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The Season 2010-11 ratings averages for the broadcast networks are in. Fueled by American Idol, which finished another season as the highest-rated show on television, and the Super Bowl, which became the most watched telecast in TV history, Fox extended its streak to seven consecutive seasons as No.1 in adults 18-49. CBS was once again No. 1 in total viewers, its eighth win in nine years. But all English-language broadcast nets were down year-to-year, even Super Bowl-boosted Fox, while Spanish-language Univision was up 8% in 18-49. Not surprisingly, NBC, which has been in worst shape, posted the biggest declines — 15% in 18-49 and 16% in total viewers — to finish fourth in both categories. (Breakout reality series The Voice couldn’t have come soon enough for the hit-starved network, whose last-season average included coverage of the Winter Olympics.) CBS’ year-to-year comparison (the network is down 9% in 18-49 and 3% in total viewers despite solid performances from its shows) was skewed by its broadcast of the Super Bowl last season. In median age, CBS continues to be the oldest-skewing network at 55, followed by ABC, NBC, Fox, Univision and CW, which has the youngest audience. Here are the broadcast networks’ final standings for the 2010-11 season:
Adults 18-49
FOX: 3.5/10 (-5%)
CBS: 2.9/8 (-9%)
ABC: 2.5/7 (-7%)
NBC: 2.3/6 (-15%)
UNI: 1.5 (+8%)
Adults 18-34
CW: 1.0/3 (-9%)
Total Viewers
CBS: 11.6 million (-3%)
FOX: 9.8 million (-3%)
ABC: 8.5 million (-2%)
NBC: 7.0 million (-16%)
UNI: 3.7 million (+7%)
CW: 2.0 million (even)
Median Age
CBS: 55
ABC: 51
NBC: 49
FOX: 45
UNI: 37
CW: 34
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
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Further proof the advertising demo needs to be adjusted. In four years or less the average network TV viewer on any of the big 4 won’t be in the demo. The number of people “graduating” at 49 is a lot more than those “enrolling” at 17. I’d imagine Apple would be an account any network would love to have. Walk into an Apple store. Like TV watching there are more people under 18 and over 49 then people actually in the demo.
Wow, you really don’t understand why 18-49 is a targeted demographic (or why certain demographics are targeted in the first place).
The reason why the age 18-49 audience is targeted is NOT because they represent the “most viewers” — they’re targeted because they have more purchasing power and influence than those outside of 18-49. Take your “Apple Store” example. Sure, there are more under 18 and over 49 people in the store, but who do you think leaves the store with something purchased? The 16-year old? The 55-year old? Or the 32-year old? It’s why some shows that draw 10-12 million viewers get canceled and others that draw 4-5 million get renewed.
You also need to brush up on the difference between median and mean. The median age of NBC viewers is 49 — that does not mean that the average age is 49.
Not so. I am 51 and purchase dozens of songs from iTunes. In fact, I often purchase whole albums if I like a good number of the songs. Most people I know that are my age do the same thing. I think the mistake advertisers make is assuming that people over 50 do not keep up with the latest technology and social media. Big mistake. Fifty something year olds today are not the fifty year olds of the last century. We love technology and love our gadgets just like the 18-49 year olds, and after years of making and investing money, “we” have the money to purchase them. Advertisers might want to consider extending their targeted age bracket. The reason over-49-year-olds don’t leave the Apple Store with a purchase is because they — like my friends and I — do most of their purchasing online in the Apple “online” store. When you get to be over 50, you don’t want to waste time running around and fighting traffic. Online shopping is so much faster and more convenient, and it leaves you more time to do the things you really enjoy with the people you love.
Anyone know which shows are the ones driving ABC’s median age so much higher than perceived older-skewing CBS?
Dancing With the Stars tends to skew old I believe.
So ABC has older viewers then CBS. That surprises me.
It says CBS 55 and ABC 51
Reverse that. ABC 51, older than CBS. Hard to believe, but true.
I’m mesmerized by the CW’s median age. If the average is 34, shouldn’t they change their approach to older viewers?
THE OLDER VIWERS WILL DIE OFF AND CW WILL RISE AS A RESULT (REMEMBER PEOPLE GET OLDER NOT YONGER)
Nellie, is someone paying you to promote “The Voice?” If that’s the bright spot for NBC, they should just pull up the rugs and shut off the lights! It was down, what? 17% this week from the prior week? Sure it was up against “Dancing with the Stars” finale, but there’s no evidence of any momentum for that half-baked singing competition. Prediction: X-Factor will quickly overshadow NBC’s fledgling “amateur hour.”
I gotta agree. NBC has no sense of longevity with their programming anymore. “Let’s make ‘Minute to Win It’ and put it on the air for…a week!” Or, “Let’s do something with Seinfeld where they do marriage counseling…that’ll last us a couple weeks right?” It’s like they’re playing a terrible fantasy league where all their star players keep going on the DL and they have to cycle through to find someone from the minors that can go yard there but can’t hit for crap in the majors. I’m also gonna jump on this wagon, but I’m curious to see how much longer The Office is on their network (I am indifferent to Carrell leaving because in my opinion the show has sucked for 4 seasons now) and what that shows numbers will do to the rest of their Thursday lineup. Community and Parks & Rec are still doing okay right?
Theres no way ABC skews older than CBS just because of DWTS.
Castle also skews WAY old for ABC, but generally CBS gets the older audience instead of ABC.
It is pretty amazing how much older the ABC audience is than CBS.
Live+7??
In my experience the only people who know how to dance anymore are the over 60 crowd so it makes sense they’d be watching DWTS in large enough numbers to push ABC’s median age past 55. There are a few surprises in these numbers, but that’s not one of them.
People are not watching much TV lately because it pretty much sucks.
No, they’re still watching TV, but the archaic method of measuring how they watch and where can’t handle new mediums. There are over 100 million households in the US alone with TVs, probably closer to 150 million at this point, and Nielsen only polls, what, 5000? If that? It doesn’t make any sense, even if you account for probabilities and research methods. And I highly doubt that PVRs, online viewing, and, yes, even illegal streaming and downloading is factored in at all. I get the point is to measure who’s watching the commercials but it’s still vastly inaccurate.
Nielsen now includes DVR, Tivo and online streaming/viewing in it’s ratings, actually.
Nellie, would you publish the total audience rankings for the 2010-11 season when Nielsen finishes fine-tuning them?
You might want to acknowledge that for the better part of a day you had it wrong as you listed ABCs median age as 61. Many other sites cited your ariticle INCORRECTLY. It’s okay to say we had a typo and made a mistake. All of us make mistakes. But this one had ABCs median age 10 years higher than it was and like I said people are quoting it all over the place. No big deal to say we had a typo before and ABCs is NOT 61 but rather 51.
Seems only old people watch TV.
Especially CBS. I am 32 and the only 2 shows I watched there, Moonlight and Jeriko were canceled. I only watch FOX ,ABC and cable now. CBS only makes shows for grannies.
Not only old people watch DWTS. I love it. Mondays are DWTS and Castle. Best night of the week.
And I love The Voice too.
Cable TV can be blamed for the demise of quality network TV. Too many slices in the same pie makes the budget lower and lower for the networks who used to have high quality programming.
so are the networks skewing older because those are the only people watching actual tv live while the rest of us are streaming,
using HULU, buying single episodes or using DVRs??
median age for the top 4: 50. maybe soon there’ll be some programming for them (besides CBS- who seemed to come out of this quite nicely) time to look at the demographic profile, ad folks. the country is getting older and the purchasing power isn’t in the 18 year olds who can’t get jobs.
Actually the real reason was pushback from advertisers on voodoo Nielsen numbers the networks charged for. The advertisers narrowed the scope to control costs. The demos have not changed forever and the idea that a 48 year old spends more than a 50 year old in some distinguishable amount is absurd.
Yeah but they still use the same essential sample sizes for hundreds of channels that they used for three channels.