\n<\/p>\n
On Christmas Eve of 1968, as American soldiers became increasingly involved in a protracted war in a faraway country, and as political assassinations were becoming a regular feature of domestic politics \u2014 stop me if any of that sounds familiar \u2014 a single broadcast was watched by more than a quarter of the world\u2019s population. I\u2019ll say that again. One in four people on the planet, across dozens of countries, <\/span>stopped<\/span><\/a> what they were doing and watched a single broadcast. That had never happened before. And it\u2019s never happened since.<\/span><\/p>\n This massive audience was not tuning into a deranged, depressing political podcast. They weren\u2019t watching a hysterical panel on CNN, or the latest true crime documentary to roll off the assembly line at Netflix, or the season finale of a network television drama that was produced to appeal to the lowest common denominator. They weren\u2019t watching an endless stream of dreck on the internet, either, courtesy of social media algorithms designed to confuse and demoralize them.<\/span><\/p>\n Instead, this is what a <\/span>quarter<\/span><\/a> of the world\u2019s population was watching on Christmas Eve of 1968:<\/span><\/p>\n