Intaglio’s thread wondring why networks don’t give a show a fighting chance got me thinking about this.
In case you haven’t figured it out, I am a rabid Buffy, the Vampire Slayer fan. This show’s target audience seems to be late teenage girls and women in their early twenties.
I am thirty-five years old, and just started watching the show this past spring. My mom has even caught a few episodes, and she thinks the show is pretty cool, too.
Which makes me wonder- are you a big fan of a show that the marketing guys at the network seem to be aiming at somebody else?
Who are you, what do you watch, and who are the marketing guys aiming for?
I’m 43, Thea Logica, and I’ve been watching Buffy ever since the beginning. I make a point to watch Angel all the time as well. I figure, a good show is a good show, no matter who it’s marketed to.
I’m 50 and have been watching Buffy since I could get it. Another guy at work is a year or two older and also a big fan. I also like shows like “Firefly” and “The Simpsons” and “Angel.”
The idea that younger viewers are a better target market is unsupported by any real facts.
I watch That '70s Show because I was in high school at the same time as the characters on the show were. It’s a little nostalgia trip. But when I visited a message board for the show, I was the old man. Everyone else was in their teens and twenties. There I was, patiently explaining that people did not say “groovy” in the seventies, and that white middle-class males were more likely to listen to rock than disco.
I’m a 32-year-old, college-educated, middle class white male. Married, no children. I don’t drink beer.
NFL broadcasts are obviously targeted to males my age, so they’ve got me there. Except I don’t drink beer.
I imagine that my Monday night CBS comedies King of Queens, Yes Dear, Everybody Loves Raymond and Still Standing are targeted toward people slightly older and who have children, but there you have it. Ditto Eight Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter on ABC.
I’m the type of demographic the executives at Fox must be salivating about for their Saturday night shows (Cops, America’s Most Wanted, World’s Wildest Police Videos). And I’m sheepishly there, every Saturday night.
So, yeah, the marketing whores have pretty much got me pegged.
God Awmighty, I forgot SpongeBob Squarepants! :eek:
I could probably open up a GD thread on whether or not SpongeBob Squarepants is actually intended for adults, but since it’s on Nickelodeon we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt and say it’s for kids. So, no, I don’t fit into SpongeBob’s demographic.
The theory seems to be that the most desired audience is 18 to 49 year olds; that most shows try to target that audience or some segment of it; that no one wants the over-49s. Yet people over 49 tend to have more money to spend, which should make them a sought-after audience, shouldn’t it? MY theory is that they believe that the over-49s are less suseptible to advertising. But I’m not sure they’re right. Does anyone else have any ideas on why they seldom target older viewers? And, for that matter, does suseptibility to advertising very much by age group? (Does this relate sufficiently to the OP, or is it too much of a hijack? If so, sorry!)
The only show I regularly watch these days is Dawson’s Creek. I think I’m a tiny bit older than the demographic they’re aiming for (I’m 22, but I’m guessing they’re aiming for high school-age), but what the hell. I can be a college senior and like Dawson’s Creek if James Van der Beek can be 26 and playing a college sophomore.
