TV's Night Flight: 10 p.m. Ratings Waste Away
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Viewers are continuing to drift away from broadcast TV’s once-robust 10 p.m. time slot.
According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, ratings for the final hour of prime time are as low as they’ve been in Nielsen’s modern era, and many of the viewers who are sticking around have aged well beyond the parameters of even the most inclusive TV demographic. This season through Tuesday, March 3, the three networks that broadcast at 10 p.m. (ABC, CBS and NBC) are averaging 7.16 million viewers, down 9% compared to the year-ago period (6.5 million). The decline among adults 18-to-49 is slightly less steep, as the Big Three are off 5% with an average draw of 1.8 million members of the demographic.
Nearly three-quarters (74%) of those tuning in between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. are 50 years old and up, and 68% have fallen through most marketers’ demographic sieve altogether, having attained a ripe old age of 55. (If there’s a better argument for the adoption of a 35-to-64 demo that would more faithfully serve the vast majority of consumers who still watch linear broadcast TV, we’ve yet to hear it.)
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