I'll leave it to Bill to post a more comprehensive list and solicit predictions for how Undercover Boss will do, but here are some interesting morsels via Nielsen:
| MOST WATCHED POST Super Bowl GAMES (since 1990) |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Super Bowl | Year | Network | Program After the Game | Avg # of Viewers |
| XXX | 1996 | NBC | Friends | 52,925,000 |
| XXXV | 2001 | CBS | Survivor II | 45,369,000 |
| XL | 2006 | ABC | Grey’s Anatomy | 37,881,000 |
| XXXII | 1998 | NBC | Third Rock from the Sun | 33,662,000 |
| XXXVIII | 2004 | CBS | Survivor All-Star | 33,535,000 |
| Source: The Nielsen Company | ||||
Another measure of success for these shows is the percent of viewers retained from the game. Friends, for example, held 56% of the 94 million Super Bowl XXX viewers. More recently, post-Super Bowl programming has seen mixed results:
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Read the full story on Nielsen Wire and you can also see how the Super Bowl impacts music sales for the halftime performers.
The Simpsons Rocks can’t wait for Undercover boss
Undercover Boss may be a flop. Hopefully enough people watch it.
Undercover Boss WILL be a flop. Not at all happy CBS is wasting the lead-out on this crap.
Or, to review, your normal ratings are nearly directly proportional to your post-Super Bowl airings.
Not that that says much about UBoss. Maybe high 2s?
Undercover Boss just looks like summer filler material to me, it has that feel about it. I don’t see any way it becomes a hit, especially airing in a tough slot on Sunday night. I agree with Acey, CBS is wasting the post super bowl slot.
We’re looking forward to watching U-Boss. Would have loved to have seen the CEO from a previous company I worked at actually discovering what really goes on in the trenches versus being shielded by arse-kissing middle management. Not that it probably would have made much of a difference.
Although an hourlong Big Bang might have been good too
Since audience flow is considered so important in the biz, it would be interesting to know what typical retention figures are for given shows/skeds.
I’m willing to bet that the Super Bowl (while delivering an enormous absolute # of lead-in viewers) actually might have a lower than normal retention % – after all, sports fanatics may not be 3rd Rock inclined – and it isn’t *that* hard to switch channels…
It all depends on how long the Post-Game show lasts, remember what ABC did to Alias? Looking at these percentages, I guess people have been giving CM a bad rap. GA certainly was the exception. ABC did an excellent job of promoting it during the SB. (Although, I never watched it again.)
The Big Bang Theory finally found its audience this year and I couldn’t believe that CBS would forgo an hour long TBBT for Undercover Boss. It looks like a crap show and it will be a crap show. Hopefully the ratings reflect that.
Do people actually watch post super-bowl shows or just not turn if it isn’t too terrible?
I’m usually at a party and people are talking over whatever program is on for 20-30 minutes.
I think a reality show is a good choice because people can just watch the last part after talking/saying goodbye to people leaving/putting kids to bed.
They said Comic Book Guy’s goddamn name in that episode! What more do football viewers want?
Sweet Details I love the various articles which were written, and especially the comments posted! I am going to come back!
IMO, I’ve always seen as the post-Superbowl spot as best for a TV series that is in it’s second or third season, when it’s still
a) fresh
b) on top of it’s game
That’s why The Mentalist and BBT would’ve been the best contenders, you can see the top 4 most watched all in their second or third seasons when they airred post-Superbowl. I’m actually surprised at how much Grey;s got in terms of viewers, didn’t know thta many women watched Superbowl, not being sexist or anything, just saying.