Plus Pages

Wednesday, July 21, 2021

TV Ratings: 'Shark Week' Proves To Be A Potent Event


Recent research illustrated the potency of 'Shark Week" in bringing new viewers to the network, something increasingly important in an era where television networks and streaming services are competing furiously for eyeballs.

The Associated Press reports a study by LG Ads found that during Shark Week last year, 37% of the people who tuned in hadn’t watched Discovery at any point during the previous month. That phenomenon was more pronounced for National Geographic’s Shark Fest, where 51% of viewers hadn’t seen the network the month before.

For both networks, more than one-third of those new viewers came back for other programming within the next month.

“In a world where cable just doesn’t come on automatically when you turn on your TV, that just is incredibly important,” said Justin Fromm, an executive at LG Ads.

It’s the definition of event programming, which networks use to advertise their wares — as the NBC Universal networks will do starting this Friday with the Olympics.

Discovery programs averaged 687,000 viewers in prime time last week, oddly lower than the previous week, although there was competition from the NBA Finals and baseball’s All-Star Game. The first night of Shark Week, July 11, is the most popular and was counted in last week’s Nielsen company figures. Viewing increased among viewers aged 18-to-49, an indication that the network’s audience composition was different than typical weeks.

Benefiting from their sports events, ABC averaged 4.1 million viewers in prime time last week, and Fox had 2.9 million. NBC had 2.6 million, CBS had 2.4 million, Univision had 1.6 million, Ion Television had 1.1 million and Telemundo had 1 million.

➤Top 20 Prime-Time Shows (Total Viewers):

1. NBA Finals: Phoenix at Milwaukee, Game 4, ABC, 10.26 million.

2. NBA Finals: Milwaukee at Phoenix, Game 5, ABC, 9.62 million.

3. Baseball: All-Star Game, Fox, 9.62 million.

4. “America’s Got Talent,” NBC, 7.1 million.

5. “Home Run Derby,” ESPN, 6.29 million.

6. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 5.96 million.

7. “Celebrity Family Feud,” ABC, 4.84 million.

8. “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” ABC, 3.95 million.

9. “NCIS,” CBS, 3.925 million.

10. “Home Run Derby Prelude,” ESPN, 3.925.

11. “The Chase,” ABC, 3.83 million.

12. “Big Brother” (Thursday), CBS, 3.81 million.

13. “The Bachelorette,” ABC, 3.71 million.

14. Soccer: Mexico vs. El Salvador, Univision, 3.64 million.

15. “Big Brother” (Wednesday), CBS, 3.63 million.

16. “NBA Countdown” (Wednesday), ABC, 3.5 million.

17. “Big Brother” (Sunday), CBS, 3.49 million.

18. “The Neighborhood,” CBS, 3.36 million.

19. “American Ninja Warrior,” NBC, 3.32 million.

20. “To Tell the Truth,” ABC, 3.26 million.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” led the evening news ratings race, averaging 7.6 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 6.1 million viewers and the “CBS Evening News” had 4.7 million.

Fox News Channel led the cable networks, averaging 2.13 million viewers in prime time. ESPN had 1.35 million, MSNBC had 1.28 million, HGTV had 1.23 million and Hallmark had 1.01 million.

➤Basic Cable TV (Total Viewers):


➤Basic Cable TV (Viewers 25-54):


Tucker Carlson Tonight remained the No. 1 show on cable news last week, averaging 3 million viewers, and 523,000 in the 25-54 demo. The program averaged 3.2 million total viewers to go with 526,000 adults 25-54 the previous week.  Hannity remained the No. 2 show on cable news, followed by The Five, MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, and The Ingraham Angle.

No comments:

Post a Comment