Compelling Television: Ratings and Scheduling

I don't have access to Nielsen but I do have data on what people in a national survey say they watch. The television viewership is a very minor section of this survey but I'd assume it's fairly accurate. This is among the adult population (age 18+) only: Male: 42.6% Female: 57.4 Age 18-24: 9.5% Age 25-34: 17.2 Age 35-44: 21.4 Age 45-54: 22.8 Age 55+: 29.1 Median Age: 45.8 years (this means that half the adults who watch are between ages 18 and 45.8 and half are older. The median age for all adults is 44.7 years) Median Household Income: $59,056 (vs. $54,359 for total U.S. adults) Median Individual Employment Income: $37,099 (about $2,300 higher than the total U.S.'s) Professional/Mangerial: 26.9% (vs. 23.1% of U.S. adults) Buy comparison, Grey's Anatomy is younger and richer but they are 2/3 female.

thanks
Thanks Poeia. That's just the kind of thing I was looking for.

DOB1234, Nielsen analyzed data from the 2006-2007 television season to determine if there was a difference in viewing habits for African-American and white viewers. Basically, the Top 10 shows watched were similar for both groups, but One show in the black viewers Top 10, not in the white viewers Top 10 was Fox’s House according to this article.

I don't get it. I thought that House was one of the top 10 shows overall for 2006, number 7 by average total viewers. How could that be true if this article is correct that House wasn't even in the top 10 for white viewers?

What about all the viewers younger than 18?

What about all the viewers younger than 18? Obviously that's an important demographic for TV. I work in print which has a much more segmented audience. There are studies on adults, teen, kids, 12+ (which is usually a combination of the adult and teen studies from the same company.) And they're expensive. So you only buy the studies that apply to the audience you have. Rolling Stone, for example, would definitely buy adults, teens and 12+. BusinessWeek would only buy studies about adults. My magazine has a very small audience under age 18. And I don't have a spare $100,000+ in my budget to throw away on a study about an audience that no advertiser in his right mind would use us to reach. Pulled up a few more stats. 77% of the adult population is white. So the fact that House's is 81.8% white means an audience member is only 6% more likely to be white than the general pop. (Grey's Anatomy = 82.8%) 11.4% of the population is black/African American. 12.9% of House's audience is (12% lift). GA is only 10.4% black. Neither show has a large Asian audience (2.6% of the population; 1.5% of House's aud; 2.0% of GA's) The same is true of Hispanics -- 12.8% of the U.S.; 6.6% of House and 7.1% of GA. And here's one that surprised me -- GA's audience is better educated. Attended/Graduated College+ = 52.7% of the U.S; 58.4% of House and 65.1% of GA. Graduated College or more = 25.3% of the US; 26.8% of House and 35.1% of GA.

//snip Professional/Mangerial: 26.9% (vs. 23.1% of U.S. adults) Is mangerial the adjective form of mangy? :)

Season ratings
Zap2It shows House as the number 5 show in the overall ratings so far this season. http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,272%7C%7C%7Cseason,00.html (Yikes! What the heck happened to Heroes? It's all the way down to number 20.)

"Heroes" is not the show it was last season. It's already lost its focus and is meandering around with boring subplots. And I'm not the only one with this opinion, btw. Many of the shows that started out with such great first seasons the same year "House" did have fallen off so badly, not only in quality but also in ratings slippage. Good examples are "Lost", "DH", and later "Gray's Anatomy". Only "House" seems to have been able to maintain both a high level of show quality both in writing and acting and at the same time actually has increased their ratings. Hopefully the Academy will finally come to their senses in 2008 and recognize this fact when voting for Best Drama Series.

Atlanta Ratings
Top Shows in Atlanta this season (By show, date, network, viewers and national rank) 1. "House" Oct. 9 Fox 531,000 5 2. "Dancing With the Stars" Oct. 8 ABC 435,000 2 3. "Grey's Anatomy" Oct. 11 ABC 346,000 3 4. "CSI" Oct. 11 CBS 323,000 1 5. "60 Minutes" Oct. 14 CBS 319,000 6 6. "Dancing With the Stars" Oct. 9 ABC 313,000 7 7. "Desperate Housewives" Oct. 14 ABC 301,000 4 8. "Bones" Oct. 9 Fox 292,000 42 9. "MNF Cowboys/Bills" Oct. 8 ESPN 282,000 N/A 10. "Heroes" Oct. 8 NBC 270,000 24 Source: Nielsen Media Research http://www.accessatlanta.com/entertainment/content/entertainment/stories/2007/10/18/tvrates_1019.html

Heroes is significantly higher (#13) if you sort by viewers instead of households. House is usually a couple places higher by viewers than by households too. Desperate Housewives is doing better in the ratings this year than last. They are nearly level with Grey's, at least in total viewers.

Fast affiliate ratings from PI Feedback: Fox won this fifth Tuesday of the new season, with its combination of Bones (Viewers: #2, 8.82 million; A18-49: #2, 3.1 rating/ 9 share) and bona fide hit House (Viewers: #1, 17.87 million; A18-49: #1, 7.6/18). Note the # rankings are for the hour. NCIS is generally #1 at 8/7c, with 16-17M viewers, A18-49 in the 3.5-4 range.

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