Posted on 10/24/2010 5:29:44 PM PDT by abb
Television is losing ground in one of its most lucrative strongholds: Thursday nights.
Fewer people in the U.S. are watching Thursday prime-time TV so far this fall, as changing viewing habits, weaker shows and more varied competition take a toll on a night that for decades has showcased some of TV's most high-profile programs, and priciest commercials.
Over the first four Thursday nights of the TV season, an average of 48.5 million people between the ages of 18 and 49 years old were watching prime-time on any channel, broadcast or cable, recorded or live, according to Nielsen Co. estimates. That is down 2.2 million, or 4.3%, from a year earlier. Among all viewers, Thursday-night TV usage is down 1%.
Thursday has long been a TV marquee. In the 1990s, when NBC aired "Seinfeld," "Friends," and "ER" and dubbed the night "Must-See TV," Thursdays often accounted for five of TV's 10 most-watched series.
As recently as 2007, Thursday was the third-most watched night of the week among the 18-to-49 cohort, after Sundays and Mondays. But so far this season, it trails even Tuesdays and Wednesdays in that demographic, which is the most sought-after by advertisers.
The potential cost is high. Marketers often pay higher rates for commercials on Thursday nights because weekends are big shopping times. It is advertisers' last chance to hawk movie tickets, new cars, restaurants and retail products beforehand.
The drop could be the leading edge of a broader phenomenon. The number of people between 18 and 49 watching TV on any night of the week, on any channel, live or recorded, is down 2.7% so far this TV season compared with last.
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(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
"Network evening newscasts will go dark after the '08 elections and their news divisions disbanded."
Walter Abbott, (b. 1950), Media observer, blogger and commentator
ping
I remember watch NBC show like Cosby show back in 1980s that last time I watch anything on Thursday on NBC LOL!
I went from being a couch potato to a You Tuber
Thursday night is trash tv, nothing worth watching.
I watched Seinfeld in the 90’s. I have had no use for network television for years. I haven’t watched a newscast in over a decade. I do like HBO shows, however. Nevertheless, network TV is dying a slow, deserved death.
Not pre-empting good TV shows with stupid baseball playoffs would be a good start. Isn’t that why they invented ESPN?
Seems to me that the MSM just put the SINGLE MOST UNELECTABLE MAN EVER!!!!!!! into the White House. Ponder for just a moment how amazingly unelectable the POS Obama is, and then answer the following: Did the MSM put him there? Yes. Absolutely. Is the MSM still stunningly powerful? Apparently so.
Haven’t watched TV since my father passed away 17 years ago. had neither the time and soon realized I neither missed it nor needed it. I have been on the web since it’s inception. I get all my news from the net and tech aps like my iphone and talk radio. I rarely watch you tube unless it is really an absolutely must see thing from a political person. I watch old video of people like Carlos Gardel or some historical thing. The scene is changing considerably and will even further. I owe it all to the computer. I have been online since 1978 in the early days of AOL. Used Archie and Veronica to search file servers, before the internet were the bulletin boards to serve your interest, mostly pirate and hacker boards where things were cooking. I can’t even imagine what the world will look like when I am gone. It’s a long way from the days when my father studying physics at UBA (universidad de Buenos Aires) would bring home punched paper tape from the Mercury computer he was using which had , get this, 40,000 vacuum tubes. On the year my mother was born radio had just begun with the experiments of Marconi. The advances in the last 100 years are just mind boggling when I think of it. NOTHING remains the same...
There’s been a lot of evil sewage on TV, and many have turned away from it.
I’m buying a 3G Kindle,gonna do alot more reading.
TV needs to die. The left/Dems/islamics control it and use it to manipulate the masses and confuse them. Fox is marginally better but they are not our friend.
I don't think I can name the three network anchors.
“I don’t think I can name the three network anchors.”
Unfortunately 10s of millions Americans can. “Oh, yeah. Katie Couric; she’s the one who told me to vote for Obama. Then, I voted for Obama.”
Only thing I watch on Network Tv is NCIS NCIS LA and Good wife that is
I also been watching this Spanish soap called Elena Ghost or El Fantasia de Elena is very good I watch with English subtiles on Telumundo
Here’s a novel idea: add another 2 minutes of commercials per hour.
That’ll drive them in in droves.
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We kind of do pick and choose - we use Netflix ($9/month) for almost everything now. We watch it through the Wii They have movies or complete seasons of TV series (or you can watch on your computer).
For example, my older son likes shows like How it’s Made, and Mythbusters, and my younger likes old Pink Panther, Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry. I like older TV sitcoms, BBC masterpiece theater and classic movies. Hubby watches his sports on ESPN online.
MSM (ALL TV and Hollywood) put a “man” in the white hut to destroy America. He is succeeding. Thank the idiots who watch TV which empowers the elites/left/dems/islamics.
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