parent network, World News Centre. In Europe's aggregate ratings, Interaction has consistently outperformed all other opponents by comfortable margins. Not since 1995 has it failed to finish at the top of its time slot for the year. The last time it aired without being the most watched programme was SAT 11 JUL 1998, when the first half of the 1998 Men's World Cup third place match, between the Netherlands and Croatia, drew 52% of European viewers. Nearly everyone else who was watching something was tuned to Interaction.

Sea change

Myers, however, sees clouds on the horizon. "You can look at our guest logs over the past few years. On those World Cup programmes, we had reporters stationed at the venues in France, or in pubs with fans from various nations, or even in places where people were stubbornly playing bridge or doing other non-World Cup activities."

She says that of late, the programme's focus has shifted away from eyewitness reports and toward expert analysis of news items. "Don't get me wrong - there's a place for that. But it's clear to me that we've gone too far into the analysis side of things. We're no longer getting a feel for what's happening in the world. We're just a bunch of people in a room somewhere talking about things we see on tape."

Allen Malweys feels similarly about Interaction, which he produced for two years. He recently came up with a number of suggestions to help revitalise the show. Some, such as moving out of its familiar studio in Warwickshire, were shot down immediately. Others, such as a wider variety of topics, have proven successful.

"The programme isn't struggling, not by any means," says Malweys. "But Debbie and I both felt that things needed to be done to prevent it from struggling. We needed to do some new things, but the two of us seemed to be working at cross purposes."

Malweys was fired this week, having served as producer for 94 editions of the show. Management had hoped that Myers might take on a dual role as both producer and host, but she felt strongly that the same person could not do both tasks effectively.

"Everything's connected"

Alexander Nelson was brought in as the new producer of Interaction. He is only the third person to fill the post. "Of course I was nervous. I'd done other news programmes before, of course, but there's no news programme quite like Interaction. It's in a class by itself."

In Nelson's first meeting with the staff on TUE 08 JAN 2002, he outlined his vision for Interaction. "We need a global perspective," he told the team. "We can't keep coming back to the same people in the US or Italy or Germany. What about South Africa? What about Indonesia? Chile? What's important in those places? How's it similar to what's going on here?"

"Everything's connected," he says later. "On the surface, it looks like the Argentine crisis and the switch to euros are completely different things. That's not true at all. A lot of people, especially in the UK, say that they don't want to join the eurozone because the European Central Bank would take control of their fiscal and monetary policy. But look at when Argentina pegged the peso to the dollar. They handed their fiscal and monetary policy over to the US. These are the sorts of similarities you see in the news all the time if you just look for them."

Their first edition under Nelson proceeds smoothly. Myers discusses public transportation with representatives from the systems in the United Kingdom, Germany, and New York. The highlight of the show is a journey from Coney Island to Grand Central Station. Reporter Ryan Bershwin enters the Coney Island station and sees a notice that the W train, which he was planning to take, is shut down between the Pacific Street and 36th Street stations, though the N and R are still running between those stations. So he gets on the W. "Normally, the W would take us straight to Pacific," he explains as a camera zooms in on his map. "We still change to the 4 there. But now we have to change at 36th as well."

Bershwin picks up the R at 36th St at 14:11 EST, eleven minutes into Interaction. Ten minutes later he is at the Pacific St station, where the 4 arrives at 14:26 EST. He walks into Grand Central Station at 14:46 EST, having finished a journey that took three quarters of the program.

Back in Warwickshire, Myers asks Tara Randolph, their New York City Transit guest, about something she noticed during Bershwin's trip, namely that so many trains operate only during rush hour. Randolph plays it up as a strong point, evidence that the city has responded to the need for expanded service during rush hour. Myers is of the opinion that it makes the system needlessly complex. "You're going to run out of letters soon. Then what? Punctuation marks? Are we going to take the Semicolon to Flatbush now?"

Famous rants

For many who like the programme, Myers's occasional rants are the best moments. "Debbie has an absurdity radar, I think," says Nelson. "She jumps on every illogical aspect of everything that anyone says during the show. But she doesn't get in the way of the guests - she always lets them respond."

Critics have identified Myers as an irreverent, a group in which they also place Weakest Link host Anne Robinson. "I don't like being compared to Anne Robinson," Myers admits. "She controlled the show. That's what quiz show hosts are supposed to do. But with Interaction, you've got to let the guests control the programme. I try not to think of it as a job; instead, I'm just sitting down with a few people and finding out what they have to say."

Nelson's first programme was a success. After the ON AIR light shuts off, the guests all tell Bershwin that his field report from the New York subways added a different angle to the discussion. Bershwin says that tourists are probably having it worse, as he has spent nearly three years in the city at WNC's bureau there. He suggests that he should have travelled to Washington or Boston to test the transit in unfamiliar grounds.

Everyone who works on Interaction seems to share this trait. All are continually searching for ways to make their work more effective. Myers does not like to be identified as the team's leader, but it is clear that her work ethic is infectious. Many former Interaction staff members have gone on to make their mark on other news programmes at WNC and elsewhere.

Interaction has spawned spinoffs. There is a daily morning programme, Interaction du Jour, that takes the Interaction approach with topics typical of morning television. In addition, Evening Interaction airs weekday evenings, covering several of the major news stories of the day.

But there is no replacing the original Interaction. Nelson says that its unique format will see it continue to lead news programming for years to come. "Everyone seems to be able to identify with Debbie. So each of us, through Debbie, is sitting down with newsmakers from around the world finding out what's really going on. We all wish we could tell someone like the head of London Transport how we think they could improve. This programme lets people do that."