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Technology & Innovation — February 18, 2013

On This Show, A Norwegian Fireplace Is The Star

Unlike America’s “Yule Log,” this fireplace is accompanied by poetry readings and commentary from “firewood specialists.” The show — which will run for 12 hours straight — is the latest “slow TV” offering from the NRK television network.

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What’s the Latest Development?

Inspired by a bestselling book about firewood — which in Norway came in second only to Fifty Shades of Grey in sales during the past holiday season– the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) now offers to its viewers a television show that consists of a burning fireplace supplemented with “firewood specialists providing color commentary, expert advice and a bit of cultural tutoring” including music and readings of poems. The show will run for 12 hours straight; producer Rune Moeklebust calls it “very slow but noble television” and believes that it will get better-than-average ratings: “People in Norway have a spiritual relationship with fire.”

What’s the Big Idea?

Airing burning fireplaces is nothing new — witness the “Yule Log” appearing on American TVs every Christmas, plus numerous YouTube videos and DVDs — but the genre of slow television is one for which Norwegians apparently have a decent appetite. NRK holds the world record for the longest live-coverage TV program: 134 hours of a cruise ship traveling up the Norwegian coast that drew up to 3.2 million viewers, 60 percent of the country’s population. It also aired an eight-hour train journey that was so popular it was repeated.

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