CONVERSATION STARTERS
What is your most memorable moment of television? If you are like many Americans, it is the coverage of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. That's the word from a survey jointly conducted by Sony Electronics and Nielsen. The survey ranked TV moments for their impact by asking not only if people watched the event on television, but also if they recalled where they watched it, who they were with and whether they talked to other people about what they had seen.
Here are the top 20 TV moments according to the Sony/Nielsen survey:
- September 11th tragedy (2001)
- Hurricane Katrina (2005)
- O.J. Simpson verdict (1995)
- The Challenger space shuttle disaster (1986)
- Death of Osama bin Laden (2011)
- O.J. Simpson white Bronco chase (1994)
- Earthquake in Japan (2011)
- Columbine High School shooting (1999)
- BP oil spill (2010)
- Princess Diana's funeral (1997)
- Death of Whitney Houston (2012)
- Capture and execution of Saddam Hussein (2006)
- Barack Obama's acceptance speech (2008)
- The royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton (2011)
- The assassination of John F. Kennedy (1963)
- Oklahoma City bombing (1995)
- Bush/Gore election results (2000)
- Los Angeles riots (1992)
- Casey Anthony verdict (2011)
- Funeral of John F. Kennedy (1963)
Annually, the Super Bowl is the most-watched TV event, but the memories don't linger. The only Super Bowl moment to make the list had nothing to do with football. It was Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" in 2004, which came in at number 26. Broken down by gender, women ranked Princess Diana's funeral as number 4, while men ranked it as number 23. Men ranked the 2003 bombing of Baghdad at the start of the Iraq War number 14, while women ranked it number 37. The passage of time has diluted some of the most outstanding TV moments, including the first moon landing in 1969, which was ranked number 21.
