BBC/ITVYoung people are choosing Planet Earth on Sunday nights. I think I know why...
Every Sunday evening, at 8pm, young people have a choice to make. They can either listen to a 90-year-old man talking about animal routines, plants and the weather, or they can watch a whirlwind of half-naked celebrities, dancers, singers and fireworks.
They are siding with the first option.
BBC One’s Planet Earth II is enjoying more viewers in the 16-34 age range than X Factor: 1.5m compared with 1.4m. But should we really be surprised?
BBC
According to Patrick Collins, head of youth audiences at the BBC, a key psychological need young people have when it come to media is mood management.
“Programmes like Planet Earth are very good at being simultaneously very stimulating and interesting but also calming and relaxing,” he said.
When the natural world is shot using the latest technologies, it attains an almost Pixar-level of beauty. Then there is the safe, authoritative voice of David Attenborough. “He’s like a fantasy grandad.”
BBC
So perhaps it’s a form of escapism - an HD transportation into a meditative place, far away from everyday pressures and the slap-in-the-face many young people feel that is 2016.
Collins also noted that young audiences seek social connection, and Planet Earth offers a chance to bond, thanks to its appeal within and across age groups.
BBC
But I think there’s more to it than that. Young audiences have grown up with the financial crisis, austerity, fear of terrorism and the backlash against globalisation. They’re a generation acutely aware of the challenges they face. But they’re also politicised (with a small p).
“Social justice, feminism, black lives matter, equality, things like that. When people say [young people] are not politicised, they really are, but it’s not always the mainstream politics we are used to, certainly not Westminster,” said Collins.
Surely listening to Attenborough telling you that all the beauty before you is in danger of being wiped out by climate change is stress-inducing, though, not calming?
Actually, perhaps talent shows, with their ruthless voting off of weak contestants, have a much more immediate sense of doom.
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Planet Earth is not just a distraction from millennial problems. We can relate. The daily commutes, battles over decreasing food sources (read: incomes) and attempts at reproduction speak to youthful concerns.
Life is shown in its beauty, extremity and authenticity - all under the threat of looming catastrophe.
At the end of the day, we are all iguanas trying to escape the snake.
