TV Nation - Episodes and Format

Episodes and Format

Season one was originally broadcast in the United States on NBC in the summer of 1994, with the premiere airing July 19, 1994. After NBC canceled the show after one season, it was subsequently picked up by Fox, and the second season aired in the summer of 1995.

TV Nation is that rarest of species — a television program both funny and important.

TV Nation was formatted as a newsmagazine, with stories interspersed by short clips of the show's theme (for example, Moore spending a day with Dr. Jack Kevorkian) and factual polls surveying the American public. The show's investigative reports delved into various aspects of American life, and were filmed and presented in a style similar to Moore's feature-length documentaries such as The Big One (1996).

The show featured segments such as "The Corporate Challenge," in which CEOs are challenged to prove they can use the products their companies create; the storming of the supposedly "private" beach in Greenwich, Connecticut; hiring ex-KGB officer Yuri Shvets to conduct investigations; an experiment to see if hiring a lobbyist for $5,000 could get the Congress to declare a "TV Nation Day" (it did); and "Crackers the Corporate Crime Fighting Chicken." Among its correspondents were Janeane Garofalo, Karen Duffy, Jonathan Katz, Rusty Cundieff and Louis Theroux. Crackers was first portrayed by Lee Brownstein, but TV Nation writer John Derevlany played Crackers for the remainder of the show's run. TV Nation also featured humorous (but true) public opinion polls, each conducted by the firm of Widgery and Associates from a random sample of Americans.