Attn JMS: B5 Demos Was: JMS on CompuServe...

[B5JMS Poster]

Subject: Attn JMS: B5 Demos Was: JMS on CompuServe...
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 No. | DATE        |  FROM
-----+-------------+--------------------------------------------------
+  1: May 30, 1996: londo at uoknor.edu (Londo Mollari)
*  2: May 31, 1996: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
+ 12: Jun  2, 1996: Andrew Blanchard <andy at zocalo.demon.co.uk>
* 13: Jun  2, 1996: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)

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From: londo at uoknor.edu (Londo Mollari)
Lines: 30

>From Brent Barrett's <bbarrett at speedlink.com> CIS reposts:

CASEY J. PETER wrote in CIS:

[snip]
>  After seeing Broadcast's book on the ratings, it seems to me that demo-wise
> B5's actually doing better than all of WB's own stable of shows.  Killing a
> show that makes it budget, does well in the syndi-ratings, has verifiable
> local station support, and has a VERY VOCAL cadre of fan support would be
> fool-hardy.
[snip]

JMS replied on CIS:

>       Thanks.  Actually, the final demographic report just came out for the
> second quarter of 1996, and we now officially have the *best* demographics of
> ANY dramatic series in syndication, finally beating DS9 and Baywatch.
> 
>                                                                     jms

Can someone post the details on this since it is almost impossible
for people outside the industry to get hold of B5 ratings on a
regular basis?  What does "*best*" demographics of any dramatic
syndicated series actually mean?  DS9 is almost always listed
in the top 10 of various demographic ratings published by
_Electronic_Media_ while B5 very rarely is.

If anyone (is Mr. Peter reading?) can take the time to give
a detailed posting of the data, it would be greatly appreciated.


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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Lines: 59

Okay, I dug out the demographics report that just came in for 2nd quarter
1996.  This will eventually be broken down into smaller and smaller groups
now that the quarter is done, so you can know how subset groups are doing,
but that won't be along for a while now, and won't contradict anything
here.  (I'm very eager for the subset breakdown...should prove most
enlightening.  The demos only break down the 18-49 age range as that's the
most fiscally important.)

Anyway, here's the breakdown for the second quarter in the 18-49 age
range, the most sought after group for advertisers, for men, women, and
both.  The higher the number, the better your coverage within that group;
1000 is nearly impossible to get.  Warners is *extremely* pleased by this;
it's the first time we've had the best demographics of all dramatic
series.

BABYLON 5
Women: 429
Men: 497
Both: 1057

DS9
Women: 408
Men: 473
Both: 881

BAYWATCH
Women:364
Men: 315
Both: 679

BAYWATCH NIGHTS
Women: 340
Men: 343
Both: 683

RENEGADE
Women: 369
Men: 362
Both: 731

HIGHLANDER
Women: 393
Men: 394
Both: 787

HERCULES
Women: 369
Men: 360
Both: 730

XENA
Women: 355
Men: 380
Both: 735

 jms




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From: Andrew Blanchard <andy at zocalo.demon.co.uk>
Lines: 28

On Sat, 01 Jun 1996 10:49:07 -0700, John Beaderstadt
<beady at together.net> wrote:

>Andrew Blanchard wrote:
>
>> >BABYLON 5
>> >Women: 429
>> >Men: 497
>> >Both: 1057
>> 
>> Well the advertisers must want the show to be renewed then, I take it
>> that this is a good sign for there being a 4th and 5th season then?
>> 
>> I'm not going to ask the obvious - it'll be here soon enough.
>
>And here it is:  429 + 497 = 926.  Who supplied the other 131 "votes"?

I meant renewal actually, as I never noticed this.  Hmm.  Either math
not JMS skill again or the Shadows are doing someting positive...
Anyone have the correct figures then?

Andy

/ Internet: The truth is out there...  -------------------------------\
| -------- Andrew Blanchard -------- andy at zocalo.demon.co.uk -------- |
\-------------------------------- ...but I'm damned if I can find it. /



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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Lines: 41

I've checked into this (the 1057 figure), and they sent out a new report
and it's still the same figure.  If you add the two figures together,
they're 926, which is *still* the highest figure around, so the facts
still stand.  

We had broken 1000 several other times in the "both" category, the week of
4/1 at 1057 and 4/29 at 1022; don't have the other weeks at hand.

I talked at length to one of the researchers about this, and he said he
was going to backtrack with the Neilsen company and see what they had to
say.  (They're the company that actually does the computations and pulls
in the figures, WB has nothing to do with it, all syndicated shows get the
same reports.)

He did indiate that there are a certain percentage of forms that come in
where the person with the ratings book for one reason or another chooses
not to put down either his/her sex or the sex of the person watching with
them.  (Some consider it a privacy issue, some don't want to indicate that
they're alone at home at night watching with a person of the same sex, so
they "forget" to put it down, or just withhold the information.)  So
there's always some variance; they can't just ignore the data of the
number of persons watching, but they can't plug in what they don't have.  

For instance, in Hercules for that quarter, you've got a figure of 369 for
women, 360 for men, and a total of 730, which is 1 more than the two
figures combined.

So the researcher is going to backtrack some more, but indicated that it
may be that we have an unusually high number of same-sex couples who watch
the show, but may be somewhat closeted about it.  Which would be
consistent with the fact that we get a lot of mail from gays and lesbians
who watch the show.

I'll be out of town for a couple weeks, but will eventually get back to
this.


 jms



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