Key insights from this report:
Today’s report is an updated look at the linear TV viewing habits of millennials, with a specific focus on two cable networks which consider this age group their wheelhouse demographic: ABC Family and MTV.
ABC Family and MTV are the 4th and 5th-highest-rated primetime cable networks of the year in the 18-24 demographic (Live+3 viewing). Adult Swim is #1, followed by usual suspects ESPN and TBS (the latter of which continues to score with American Dad and its The Big Bang Theory re-runs).
The two networks fall a little further down on the totem pole if we expand our age range to 18-34. ABC Family drops to #8 in primetime, and MTV exits the top 10 (#11). Seeing that MTV is no longer a top ten cable destination for millennials is a bit stunning.
MTV
Cable television’s longtime arbiter of youth pop culture, MTV has fallen on hard times in recent years, at least from a linear ratings standpoint.
Despite the decline, MTV still scores more of its total viewers from the millennial demographic than any network on cable: 45.1%. Comedy Central is #2 in millennial percent comp during primetime: 43.7%.
But is that part of the problem? If linear television ratings are still going to be what advertisers base their spending decisions on for the foreseeable future, and millennials are watching less and less TV in the traditional fashion, should networks like MTV and Comedy Central consider expanding the type of audience they want to target with their content?
Anyways, it’s important to take note of what MTV is up to right now from a programming standpoint. The network recently brought back one of its top scripted series in recent years, and just premiered a series based on a classic 1990s horror film franchise.
TEEN WOLF
Teen Wolf returned on June 29th, and currently holds the Monday 10pm slot. There’s plenty of bad blood to go around this season, where through the first five episodes of season five, the supernatural teenagers have been facing more danger and more relationship drama.
Teen Wolf is regularly a weekly trending topic across Twitter, but has that translated into linear TV ratings this season? Let’s look at viewership by season and then season 5 by episode:
Teen Wolf has gotten off to a slow start in its fifth season, only averaging a .66 Live+SD rating in the 18-49 demo, but up to a 1.0 among the 18-24 set. Perhaps the season will benefit from DVR-boosted data as we continue, but this hasn’t exactly been a superb fifth season from a ratings standpoint.
One positive takeaway is that this past Monday’s episode was the highest-rated of the season to-date among millennials, and #2 among viewers 18-49 (tops since the season premiere).
Additionally, since the start of Q3, Teen Wolf is cable’s third-highest-rated Monday night series among viewers 18-24, a top 10 Monday night cable series among millennials and viewers 18-49, and the #1 cable series in the Monday 10pm timeslot among millennials and 18-49ers.
SCREAM
Scream was one of the top teen-skewing film franchises of the 1990s, and MTV is hoping to make a mark with an older millennial audience that used to flock to the network in droves. Why not go nostalgic? The new series (of the same name) premiered on Tuesday, June 30th. This relaunch is set the aftermath of a cyber-bullying incident that results in a gruesome murder. Teenagers start being picked off one by one, and it’s all kicked off by Bella Thorne, doing her best Drew Barrymore impression as the series’ first kill. Instead of getting a menacing phone call, she’s terrorized by a series of texts. Doesn’t have quite the same effect, and the loss of the Ghostface mask is a curious decision, but the prospect of weekly Scream is just too enticing to pass up for many in this age range.
Here’s an early look at Scream: The TV Series on an episode-to-episode basis. Scroll over a line to see the exact Live+SD rating. Episode four airs this evening at 10pm:
After a positive series premiere, which included over 1 million total viewers tuning in, the program has lost 18-24 viewers on an episode-to-episode basis since. Episode 3 was an improvement from episode 2, but still not on-par with the premiere. Will tonight be better? Will this program benefit from time-shifted data? MTV certainly hopes it will because this isn’t a particularly great start.
The reality is MTV’s top programs are unscripted: Teen Mom Season 5, Teen Mom II Season 6 (which is actually up from 5 in 18-24 viewership). Catfish: The TV Show and The Real World-themed programming. This is what MTV seems to do best. That being said, the current season of Teen Wolf is one of the network’s higher-rated series among viewers 18-24, and one of the network’s most-watched series of the year to-date. Scream might not be a “scream” with younger viewers so far, but it has managed to capture a decent amount of total Live+SD viewers.
ABC Family
An elite network when it comes to the millennial demographic, ABC Family is in the midst of a busy summer with the recent return of its original primetime series. Longtime hit Pretty Little Liars and the Ghost Whisperer-esque Stitchers premiered on June 2nd.
Pretty Little Liars (1.18) is the top-rated Tuesday night cable series among the 18-34 set since its return, and #3 among 18-49ers since June 2 (behind Deadliest Catch and OWN’s The Haves and The Have Nots) with a .86 Live+SD rating.
But how does the current season of Liars compare with others?
Despite the solid ranking on its night of the week, Pretty Little Liars has experienced a significant decline in viewership in each of the past two seasons. It’s at its lowest 18-24 demo average since the opening season in 2010-2011. It’s at its lowest millennial demo average since season 2, and its lowest average among viewers 18-49 since season 3. Its decline among older viewers hasn’t been quite as drastic as its decline with younger millennials.
Looking at the current season on an episode-to-episode basis, the trends are a bit strange. Last week’s episode was down in the millennial demo, but up in the 18-49 demo.
STITCHERS
Stitchers, on the other hand, has not performed well on ABC Family.
Stitchers is only averaging a .39 Live+SD rating among millennials, and a .36 rating among viewers 18-49 to-date. It has also lost total Live+SD viewership on an episode-to-episode basis since the premiere pulled 1.3 million total Live+SD viewers. Last Tuesday’s episode only pulled 636,000 total Live+SD viewers.
This probably isn’t what the network hoped for when it decided to have its top-rated series serve as the lead-in to its rookie procedural drama. Regardless, ABC Family has already decided to give the program a second season.
BECOMING US
Becoming Us premiered on Monday June 8th, and continues to air on Monday evenings in primetime. The timing couldn’t have been any better, as the series has taken on an even more meaningful role on the heels of Bruce Jenner’s transgender awakening.
Becoming Us is a docuseries which centers on a teenager named Ben who learns his parents are not only getting a divorce but also that his dad is becoming a woman. The docuseries follows Ben, his family and his friends as they support one another through the unexpected journey and watch Charlie slowly become Carly, as she experiences the many stages of her transition from male to female.
Has the “announcement” had any impact on viewership of Becoming Us? Has it outperformed Stitchers?
No, it does not appear to be outperforming Stitchers. After a decent start to the series, Becoming Us had an awful Monday evening, hitting lows across all demos on 7/20. The series was successfully able to build off the Caitlyn Jenner buzz with a solid series premiere performance. That momentum has apparently worn off. Perhaps the program can get back to a relative normal next Monday.
Needless to say, ABC Family is struggling right now with its primetime programming.
Millennial-Targeting Network Performance Over Time
ABC Family and MTV have struggled as of late, but is this a landscape-wide issue when it comes to networks which traditionally target millennials? Let’s add Comedy Central, VH1, E! and Adult Swim to the mix.
Media Selection | P 18-24 Rtg% (2015 TD) | P 18-24 Rtg% (Jan – July 2014) | % Change | P 18-34 Rtg% (2015 TD) | P 18-34 Rtg% (Jan – July 2014) | % Change |
ABC FAMILY | 0.41 | 0.51 | -19.9% | 0.36 | 0.42 | -15.0% |
ADULT SWIM | 0.61 | 0.60 | 2.5% | 0.51 | 0.53 | -4.5% |
COMEDY CENTRAL | 0.38 | 0.54 | -30.9% | 0.35 | 0.46 | -23.4% |
E! | 0.24 | 0.26 | -8.1% | 0.23 | 0.24 | -5.0% |
MTV | 0.36 | 0.58 | -37.3% | 0.32 | 0.47 | -31.6% |
VH1 | 0.27 | 0.35 | -24.5% | 0.29 | 0.37 | -21.6% |
This is not an incident purely isolated to these two networks. E!, Comedy Central and VH1 are all experiencing double digit declines in viewership among viewers 18-24 and 18-34. While MTV’s decline is in the 18-24 demo is rather shocking (-37.3%) Comedy Central isn’t far behind (-30.9%).
Adult Swim is one network that has actually improved its performance in the 18-24 demo, but each of the five cablers which possess a strong proportion of millennial to total audience is down.