You said that viewers outside the demo contribute effectively nothing to advertising revenue. What about golf? I was under the impression that the viewers were 50+ but that their wealth made them desirable to advertisers. But maybe I’m wrong.

I also remember reading that about “Seinfeld” when it was still on network, that they many viewers over 49 but that they were desirable because of their high net worth. Don’t those kind of demographics also come into play? Especially on a show like Letterman’s, which I’ve always read had a much higher net-worth viewer than Leno. But again, I could be wrong.

Great post!
Craig Ferguson is brilliant, and I have nothing to add.
Would love to chat with you more, check out craigforum.com.

Anyway, I do love seeing all the different press release spins, so thanks for posting them all. It’s pretty funny to see NBC making their win seem even bigger, CBS making their loss seem even smaller, and ABC making it seem like they’re on top of the world.

I fall into the catagory that is no longer considered important and I have made my views known on several of these rating sites. The older generation have more discretionary spending money than those kids in school. In fact most of us are retired and living comfortably in a paid for home and with vehicles that are also paid for.

The Yuppie group have to hold down at least two jobs to support their kids and all of the bills that piles up. So they are sleeping most likely as well. They have to save for retirement and/or putting their kids through college. They don’t have a lot of discretionary spending money either.

So Networks, focal groups who work on these ratings polls give we older folks a chance to be counted in the television viewing demographics.

Personally I own 5 televisions that capture everything I want to watch, I have a satellite dish, 3 Tivos and 1 regular DVR that is on the satellite dish. So putting good shows against each other doesn’t work in this modern day electronic age.

Also I keep Amazon in business buying DVDs of seasons I have missed of my favorite shows.

I own every Craig Ferguson DVDs, CDs, I have a seller in Scotland who got me the old stuff, I collected all his movies even the last two who suffered with limited or no release in the USA. He did shows on BBC Scotland, Dirt Dectitive, Ferguson Theory. I own several copies of the first book he wrote and have the new one coming out in September on pre-order with Amazon along with the unabridged CD of the book. I hope and pray that he decides to do the book on CD reading himself. I have articles about him that have come out in other magazines besides the lovely one of him in “Watch” CBS’s official magazine.

So ladies who don’t fit in these “PRE-DETERMED DEMOGRAPHIC” Let those people know that we should be one of their main groups in “THESE RATINGS”. We watch Craig Ferguson rather than wasting time with those other less talented late night host.

Until I happened upon Craig’s LLS when I was channel surfing (Holiday Season 2005) I hadn’t ever watched many CBS shows. His accent made me stop and his looks and his comedy that wasn’t written on blue cards made me stay. A intelligent interviewer, he doesn’t read his jokes off a teleprompter. He does the show with a few bullet points and the rest is by the seat of his pants. I like the way he laughs hartily, “I can’t believe they pay me to do this”. Well he deserves all the kudo he get from all ages of people. The next night I addicted my husband to Craig and we have Tivoed all of his shows since.

Now since finding Craig I watch NCIS, all of the CSI’s except NY, I love the Mentalist. Missing out on the CSIs and NCIS, I promptly order the entire seasons I missed from Amazon.

I don’t like the stupid reality shows, I know they are cheap to produce but grown people don’t like seeing people do stupid things to each other. The first year of the “Apprentice” we watched, now we don’t waste our time. I agree with Craig, D. Trump, looks like he has a “Daniel Boone hat on backwards”. A big bag of hot air, a waste of space in any show.

Of Course Fox has “24″ and “House” and those I never miss. TNT has wonderful series that help fill the “SUMMER REPEATS” season.

SO LETS STAND UP AND BE COUNTED BY THESE RATING GURUs

WE ARE OVER FIFTY AND PROUD TO BE ALIVE AND WOMEN IN PARTICULAR SHOULD BE YOUR TARGET AUDIENCES TOO. GUESS WHO BUYS JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING FOR THEIR FAMILY/HUSBAND; WOMEN.

Thanks Craig for making this point for all of us uncounted millions.

Mary/Malia

You mentioned 18-49 year old viewers “pay the bills” for the Letterman show. This brings up a question I’ve long had. As far as I can tell, Ferguson’s show (of which I am an unabashed fan) is done on, by far, the smallest budget of all the late night shows. Is his show more profitable?

I think Ferguson is incredibly talented and can do more with nothing than anyone on TV. I can’t figure out why CBS doesn’t take better care of him.

What I’m interested in is how Dave and Conan perform in future weeks without being surrounded by hype. Conan was getting a lot of press during his first week, and Dave got a ton of press last week and this week for the Sarah Palin controversy.

I think even if NBC doesn’t pull huge numbers in overall viewers like they did with Leno, I think they’ll still be pleased even if Conan ends up tying or narrowly beating Letterman in that area in the near future…. given Conan keeps cleaning up in the demos.