The TV Column

'92 LA riots documentary initiates spring sweeps

Reginald Denny is pulled from his truck and almost beaten to death during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The incident is part of the ABC documentary Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992.
Reginald Denny is pulled from his truck and almost beaten to death during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The incident is part of the ABC documentary Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992.

Brace yourselves -- May sweeps have arrived. The official counting of the eyeballs begins today and runs through May 24.

Sweeps months, a service of the A.C. Nielsen Co., come around four times a year -- February, May, July and November. These are the months when Nielsen carefully tallies the audience for individual programs. The ratings are used to set local ad rates and, eventually, help decide which shows live and die.

In the 1950s, the labor-intensive method of paper diaries was sufficient. Those were the good ol' days when Americans actually watched TV programs on actual TV sets. Today, there's the option of the internet and laptops, tablets and smartphones.

When there were only three channels, 50 million viewers might tune in to a popular program each week. These days, the average show can be a hit with a fraction of that. For example, NCIS, network TV's No. 1 drama, pulled in 13.8 million viewers the week of April 3; The Big Bang Theory, TV's top comedy, drew 12.6 million.

Over time, Nielsen has developed new ways to gauge the audience, and these days the ratings include adding DVR viewers up to a week after a show airs. Some programs substantially pad their numbers once you add delayed viewing.

Times and viewing platforms may be changing, but one thing is still certain. To entice more viewers during sweeps, broadcasters pull out their biggest stunts, surprises, guest stars, crossover episodes, pregnancies, murder, marriages and cliffhangers.

And May is the biggest sweeps of all because seasons (and sometimes series) are ending.

Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992 is a good example of the sort of sweeping special airing during these ratings periods.

The two-hour documentary from Oscar-winning filmmaker John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) airs at 8 p.m. Friday and examines "a decade of tensions, civil unrest and events in Los Angeles that culminated in citywide violence following the Rodney King verdict on April 29, 1992."

It's hard to believe it has been 25 years.

For those who are too young or don't remember, King was a black taxi driver who was viciously beaten by police following a high-speed chase on March 3, 1991. An amateur videotape of the incident was shown around the world and resulted in four officers being charged with assault and excessive force.

The four were eventually acquitted and riots ensued, during which more than 50 were killed, more than 2,300 injured, and 7,000 fires set.

Ridley's documentary begins a decade before the weeklong riots and tells the very human tales of those caught up in the growing tension that would explode in 1992.

In an ABC interview, Ridley says, "Unlike many of us, there are some at the center of the Los Angeles uprising who cannot move on from the events of nearly 25 years ago. As we all still live with a number of the same issues that led to the uprising, they still live with a single event. What those individuals recall, and what they survived, urgently needs to be expressed."

Ridley uses a mixture of interviews and archival footage to highlight the key incidents that led to the conflict, then dives into a tense account of the riot -- an event that saw a great city simply implode.

Contributing to the decade of tension was the growing animosity between blacks and Asian-Americans, the rise of drug use, gang violence and excessive use of force by the police.

Ridley's documentary strives for objectivity and does not point fingers, assign blame or offer definitive answers. Everyone gets to tell his story and the viewer gets to sort it out.

• Inside the FBI: New York premieres at 9 p.m. today on USA Network. Nothing says sweeps month like real crime shows.

In this case, prolific producer Dick Wolf (who has brought us all the Law & Order shows plus the four series with Chicago in their titles currently on CBS) takes us inside the New York field office of the FBI to examine actual cases.

Each episode will highlight a different division -- counter terrorism, gangs, cyber crimes and human trafficking.

The first episode, "Deviant Crimes," follows the case of the so-called "Cannibal Cop," and agents dealing with the psychological impact of their cases involving crimes against children.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:

mstorey@arkansasonline.com

Weekend on 04/27/2017

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