Three shows I really like including my favorite topped the preliminary year end lists with "most current" accounting for adults 18-49. Keep in mind that all the season-to-date results for Burn Notice and Royal Pains are Live+7 (full week of DVR viewing counted in) while the Sons Of Anarchy data is Live+7 for the first 11 episodes but only Live+Same Day for the last two, including the finale, so SOA will likely creep up a bit.
But with that in mind Burn Notice was tops with 3.27 million average adults 18-49 (in a combination between new season 2 and season 3 episodes) , followed by Royal Pains with 3.15 million and Sons Of Anarchy with 3.04 million. Those were the top three programs among all ad-supported cable original series, scripted or unscripted with adults 18-49. Among scripted shows South Park was next up with 2.47 and The Closer with 2.42 million.
But with males 18-49, even without the Live+7 for the last two episodes factored in, SOA was #1 averaging 1.9 million, topping Burn Notice's 1.7 million and Royal Pains' 1.4 million.
Royal Pains had the advantage of airing in the summer against lesser broadcast competition. Burn Notice was split between the normal TV viewing season and the summer.
And here's an interesting chart via Turner that shows that declines in 18-49 share for the major broadcasters have resulted in cable share gains during the last decade:
Source: Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research data. Reflects the “strict broadcast prime” daypart (M-Sa 8-11p & Sun 7-11p). Final Live+7 data (12/26/05-11/22/09) blended with preliminary Live+Same Day (11/23/09-12/06/09). Live prior to 12/26/05. 4 broadcast nets weighted total: ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX.
How many channels are included in ad-supported cable?
Around 75. There are 77 basic cable channels including Disney and DXD.
Disney is a basic cable channel that is not counted among the ad-supported channels. Not sure about DXD or ALL the others, but almost all of them are ad-supported. I’m not sure whether the Spanish language ad-supported channels were counted in the above analysis, but they are in the 77 figure.
Why don’t we ever get any figures from BBC America? It may not be the biggest digital channel, but it definitely would be interesting to see. I’m talking about the dramas and scripted programming not the makeovers and reality! Thanks.
Congrats to the Sons for having such a young audience!
Glad For SOA, possibly the best scripted televison show whether on broadcast or cable since The Wire.
BURN NOTICE is the best show ever!!!!!!!!!
Can someone explain to me why Disney is not considered ad supported? I’ve heard that said before but I never knew why.
Looks like USA has a good formula for making hit shows. Hopefully they will expand their presence a little more. I could see them successfully have two original shows per night.
Anyone willing to crunch the numbers to see where True Blood, my favorite show, wound up? Season two averaged over four million viewers with later episodes well over five, and IIRC, a good chunk of that was 18-49.
Sons of Anarchy is an AMAZING show. Well written, superbly acted. I ran across it accidently and was hooked. I just wish they would have longer seasons…
If the old data is still up, I can try finding out the 18-49 average for TB myself…darn Nielsen ignoring non-ad-supported in this report!
Drew, I don’t have any of the live+7 18-49 data for True Blood to make the relative comparisons. But here’s the short answer. It would be high on the list of scripted shows in 18-49 ratings. How high? All the way on top high, most likely.
I think Burn Notice’s season high Live+SD 18-49 rating was like a 2.3 (around 3 million 18-49 viewers), True Blood’s high was a 2.8 (around 3.7 million).
Drew, I don’t think it was Nielsen ignoring it, but the people producing the reports merely comparing themselves to their “peers.” That it is convenient to exclude HBO/True Blood in the discussion is probably pure coincidence. They didn’t use HBO in any of the average primetime viewing comparisons (where networks like USA would STOMP HBO) either.
All right, thanks for clearing that up about ad-supported peers.
I’m glad TB does so well, and I hope season three continues the upwards trend…
Chris…I believe, and could be wrong, that Disney does not run traditional advertising. They do run commercials but all of the commercials are for Disney shows or products. Therefore they aren’t really ad-supported.
Thanks Jack T.
Interesting, I never noticed what type of commercials they air. I only watch one or two shows occasionally so I never paid it much attention. I’ll definitely look at some of the Disney ads now.
Yeah, True Blood (as good as Buffy once was) is one of the best shows on tv in my opinion.
I am so happy to read this! This should guarantee us a Season 3 of SOA and hopefully many many more to come! Thanks to Mr. Sutter and the entire team at SOA for such an amazing show. TV has been empty for me since The Sopranos- and SOA has filled that void! This is the best show on tv period! Just need to add that you don’t have to be a guy or a biker to love this show… you just need to want and appreciate impeccable writing, an amazing cast and a show that will keep you coming back for more!!
MiaDramaQueen, though it was never in doubt, good news! SOA was renewed for a season 3 the day after the season two finale
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/12/02/sons-of-anarchy-renewed-for-third-season/35126
I really like Kurt Sutter’s writing. He’s one of the few producers who is allowed to do whatever tv show he wants.
Thank you for a valuiable piece of information not easily available elsewhere. ( I too like SOA the few times I’ve actually seen it.) The 18-49 numbers for all three of those shows would put them just on the threshold of the network 18-49 Top Twenty, and ahead of quite a few overly-hyped supposedly young-skewing shows on the Big Four. ( For the Fox-haters, it occurs to me that if Fox in some alternate universe had never started a network, the other Three might easily be doing even worse -v- cable than they are.