In the early perestroika years, when domestic TV, still mothballed from stagnant times into the pre-recording system of any program, dreamed of maximum freedom, at one of the KVNs, a team of Moscow chemists presented ...

IN

In the early years of perestroika, when domestic TV, still mothballed from stagnant times into the pre-recording system of any program, dreamed of maximum freedom, at one of the KVNs, a team of Moscow chemists presented Odessa gentlemen with a huge bottle with an offer to guess what the most desirable thing is hidden in it.

- Live! - Then the inhabitants of Odessa unraveled the chemical embodiment of a common dream.

For some of the most turbulent and unpredictable years, all cases of real opposition to the authorities in this country happened on the air. If Gorbachev had not allowed live broadcasts of the Congress of People's Deputies in May 1989, we would have had another country. Yeltsin (who became Yeltsin precisely thanks to the freedom of the press), having used the magic of live broadcasting to the maximum in the fight against the allied power, having become power himself, made it as closed as possible to the unkempt press. There was no talk of any live broadcasts from the Kremlin (the annual message to the Federal Assembly, which looked more like a live broadcast of party congresses, does not count).

The Moor has done his job. Using the magic of live broadcast to the fullest, the Moor, whom everyone still considered an adherent of press freedom, fenced himself off with the Kremlin wall. The shooting of the White House in 1993 was no longer broadcast live on our air, but on CNN... And until the last week, live broadcasts interfered in the life of the country only periodically, not too clearly. Direct inclusions that appeared in the news programs during the change of leadership of Transneft or the capture of the Kristall plant did not affect these situations in any way. So far, the matter has not touched the television company itself.

Black frame, interrupted ether - a sharp weapon. In the days after Listyev's death, everyone noticed this. But the aired piece of uncombed life is even sharper. Sometimes it looks like a more exciting action movie than carefully directed productions. Cameras constantly on in the crowded corridors and empty studios of NTV attracted attention more than good films and shows from other channels. Having let the audience backstage, NTV became closer and dearer. The stylist powders Petr Marchenko before the broadcast, Norkin without the usual on-air jacket and tie, with rolled up shirt sleeves, looks completely different. Directors are editing a clip of the protest, the coordination service organizes filming, everyone is crowding against the background of portraits of NTV stars: both the stars themselves and watching journalists from other publications ...

On Thursday, the Ministry of Press sent an order to NTV, stating that "the broadcasting company arbitrarily changed the concept of broadcasting, violating the constitutional rights of citizens to receive information." But...

Gallup Media rating data for Moscow (percentage).

Tuesday, April 3, from 20.00 to 22.00. ORT: "Deadly Force" - rating 10.06, share 32, "Time" - 5.68 - 15.5, "However" - 5.17 - 13.9. RTR: "Vesti" - 2.23 - 6.9, "Local time" - 2.74 - 7.9, "Three hundred years later" - 6.09 - 17. NTV: "Itogi" - 13.53 - 38 ,4.

That is, the rating of the emergency "Itogi" was higher than the rating of the programs of all other channels. It was still a normal "on-air" day with a slightly modified grid. A clear protest with only news broadcasts and broadcasts from NTV's editorial premises began the next day. And how did the loss of regular programs and favorite series reflected in the ratings figures?

Wednesday, April 4, afternoon. 12.00. ORT: Novosti - 0.79-8.7. RTR: "Santa Barbara" - 1.81-20.6. NTV: "Today" - 3.1 - 33.9. Evening. ORT: "Who wants to become a millionaire" - 9.5 - 33, "Time" - 10.73 -32.2, "However" - 9.6-29.6, "Stormy River" - 5.36 -21, 1. NTV: "Today" at 19.00 - 9.6 - 37.9, "Today" at 22.00 - 10.3 -32.6.

Here is a paradox that the Ministry of Press did not notice - judging by the ratings, NTV, which violated the constitutional rights of citizens, turned out to be more interesting to viewers than the stable broadcast of competitors.

But ether is a double-edged weapon. Shown on Thursday night in "Today at Midnight" tape recording the meeting of NTV representatives with Alfred Koch, in the opinion of most viewers, played not on NTV, but against it. Excessive emotionality of journalists to the detriment of sober arguments, unwillingness to seek compromises, inability to play in the conditions of the legal and financial balancing act in which such a master Koch manifested itself ... Maybe that's why in Friday's "Voice of the People" the main defenders of NTV were not the company's journalists themselves, but common with them in terms of blood type, but formally non-television editor-in-chief of Ekho Moskvy Alexei Venediktov, editor-in-chief of the Itogi magazine Sergei Parkhomenko, deputy editor-in-chief of Novye Izvestia Otto Latsis.

After the endless “Old TV” and “Voice of the People” that day, it seemed that everything was too much! It is impossible even for people who are interested to listen to hours-long, to no avail disassembly of the parties for days on end. A little more, and the limit of spectator interest will be exhausted, the spring will begin to unwind in the opposite direction. But two hours later "Anthropology" began, and the spring of intrigue was again compressed to the limit. To straighten up at the moment when Leonid Parfyonov left his company on the air ... This has never happened anywhere and never. And it couldn't be anywhere but here. This departure at the same moment entered the television history.

In "Anthropology" we were allowed into the "kitchen" (it is no coincidence that the camera could not withstand the usual angles, and everything that usually remains behind the scenes appeared in the frame - spotlights, enclosures, director Zhenya, who for people who know the television backstage is the same symbol NTV, like Sorokina and Osokin). We were allowed to go where not top managers settle the conflict, but ordinary journalists argue and painfully search for the truth. They are not afraid to present themselves as they are. Not iron, not monolithic, not stellar, but doubting, quarreling, reaching tantrums and sending each other to Kashchenko.

Liza Listova said correctly: it all became like a soap opera. In the most normal sense of the word. And the viewer could no longer tear himself away from the intrigue around his favorite characters. Moreover, the first roles were suddenly taken not by those who for almost eight years were considered the faces of the channel, but by the stars of the second echelon - Listova, Yusupov, Nasibov, Norkin, Kirichenko ... And according to the laws of the soap opera, we were allowed to drink cognac for Maksimovskaya's birthday , learn the details about Nasibov's divorce and loan payments, and watch with eyes widened with horror how two recent friends, Dibrov and Parfyonov, become enemies live.

After these three days, the viewer can hardly distinguish where is life, and where is only live broadcast, the effect of presence. It already seems to the viewer that he himself walks along the corridors of the eighth floor of Ostankino, at the elevators he prepares a meeting for uninvited guests - representatives of Koch and Jordan, sits between Listova and Shenderovich on the famous Pischuk chair in the Anthropology studio, ready in which case to separate the boiled Parfenov and Dibrova.

It is impossible not to become related, not to love and not to support those about whom you know so much. An uncombed behind-the-scenes live broadcast gave a greater effect than orchestrated rallies of many thousands ...

... But this time I can't say anything about the actual television work of other channels. All week the TV was on the fourth button. Presence effect...