Just playing the Devil’s Advocate, challenging the CW, tilting at windmills, etc. as is my wont. Sure, you could say that the Darwinian struggle in the marketplace has clearly shown that GCD programming isn’t profitable, but perhaps the fault lies in how they interpret the ratings? [I may be showing my ignorance Warning, even if I filled out a Nielsen diary once long ago] Isn’t one young urban professional worth more in terms of what he/she can buy than one young urban burger flipper? While Joebob & Billybob are off buying their $10,000 used rusty pickups at Honest Hank’s Used Cars, Tim & Tammy are over at the Porsche dealership snapping up an $80,000 Carerra. Wouldn’t advertisers KILL if you could capture such an upscale audience? Cable networks are already fragmented as is-whatever the highest non-major-network show is during a given week rarely gets more than a ~2% share. So why not try to shoot for that 2% of the audience that can really afford the expensive toys? But if ratings do not discriminate in terms of household income, well yeah you’ll throw all 20/30-somethings into one big stew and set your policies accordingly.
Again if I am being naive and ignorant here then feel free to correct me.
Wait. Wrestling is too adult for USA Network? The USA Network that used to run “Up All Night” with all the innuendo the various hosts went through? THAT USA Network?
That’s all taken into account in the ratings. What the public usually sees is the aggregate rating number, but Nielsen does collect data on the demographics of the viewers, and the networks (and advertisers) have access to all of that.
And, yes, there are advertisers who will look for programs (or networks) that deliver well on an upscale demographic…but…
The amount of advertising money that’s going to be dedicated to that high-end audience is, believe it or not, kind of limited, especially when you compare it to the amount of money that more “mass” products have to spend.
TV advertising, even on a niche cable channel, is expensive. And, even if you’ve got a channel with a strong upscale viewership, you’re paying for a lot of “eyes” who are never going to be in the market for your product. Makers of upscale products (expensive cars, watches, etc.) recognize this, and tend to not do TV advertising, in favor of other media that are even more targeted (traditionally, certain magazines, and direct mail).
The key phrase there is used to run. And, there’s a difference between what they’ll run in prime time, versus at midnight. I believe that the wrestling contract mandated that it run in prime time.