The Lady Vanishes: Women Watch Less Traditional TV

While prime-time TV usage is in some ways relatively stable, with the proportion of people watching TV this season slipping just 5 percentage points from a year ago, women in advertisers' key age groups are disappearing at a disproportionate clip.

From Sept. 22 to Oct. 27, for example, the percentage of 18-to-49-year-old women watching TV in prime time fell 9 points from a year earlier, according to Nielsen stats. The declines reached double digits on Tuesday and Wednesday; Tuesday of late has been a tough night for marketers looking to reach women, as the most female-skewing shows -- "New Girl," "The Mindy Project," "Selfie," "Manhattan Love Story" and "Forever" -- are also the lowest-rated. That women in the most advertiser-friendly demo are vanishing is disconcerting enough; what's particularly unsettling is the rate at which younger female viewers are tuning out. Season-to-date, the percentage of women 18-to-34 watching TV is down 13 points, while women 18-to-24 are down 17 points. If not for the stabilizing influence of Sunday nights, when declines are in the single digits, the younger demo would be off by more than 20 percentage points.