Key insights from this report:
Univision’s decision to end its association with the Miss Universe Organization, which is a joint venture between Donald Trump and NBCUniversal, has become one the more significant news stories of the week. The Spanish language broadcast juggernaut made the decision to sever all ties with the organization comes in the wake of Trump’s remarks about Mexican immigrants. “They’re bringing drugs. They are bringing crime. They’re rapists,” Trump said June 16 as he launched his presidential campaign. The company said in a statement: “At Univision, we see first-hand the work ethic, love for family, strong religious values and the important role Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans have had and will continue to have in building the future of our country. We will not be airing the Miss USA pageant on July 12th or working on any other projects tied to the Trump Organization.” Spanish-language coverage of the Miss USA pageant had been slated to air on UniMas.
Univision president and CEO Randy Falco made the decision to break ties with Trump. He considered the views of both his Spanish-speaking audience and his employee base, which is reportedly over 80% Hispanic.
The decision is a notable reversal, given that Univision struck a long-term deal with the Miss Universe Organization just five months ago.
The deal — reportedly five years, over $10 million — called for Univision/UniMas to broadcast and co-produce the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants. This would be UniMas’ first time televising the event.
NBC has yet to drop its English language coverage of the event. NBC’s hesitance to cut the Miss USA telecast is likely more about managing their relationship with Trump than about the pageant itself. After all, the most recent season of Trump’s Apprentice series was a ratings hit, averaging a 2.4 in the 18-49 demo despite the nearly year-long gap between the start of production in early 2014 and the season’s debut in January 2015.
Today’s report is a look at English and Spanish language telecast ratings for both Miss USA and Miss Universe Pageant over time. NBC’s sister network Telemundo previously had the rights to Miss Universo.
We’ll also find out how the beauty pageant telecasts perform with the Hispanic-only audience on NBC versus NBC’s top series and specials of the year.
Ratings from both the National sample and Hispanic sample will be shown and analyzed. Here’s a look:
Miss USA 2014 versus Miss Universe 2015 (Live+SD, National Sample)
Date | Originator | Program | Common Day of The Week | Telecast Start Time | Reported Duration | Live+SD P2+ Proj (000) | P2+ Est. Median Age | P 18-49 Rtg % | Households Rtg % |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
06/08/2014 | NBC | MISS USA 2014 | SUNDAY | 08:00 PM | 180 | 5593 | 56.0 | 1.38 | 3.41 |
01/25/2015 | NBC | MISS UNIVERSE PAGEANT. | SUNDAY | 08:00 PM | 180 | 7676 | 55.4 | 2.02 | 4.56 |
As expected, Miss Universe 2015 out-rated Miss USA 2014 across the board. It also skewed slightly younger. Has this consistently been the case? Let’s find out, first by exmaining Miss USA telecast ratings over the years:
Miss USA Ratings Performance Over Time (Live+SD)
National sample:
Here how the NBC’s presentation of Miss USA has performed among national viewers 18-49 and households on an annual basis since 2007:
Miss USA pageant on NBC has earned inconsistent ratings in recent years. The 2014 edition was up from the 2013 edition, but the past two have been the lowest-rated among adults 18-49 since 2007. Last year’s Miss USA performance among households wasn’t quite as poor. It was up from 2013, as well as the 2009 and 2010 editions. That said, it was worse than 2007, 2008, 2011 and 2012.
Next, a look at the telecast total viewership on an annual basis:
Similar to the household trend, 2014 was an above-average year for the program from a total viewer standpoint. It was considerably up from Miss USA 2013, as well as a handful of other editions in recent years.
Hispanic sample
Here’s a look at Hispanic sample ratings of recent Miss USA telecasts on NBC:
Similar to National sample viewership of Miss USA, Hispanic viewership of the program among the 18-49 set has been inconsistent in recent years. The Miss USA 2014 pulled a rather pedestrian .66 rating. The performance was up from 2013, but down from the 2011 and 2012 editions.
The trend is similar when it comes to household ratings. The telecast pulled a 1.74 among Hispanic households, an improvement over 2013 but down from the previous few years, including the strong performance garnered by the 2011 edition.
Does the trend look any different when it comes to average total Hispanic viewership by year?
With a total of 440,000 Hispanic Live+SD viewers, the Miss USA 2014 was the second-most-watched edition of the event among Hispanic viewers, and the most-watched among the group since that landmark 2011 edition.
It appears as though the Hispanic sample has been slightly more interested in the Miss USA pageant on NBC in recent years than the National sample has, particularly when it comes to average total viewership.
It’s also important to note that the winner of Miss USA 2014 was Nia Sanchez, a Latina.
UniMas is a network that has struggled as of late, and it could use a program like Miss USA which has attracted a good Hispanic audience in recent years. If Trump hadn’t made the comments he had, UniMas would have had reason to be excited about scoring rights to this event.
Miss Universe Ratings Performance By Year (NBC):
Next, we’ll take a look at Miss Universe ceremony ratings performance over time. The program, which airs on NBC and had previously aired on Telemundo, pulls significantly stronger ratings than Miss USA has for NBC, but how has the program resonated with the National sample as well as the Hispanic sample on a year-to-year basis? Is the ratings trend for Miss Universe as inconsistent as that of Miss USA?
National Sample
After a few down years, and a year-plus hiatus, Miss Universe came back with vengeance this past January. Its Live+SD performance among viewers 18-49 was the strongest since the 2009 edition of the ceremony.
The ratings performance with older demos and households was even more impressive. NBC’s 2015 presentation of the Miss Universe ceremony was its highest-rated among national households in over nine years.
How did 2015 compare from a total viewer standpoint?
The 7.7 million total Live+SD viewers who tuned into the 2015 Miss Universe made it the most-watched Miss Universe since before the start of this measurement interval (unfortunately we don’t have access to Nielsen ratings for Miss Universe prior to 2007).
Hispanic Sample
Similar to the national sample, Hispanic viewers flocked to the 2015 Miss Universe Pageant en masse. After a consistent in Hispanic P 18-49 viewership of the program from 2007 – 2010, viewership decline from 2011 – 2013, before flying up the charts in 2015.
Total viewership was significant as well. An average of over 1.1 million Hispanic viewers tuned into the 2015 telecast. This was the first time (at least since 2007) that Hispanic viewership of the event eclipsed the 1 million mark. The previous high was 897,000 in 2010. In fact, the 1.15 million represented a whopping 151% increase from the Hispanic total in 2013, which was only a 459,000 Hispanic viewer average.
Miss Universo Ratings Performance By Year (Telemundo)
Here’s how Miss Universo performed nationally for Telemundo an annual basis since 2007:
Lots of folks of different ethnicities across the nation tuned into Telemundo’s presentation of the Miss Universo 2015 pageant. The 2015 edition was the second-highest-rated among national viewers 18-49 since the 2007 Miss Universo on the NBCUniversal-owned broadcaster. It was also the highest-rated edition among households in over nine years.
Hispanic Viewership of Beauty Pageants Versus NBC Primetime Performance
When it comes to Hispanic adults 18-49, Miss Universe 2015 pageant is the third-highest-rated entertainment program to air on the network over the past 18 months. It sits ahead of programs like The Emmys and The Voice. The Golden Globes and SNL: 40th Anniversary special sit #1 and #2.
It’s the second-highest-rated entertainment program on NBC among Hispanic women 18-49, #3 among Hispanic adults and women-only 25-54, and the fourth-most-watched entertainment program among total Hispanic viewers over the past 18 months (on NBC).
Miss USA 2014 doesn’t rate quite as highly. Among Hispanic viewers 18-49, it’s the 30th-highest-rated entertainment program on the network during the same time span, and the 25th-most-watched entertainment program on NBC among total Hispanic viewers (one-off specials included).
Point being, as awful and dumb as Trump’s comments may have been, NBC would potentially be getting rid of a Miss Universe franchise that’s coming off its best ratings performance in years, a franchise that has resonated well with the National and Hispanic samples over time. On the other side, if NBC decides to maintain its partnership with Trump in terms of the pageants and even The Apprentice (another NBC program that has rated highly with the Hispanic sample), it could potentially have a Duck Dynasty-esque situation on its hands, and as A&E well knows, the effects of maintaining a relationship with a controversial figure could be devastating from a ratings standpoint.
What will NBC do? The Hispanic audience has been an integral part of the pageants’ ratings over time. It will be interesting to see how this situation plays out.