Originally posted by TAYLORJNG: One thing this has shown is that TAR has brought down the median age in the timeslot vs. Cold Case. On the flipside, it's increased the median age of the show itself.
The show itself looking older might be, in part, a skewing created by Rob&Amber (bringing over a Survivor age audience) followed by the Family Edition (bringing in a significant kid skew). I wish the data showed how The Amazing Race did in its first few years so we could tell if the show got older in the last few editions or if the show got younger for a few seasons in the middle and simply returned to 'normal'.
Originally posted by TV-aholic: The one big thing I took away from the report is that the younger you are, the less likely you are to watch broadcast Network TV.
I'm not sure the data really reflected much age difference to cable (outside the kiddie channels). USA, for example, skews almost as old as broadcast nets and those news channels are a decade older than even CBS. I didn't even know people got that old.
HOPKINS - I found this moderately interesting and somewhat ambitious, but it's walking such a fine line as it tries to mine entertainment value out of this content that I wonder how much steam it will have, at least for me.
The more it tweaks in the direction of content normally associated with entertainment, such as the one doctor's marital problems, it drifted into melodrama. It can only go so deep into the adventure of the couple eager to conceive.
The traumatic situations of various patients have to be respected. So there's a bit of a dangle, but where can it or even should it lead?
And if they roll back in the direction of documentary, the content is far from mundane but it is a bit heavy and personal.
I missed the first season so I'm curious to see where they go with this. I'm all for something bold, but this is a very tough make.
Posts: 1589 | Location: Western Pennsylvania | Registered: 13 December 2006
It's possible that the rise in the median age of TV viewers might have as much to do with the rise in the median age of the US population and a rise in the average age of retirement as it does with TV and technology.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Holly,
Harken back to weekly ratings from 1983, 1990 and 1994 in the National Ratings in Prime Time thread. (great "2/14/83" post, TheCure42!)
And, if you have access to older issues of "USA Today" or any other publication source that provided ratings, you can post old ratings as well (and please do!).
Today's 50-60 even 70 year olds all grew up Watching TV. In decades past, those "Older Viewers" grew up with the Radio as their entertainment... and died by 65 years old.
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Originally posted by Holly: It's possible that the rise in the median age of TV viewers might have as much to do with the rise in the median age of the US population and a rise in the average age of retirement as it does with TV and technology.
I need to gat back to the county library and look at the old micro-film archives of the news papers. I believe they have the all the editions of the USA today.
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Originally posted by Douglas: Harken back to weekly ratings from 1983, 1990 and 1994 in the National Ratings in Prime Time thread. (great "2/14/83" post, TheCure42!)
And, if you have access to older issues of "USA Today" or any other publication source that provided ratings, you can post old ratings as well (and please do!).
Originally posted by TV-aholic: All very good points Holly.
Today's 50-60 even 70 year olds all grew up Watching TV. In decades past, those "Older Viewers" grew up with the Radio as their entertainment... and died by 65 years old
I knew there was some reason that CBS wouldn't keep skewing older each year.
Anyone know what the median age in the USA is now vs. 5 years ago? Actually, to be able to compare with the TV viewing data, it would be imore ideal/pertinent to know the median age for English speakers in the USA. I have no doubt at all that the Univision population will keep skewing younger and that they are pulling the entire USA population to a younger median age.
Not sure of the current median age, but I did hear on a recent radio news report that the average life expectancy of a woman is now at about 81 years. Us Men die at about 78 years old. I think that's up about 5-7 years each from the last report
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Originally posted by Obveeus: Anyone know what the median age in the USA is now vs. 5 years ago? Actually, to be able to compare with the TV viewing data, it would be imore ideal/pertinent to know the median age for English speakers in the USA. I have no doubt at all that the Univision population will keep skewing younger and that they are pulling the entire USA population to a younger median age.
Originally posted by TV-aholic: All very good points Holly.
Today's 50-60 even 70 year olds all grew up Watching TV. In decades past, those "Older Viewers" grew up with the Radio as their entertainment... and died by 65 years old
I knew there was some reason that CBS wouldn't keep skewing older each year.
Anyone know what the median age in the USA is now vs. 5 years ago? Actually, to be able to compare with the TV viewing data, it would be imore ideal/pertinent to know the median age for English speakers in the USA. I have no doubt at all that the Univision population will keep skewing younger and that they are pulling the entire USA population to a younger median age.
Until the census in a couple of years, there won't be official numbers. From the last two censuses, the median age went up from 32.9 to 35.3 between 1990 and 2000. The estimated median age for 2008 is 36.7 (CIA-The World Fact Book). I couldn't find anything for any other years. There is no data for the median age of English speakers, which, logically, would be a bit higher since more immigrants are Spanish-speaking and immigrants tend to skew younger than the general population.
Basically, I can't prove my hypothesis, but I do think it could be a factor.
Do they track the median age based on viewing hours (e.g. if a 20-year-old watches 1 hour of TV and a 60-year-old watches 2 hours, is the median age 40 or 46.7)?
Originally posted by Holly: Do they track the median age based on viewing hours (e.g. if a 20-year-old watches 1 hour of TV and a 60-year-old watches 2 hours, is the median age 40 or 46.7)?
Good question. I think, by the way that Nielsen does everything else, the answer should be 46.7.
That says the median age for "white" Americans was 40.6, the median age of "African" Americans at 30.0, and the median age of Hispanic Americans was 27.2 Though, "Hispanic American" refers to ethnic heritage and not language of choice.
The article is from 2006, but the info is from the Census Bureau, so it might be from 2000 or be an estimate.
That says the median age for "white" Americans was 40.6 and the median age of Hispanic Americans was 27.2.
...and with the rate of increase in the Hispanic portion of the population vs. the other portions of the population, I tend to think that the median age for English speaking USA is going up much more than for the USA as a whole.
