Fears of Viewer Desertion

After September 11 TV networks worried that audiences may not be in the mood for the new season of television that was due to be starting (or in some cases had just started). In the immediate time afterwards manufactured entertainment seemed suddenly so irrelevant and unnecessary.
They feared that the public wouldn't accept the shows they had created, that these shows were for a different climate.
However, looking at Google search patterns tells a different story.
It shows enormous gains on 9/11 related issues in the week following it.

Top 10 Gaining QueriesWeek of September 10, 2001
1. nostradamus
2. cnn
3. world trade center
4. osama bin laden
5. pentagon
6. fbi
7. american red cross
8. american airlines
9. afghanistan
10. american flag

These hold throughout September, and only start to decrease in October.
By Novemeber 9/11 related searches had all but dissapeared.

Top 10 Gaining QueriesNovember 2001
1. harry potter
2. xbox
3. gamecube
4. daisy cutter
5. lord of the rings
6. shakira
7. toys r us
8. melbourne cup
9. melanie thornton
10. leonid meteor shower

By November the only part of 9/11 that Americans seemed to care about was the kind of bomb being dropped on Afghanistan.

(inspired by editorial in Dec. 2001 Television Business International by Les Brown)