A report by The Hollywood Reporter takes a deep dive into television’s ageing audience, noting that the medium’s longstanding practice of hyper-focusing on the adults 18-49 demo may be fading from view.
“[A]n emphasis on engagement and reach in the streaming era, along with a focus on precisely targeted ads, means chasing demos is even more data-driven than it was in the pre-streaming age. That shift aligns with the reality that, thanks to streaming and the relentless pull of algorithmic content apps, only a small part of a given show’s on-air audience falls into the once coveted demo.”
The median age for a network primetime viewer, the report says, has long been above 50. This year it’s 64.6 for the five English-language broadcast networks. Cable is about the same. While some cable networks skew slightly younger, the trio of main cable news channels’ average viewers is nearly 69.
“Bob’s Burgers” on Fox is the only English-language show airing on a broadcast network with a median age below 50 — 49.5, to be exact. The CBS show “Blue Bloods,” meanwhile, had the oldest median viewer of any primetime series (73). It’s just one of a dozen CBS shows with a median viewer age over 70.
Of the five networks, Fox had the youngest median age (58.1), with CBS having the oldest (67.8), followed by ABC (65.5), NBC (64.9) and The CW (65.2).
The Hollywood Reporter notes that ABC’s average doesn’t include Monday Night Football.
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