American Idol ruling the roost by a significant margin with a $700,000 price tag for 30 seconds doesn’t surprise me. It’s good to be #1. Slightly more surprising to me was the gap between #2 in cost, Grey’s Anatomy @ $465,000 and CSI, which is 8th on the list at a cost of $290,000.
CSI pulled many more viewers last week — over 4 million more total (24.85m for CSI vs. 20.48m for Grey’s, according to the Fast Affiliate overninghts). CSI had over 20% more viewers! So why is Grey’s more expensive? Ageism plain and simple, with perhaps a little gender bias thrown in for kicks.
To the degree that advertisers actually pay the rates in this table — and for a variety of reasons I don’t assume it’s a very high degree — the buyers are perhaps just dopes. Would they really pay what amounts to 60% more for a 30 second spot on Grey’s vs. CSI for what amounts to 7/10ths of a rating point in the 18-49?
I expect it’s not purely that simple, and the advertisers on Grey’s also value the 18-34 crowd, especially the females, and I don’t doubt Grey’s has a few more of those than CSI. But using the 18-49 base as a proxy, the premium seems too high.
The now defunct Nashville is at least the lowest on the list at $60K.
I tried to talk Gorman into blowing our advertising budget for the next 20 years by running a 30 second spot on Kitchen Nightmares ($75,000) but he wouldn’t go for it. Maybe he’d have gone for Bionic Woman @ $185,000. Full list:
| Show | Network | Cost / 30 sec. ad |
|---|---|---|
| American Idol Monday | Fox | $700,000 |
| American Idol Tuesday | Fox | $700,000 |
| Greys Anatomy | ABC | $465,000 |
| Desperate Housewives | ABC | $378,000 |
| Sunday Night Football | NBC | $350,000 |
| Heroes | NBC | $330,000 |
| The Simpsons | Fox | $300,000 |
| 24 | Fox | $300,000 |
| CSI | CBS | $290,000 |
| House | Fox | $290,000 |
| Private Practice | ABC | $255,000 |
| Dancing with the Stars | ABC | $250,000 |
| Extreme Makeover: Home Edition | ABC | $250,000 |
| Survivor | CBS | $240,000 |
| Two and a Half Men | CBS | $230,000 |
| Office | NBC | $210,000 |
| My Name is Earl | NBC | $195,000 |
| K-ville | Fox | $190,000 |
| Bionic Woman | NBC | $185,000 |
| Back to You | Fox | $175,000 |
| Americas Top Model | CW | $175,000 |
| Dirty Sexy Money | ABC | $168,000 |
| Journeyman | NBC | $165,000 |
| The Big Bang Theory | CBS | $138,000 |
| Cane | CBS | $128,000 |
| Chuck | NBC | $125,000 |
| Pushing Daisies | ABC | $115,000 |
| Beauty and the Geek | CW | $115,000 |
| Viva Laughlin | CBS | $110,000 |
| Life | NBC | $110,000 |
| Great American Band | Fox | $109,000 |
| Gossip Girl | CW | $109,000 |
| Moonlight | CBS | $104,000 |
| Kid Nation | CBS | $101,000 |
| Cavemen | ABC | $100,000 |
| Dont Forget the Lyrics | Fox | $100,000 |
| Smallville | CW | $97,000 |
| Carpoolers | ABC | $90,000 |
| Reaper | CW | $85,000 |
| Kitchen Nightmares | Fox | $75,000 |
| Nashville | Fox | $60,000 |
Data: MediaWeek
