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
What is the cost for the CBS Nightly News? Would be interested to see the comparison…
Thanks,
Brooke
Ageism plain and simple, with perhaps a little gender bias thrown in for kicks.
Hmm, what was that you said recently about it only being ageist to favor the demos if gold costing more than silver is metalist?
(Thanks, Brooke, for bumping this very old post to shed some light on Robert’s true feelings on the subject.)
Ha! on September 30, 2007 we had been doing this blog for less than a month and those were my true feelings. I was definitely wrong. But at the time I didn’t understand the inordinately disproportionate supply of 50+ year olds who are always available and watching TV.
My true feelings on the subject since sometime after that post are that there’s no ageism/gender biasing and it’s just that advertisers are willing to pay more for eyeballs that are far more scarce.