Variety has an interesting article up about the age demographics of certain TV shows. It seems that the average age of the television viewer has risen to the age of 50, outside of the key demographic of 18 to 49.The oldest-skewing shows are NBC's Monk and ABC's Women's Murder Club. Interestingly, the ages on ABC, Fox, and NBC have been rising while CBS, which promotes to an older demographic to begin with, remains steady.
The study was released by Magna Global's Steve Sternberg. "The median ages of the broadcast networks keep rising, as traditional television is no longer necessarily the first screen for the younger set," Sternberg wrote.
The CW, whose viewership tends to skew younger, insists that the average age of the television viewer is 38, the median age of the United States populace.
In short, if you're older and you want to seem younger than you are, be sure to watch The CW (average age: 34) or American Dad and Family Guy (average age: 29).
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-30-2008 @ 2:59PM
What, what, what? said...
You wrote that the "average" age is now 50. The article states that 50 is the "median" age. Big difference.
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6-30-2008 @ 3:20PM
Paul said...
"The median ages of the broadcast networks keep rising, as traditional television is no longer necessarily the first screen for the younger set," Sternberg wrote.
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Couldn't possibly have anything to do with the fact that the baby boom generation are now all over 50, could it? Somehow, with the median age of Americans rising from 31 in 1990 to 38, the median age of television viewers has also risen. THERE'S JUST NO EXPLANATION!
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6-30-2008 @ 3:27PM
Joe said...
Back to school time!
Mean/Average: Total of ages divided by number of people.
Median: Central age if all ages laid out in sequence.
Also, this only shows that overall, TV audiences are getting older because younger people aren't watching as much TV through conventional means. Note to networks; prepare to see more figures like this for the forseeable future.
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