Friday night Nik Wallenda became the first man ever to tightrope walk across Niagara Falls. I being the practical person decided to DVR it so I didn’t miss a minute. Little did I know that I really jammed my DVR with 3 hours of programming about this event. Yes, 2 1/2 hours leading up to a walk that took 25 minutes and 19 seconds. In which I think ABC reporters covered every aspect of Wallenda’s life including what he ate for breakfast that morning.
Although tightrope walking across Niagara Falls seems exciting it is actually really boring to watch. Wallenda literally just walked balancing a pole for 25 minutes occasionally praying to God and being interviewed by reporters trying to spice things up by messing with his concentration. And thanks to fears of ABC executives he was wearing a safety harness so there was no worries he would plummet to his death. It was an amazing feat in history that I wish I just read about the next day.
For ABC it was a gold mine for ratings getting 13.1 million viewers on what would normally be a dead night in programming. Which I guess was worth the 1.3 million it cost to set-up this extravaganza. And because it did so good we now get to watch Wallenda walk across the Grand Canyon next. . .
If you want some real tightrope action rent “Man on a Wire,” that dude walked between the World Trade Center Towers with no safety harness.
-M
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