Why the Apollo moon landings were the greatest reality show in history

While the study mentioned in the tabloid, The Daily Mirror, surveyed people in the UK, its results will likely be replicated worldwide. People, responding to a poll conducted by an online live casino, choose the Apollo 11 moonwalk as the most momentous television event in history. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the funeral of Princess Diana followed as second and third most momentous. Americans might choose a different third most memorable event, say the JFK assassination or the Challenger accident, but Apollo 11 remains on top. The irony is that, as NASA Watch points out, half of Americans alive today never saw the moon landings live as they happened.

The most significant reality show in history.

In the 21st Century, so-called “reality shows” consist of people eating bugs in the rainforest or being locked away in a house complaining about the accommodations and each other to the hidden camera. However, before the term “Reality Show” was invented, the "Space Race: The TV Series" was the greatest one of them all.

Lasting from the Freedom 7 episodes (Alan Shepard’s first Mercury flight) in May 1961 to the Apollo 17 episode in December 1972, the space TV series, which ran as network TV news coverage, was one of the longest-running and most successful in history. Anywhere from 600 million to a billion people followed the Apollo 11 episode (i.e., the first moonwalk) on a planet of 3.5 billion people.

The ratings underwent a steady decline and, by Apollo 17, the moon landings and the TV series that presented them to a worldwide audience had been canceled.

Time for 'Moon Landing: The Next Generation?'

NASA Watch points out that a ready audience exists for a revival of a moon landing TV series, only this time to be presented on multiple platforms.

Cable news and networks such as the Science Channel and NASA Select are just the beginning. The Internet and social media can be used to present all sorts of content, some of it by NASA and its commercial space partners. “Moon Landing: The Next Generation” would be a rating winner and, with some marketing savvy, more sustainable than the classic series.

Of course, I’m making an obvious comparison to “Star Trek,” that other space-based TV show from the 1960s. “Star Trek” lasted only three seasons before it was canceled. Then the show became a cult classic, living on in reruns before the movies and the spinoff shows such as “Star Trek: The Next Generation” arrived and were even more successful than the original. No reason exists why a moon landing series, along with spinoff shows like “Asteroid Miners” and “Missions to Mars” won’t be just as successful. Our president, who became famous on reality TV, should take notice.