Fifty Shades of Grey: Broadcast Audience Older Than Ever

Call it déjà view. With three weeks of Nielsen data in the books, the 2013-14 broadcast TV season is shaping up to be a carbon copy of 2012’s campaign. As was the case then, NBC is in first place among live-same-day deliveries, averaging a 2.9 in the demo, while CBS and ABC are tied with a 2.1. Bringing up the rear is Fox (1.9). As stable as the early ratings have been, the age discrepancy between now and 12 months ago is a bit disconcerting. But for ABC, every network has aged up a bit versus the year-ago period, bringing the average broadcast viewer to a ripe old 53.9 years. In other words, nearly half of those watching network television have aged out of the 25-54 demo. With a median age of 58.2 years, CBS remains the oldest-skewing of the Big Four. The graying of broadcast may be a logical function of an aging populace, but it also suggests that younger viewers simply are not tuning in to network TV.