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Writer's pictureRobert Eckelman

I remember when TV had ratings. Viewers are still watching, just differently.


OK times have changed, I accept that, but there are still times when I am in disbelief. Sometimes I am nostalgic. Sometimes I am spoiled, I don't think we knew what we had when we had it.


I start off every day with research. My quest this morning was to see what network primetime ratings look like today. I did several Google searches, I did not find much. If my performance looked like what I found, I would hide it also.


This is the best I could come up with. It is Prime Time Broadcast ratings during the week of July 10-16, 2023 in Adults 18-49 (Rating/Viewers), Adults 25-54 (Rating/Viewers), Households and Total Viewers.


In all fairness, this is for July when ratings or typically a bit lower, my question is how low can you go? I would have used a better month than July but I could not find it.


18-49 the highest rated program .6

25-54 the highest rated program .9

Households the highest rated program 3.3


I grew up in the TV business selling Cheers, Seinfeld, Friends, ER, Survivor… ratings across the board were in double digits. To quote Elon Musk “Demand was so far off the hook, you can't even see the hook,”. Prime access ratings were often double digits and even 6:00 PM and 11:00 PM news ratings were close to double digits.


These days, prime can't muster A 1 rating, which is definitely in line with some of the prime access shows. The best newscast in a market is lucky to do A 1 rating.


In my graphic, I asked where the ratings have gone? Rest assured they did not go away, People are just watching differently. Prime time has been replaced by personal time. People watch what they want, when they want, on the platform they choose. Viewership has fractionalized.


There are very few tentpole events left and those that are left are generally spread amongst several networks. For example, the Olympics, March Madness, and the World Cup are longer on just one network.


It is what it is, today was just very eye-opening.


Thanks to #CTV #Streaming I am currently watching Frasier from episode one getting ready for the reboot. They just don't make shows like they used to.

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