AMAZING RACE VERSUS 60 MINUTES
2009/2010
People often complain (not just on TAR sites, but all the time on places like Marc Berman's Pifeedback ratings site, and on TVBYTHENUMBERS) about why CBS keeps 60 minutes as the lead show for its Sunday night lineup.
Even on this site we have had a few posters say its due o the fact that 60 Minutes has a much larger audience (true, but *).
But as tv revenue is no longer (and hasn't been since the start of 2005) been generated off of viewer totals, it is now generated off of demos, with adults 18-49 generated on average the largest amount of ad dollars, followed by adults 18-34, and then to a much lesser degree adults 25-54, then even worse adults 50 plus.
So I thought I would compare TAR to 60 minutes.
Not only among the demo's (I don't have solid data for adults 18-34 of which TAR easily beats the hell out of 60 minutes, or adults 50 plus of which 60 minutes kicks TAR's butt),
and viewers but also with and without Sports Overruns. And the results are as follows.
Season Average (minus 60 Minutes one rerun they have aired this season)
60 Minutes
12.70 million viewers
Adults 18-49 2.49
Adults 25-54 3.28
TAR (this is cycles 15 and 16)
10.75 million viewers
Adults 18-49 3.28
Adults 25-54 4.15
TAR only has 84.6% of the total audience that 60 minutes has
TAR shows 30% more adults 18-49 then 60 minutes.
TAR shows 27% more adults 25-54 then 60 minutes.
Average of Overruns only
60 minutes (they had 12)
15.16 million viewers
adults 18-49 3.29
Adults 25-54 4.31
TAR (We had
11.41 million viewers
Adults 18-49 3.51
Adults 25-54 4.41
TAR holds 75.3% of 60 Minutes audience with a Sports Overrun
TAR shows 7% increase in adults 18-49 over 60 Minutes
TAR shows 4% increase in adults 25-54 over 60 Minutes
Season results without the help of Sports Overruns (this was the most interesting).
60 Minutes
11.94 million viewers
Adults 18-49 2.05
Adults 25-54 2.81
TAR
10.36 million viewers
Adults 18-49 3.14
Adults 25-54 3.98
TAR holds 86.77% of 60 minutes total audience
TAR shows 53% increase over 60 minutes in Adults 18-49
TAR shows 41% increase over 60 minutes in Adults 25-54
So what does this tell us? That on its own merits TAR is leagues ahead of 60 Minutes in the ability to generate revenue for the network. That even with the strongest lead in CBS has (Football which out performs any other show they have) TAR still should generate very similar ad dollars. And when one sees the half hour breakdowns on the nights with overruns, you see 60 minutes loses over half of its audience in adults 18-49 and adults 25-54 (as people either choose to switch channels or turn their tv's off). Since TAR already performs significantly stronger in both demos, I would reckon that TAR would score even stronger results in the 7pm timeslot during sport overruns.
Now of course, this wont happen not even in the next couple years, and they will take a serious loss (in net ad revenue) doing so.
But 60 minutes is considered their most prestigious show and is tied greatly into their image. It will take several more years of declines, before they will move this show.