Who Watches American Idol? Have you ever thought about who watches what on TV? Most people have. The fact is that who watches what shows can have a huge impact on the content of that programme. Have you ever thought: 'I used to like so and so, but it has gone right down hill?'. This is what I mean. Meanwhile, someone else is saying that that programme has improved greatly. It is swings and roundabouts. What is good for the goose is poison for the gander. Let's take an example: you like a new quiz programme that has recently commenced and it is fairly generally well-liked as well. The advertisers will be conducting polls on the average viewer and they will put adverts to match. If they find that, perhaps, 33% of the viewers are employed females between 25 and 30 years of age and 33% are retired single women and further that more most of the income obtained from promoting on that quiz comes from the younger women, the advertisers will endeavour to skew the programme towards the younger women at the expense of the older women and the other 33%. How will they accomplish that? By having a younger, trendier male presenter and by altering the music, the questions, the set and the time-slot of the programme to make it more accessible to the younger working women, who have and are spending the money. If you are not in the target group, you will almost certainly go off the show sooner or later. Now in the instance of a programme like American Idol and most of the other 'reality' shows that depend on viewers voting to elect a winner, the sort of audience will also determine the sort of winner. Boys are more likely to vote for beautiful girls, for example and each group of people has a preference according to statistical averages. Therefore, if you know the make-up of the audience, you have a better chance of guessing who will win. The gambler in you may be wondering if there is an edge to be had here. Well, yes, I think that there is, if you can get your hands on accurate statistics, but that is more easily said than done and it is not the purpose of this article anyway. In the case of American Idol, most of the viewers are younger than forty, but that will not astound anybody. The study of who watches what is the study of demographics and it is a very critical science for TV programme makers and advertisers. However, these people ultimately choose what will be served up to you each night for your entertainment. The big question is should the shows that are presented to us be governed simply by how much revenue they able to wring out of you for the advertisers? Should commercial interests govern which educational programmes are made for you and your kids? Just because people find conservation and wind power dull, does that mean that we should not be kept informed about it?
Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on fairly a number of subjects, but is currently concerned with Dancing with the Stars on UK TV. If you would like to know more go to our web site at DWTS Pictures.