TV Schedule during Spring Break

I want that show to be new this week...NOW.
Or
The Genius of Mid-Season Replacements

So, instead of analyzing a show, I'm going to write about television scheduling. I know, that sounds really boring. But, I promise you, some of the networks are making genius moves with their scheduling that you're probably missing.

I'm sure you've all noticed (if you watch any TV at all) that there haven't been new shows for the last couple of weeks. Why? Because it's Spring Break! Maybe not at your college (and definitely not at your work), but at some college, somewhere. And viewers age 18-24 make up a large percentage of the viewing demographic. They also have the capability of destroying a show. If you lose that demographic either because they're not watching, or because they're Facebooking/Tweeting/Commenting on the internet about how bad it is (59%). Well, your show could be off the air before you know it. As a network, it's important to count that particular age group.


It turns out, the higher your education level, the more likely you are to evaluate a show online. But it's not just the college-age kids the networks need to be worried about. While watching TV 42% of Americans are online, and many of them (61%) will have a social media site where they can post something about what they are watching.*

So, what's that genius move I'm talking about? It's taking a chance and introducing a brand-new show while all the popular/currently on the air shows are on hiatus. Some networks choose to do this during the summer, and then use the shows which are successful that first summer during subsequent summers. TNT did this last summer with "Rizzoli and Isles".

And ABC is doing it right now with "Body of Proof". The show premiered during the first week of this incredibly long and tedious 'spring break' hiatus. And they've released three new episodes already, while all the other networks are running mainly reruns (except for reality tv shows, but that's a whole other issue). So, what do you think the most popular current episodes on Hulu are? The first three episodes of "Body of Proof"! Now, this method of releasing TV shows during hiatus only works if your television show is good/successful (not mutually exclusive!) because you need to retain viewers after the other shows come back on air. Unfortunately, as I've said earlier, I don't think that "Body of Proof" will stand up to that test.



*"About the Data: This 24/7 Wall St./Harris Poll was conducted online within the US between March 11 and 15, 2011 among 2,526 adults (aged 18 and older). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Where appropriate, this data were also weighted to reflect the composition of the adult online population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online". Marketing Chart