tci news presents:
Issues USA

Issues USA cooks up hot television with this simple recipe: Take an issue that touches every American -- something like taxes or crime, pollution or schools.

Send a top reporter out to investigate it. Pull up a chair at the neighborhood eatery with a savvy editor to analyze it.

Chew on it with a respected public figure and a few folks from the neighborhood. Let the town cutup poke fun at its lighter side. Poll the grassroots about how to solve it.

Then when you've done all that for half an hour, bite into another side of the same question tomorrow and the next day -- Monday through Friday -- until the conventional wisdom is peeled away and the answers are in focus.

That's one week of citizenship at work in the Main Street Diner. That's the way Issues USA does issues.

The host is David Asman of The Wall Street Journal. The investigators are Eric Burns from Washington and Jean Torkelson from Denver. The zany diner regulars are Tom Bush, Patty Wyss, Victor Verhaege, and friends.

Asman's guests in the booth by the jukebox have ranged from Ed Koch and Al Shanker to John Stossel and Jackie Mason. TV's smallest but smartest studio audience joins the conversation from three stools at the counter, where waitress Denise Nolin keeps the coffee hot.

The Diner Poll surveys restaurant customers in dozens of cities on each week's issue, and some get their say on camera when the show goes on location every Friday. Internet users also can answer the poll -- and soon will be able to create their own "virtual diner" pages online -- through our web site.

Issues USA is a production of TCI News, already known for its leadership in providing free air time to candidates on the weekly program Race for the Presidency. The executive producer is John Andrews. The senior producer and program creator is Bob Chitester.

They felt it was time to shake up a public affairs genre that had changed little since the advent of Nightline in 1979. The result was a fresh approach to issues television whose first title, Damn Right, announced its breezy spirit and whose lively mix of analysis and satire often feels like Politically Incorrect and Nightline sharing a set.

The show premiered nationally in October 1995, seen in 30 states via cable on NewsTalk Television and in about a third of the country via broadcast syndication. Twenty thousand calls poured in to our viewer comment line in the first 13 weeks, applauding its intelligence, humor, honesty and balance. Focus groups from Anaheim to Peoria to Greenville, S.C., have praised Asman's likable style and the investigators' strong reporting. Among the issues covered in our first season have been ...

Taxes Schools Affirmative action Regulation Welfare
Crime Poverty Social Security Virtue Environment
Congress Immigration First Amendment Free trade Teacher unions
Language Elections Health care Federalism State lotteries
Media Deficit Gun rights Prisons Racism
Culture IRS Runaway courts Bureaucracy Self-reliance

Issues USA is preparing for its second season in September 1996 with a commitment to expanding the public affairs mission we began last year for voters on Race for the Presidency and for concerned citizens on Damn Right. To get involved, call (800) 218-8077 or visit this web site.

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