Getting back to reality. (Remote Patrol: fquindt@sportingnews.com).(sports viewing increases after September 11th)(Brief Article)

Almost immediately, I had our post-September 11 existence pegged: 1) More folks would stay home, "cocooning" in front of the tube;

2) They would avoid "reality" shows (the news supplies beaucoup reality);

3) Viewers would flock to the ultimate escapism--sports--enabling the networks' sickly economies to recover.

C'mon, two out of three ain't bad. Cumulatively, more TV is being watched. And as CNN's audience tripled and Fox News Channel and MSNBC cracked cable's top 10, Love Cruise, Fear Factor and The Mole plummeted, CourtTV's coverage of O.J. Trial III was dismissed.

But sports aren't Fatburger yet. Even the bellwether NFL numbers are off 5 percent this fall, only a bit better than the drop at the NYSE.

"When that thing happened September 11, I was stuck, everybody was stuck--we just watched TV all day, mad and depressed," says Charles Barkley, sophomore star of Turner's Inside the NBA. "Then I thought, `I got to stop watching this television.' I needed a distraction. I'm glad it's NBA season."

The resurrection of Michael Jordan points to ratings gladness. Yet in this unstable climate, David Stern was unable to secure big-$$$ extensions from TNT/TBS and NBC (whose primetime premiere on November 3 is Jordans vs. Sixers) and embarrassingly extended the "exclusive negotiating period."