
While more media agencies are doing some deals based on 25-54 broadcast primetime ratings, the 18-49 demo is still the holy grail for marketers. And since primetime is watched by more women than men, women 18-49 viewers wield a little bit more influence when it comes to determining the fate of shows.
An examination of Nielsen ratings data shows that there is a significant correlation to broadcast shows survival and their level of women 18-49 viewership.
Most recent case in point - ABC's cancellation of drama Revenge after four seasons. Last season, Revenge averaged a 2.2 demo rating among women 18-49. This season it fell to 1.5.
A look at the cancellations of new broadcast network shows earlier in this current season also illustrates how most of those series never caught on with female 18-49 viewers. Those shows and their female 18-49 rating when they were taken off the air: Mulaney, Fox (0.7); Utopia, Fox (0.8); A to Z, NBC (1.0); Bad Judge, NBC (1.0); Constantine, NBC (1.0); Red Band Society, Fox (1.2); Manhattan Love Story, ABC (1.3); and Selfie, ABC (1.4).
To that list you can add new series that have struggled to get viewers this season and are longshots at being renewed like Weird Loners on Fox with a women 18-49 rating of 0.7; American Oddessey, NBC (0.8); The Slap, NBC (1.0); Allegience, NBC (1.0); Gracepoint, Fox (1.0); Backstrom, Fox (1.1); Forever, ABC (1.2); and Cristela, ABC (1.2).
Last season a bunch of new series that were cancelled also failed to draw significant women 18-49 viewers. Among them: Enlisted, Fox (0.7); Killer Women, ABC (0.9); Mind Games, ABC (0.9); Rake, Fox (1.0); Welcome to the Family, NBC (1.1); Lucky 7, ABC (1.1); Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, ABC (1.2); Dracula, NBC (1.2); Sean Saves the World, NBC (1.3); Surviving Jack, Fox (1.3); Trophy Wife, ABC (1.3); Ironside, NBC (1.4); Michael J. Fox Show, NBC (1.4); and Intelligence, CBS (1.4).
This season, much like Revenge, which took a precipitous drop in women 18-49 viewers, Fox's The Following is also following in a similar path. Last season the Fox drama averaged a 1.8 rating among women 18-49. This season the demo rating is down to a 1.2. Once Fox's most-watched drama, The Following doesn't appear to have much of a future on the network.
To be fair to Revenge, last season it aired on Sunday night at 9, leading out of ABC's Once Upon a Time, which has a solid women 18-49 demo rating of 2.7. So yes, lead-ins do matter.
The same can be said for CBS drama series NCIS: Los Angeles, which the network moved to a new night and time period this season. Last season NCIS: Los Angeles, leading out of NCIS, averaged a 2.4 in the women 18-49 demo. That was helped in large part by the NCIS women 18-49 demo rating of 2.7. This season, NCIS: Los Angeles is averaging a 1.8, even though its new lead-in Scorpion is averaging a 2.2 in the female demo.
Other broadcast primetime series that have taken big dips in their women 18-49 demo ratings this season are ABC dramas Resurrection and Castle, NBC's About a Boy and Fox drama Sleepy Hollow.
Resurrection hit the ground running after premiering last spring and ended its first season averaging a 3.2 demo rating among women 18-49. However this season, before finishing its run, the series averaged just a 1.6 rating. Castle, which still has Dancing with the Stars and The Bachelor as its lead-ins during different portions of the season, has dipped among women 18-49 from a 2.4 to a 1.9. About a Boy was leading out of NBC's The Voice on Tuesday night last season and averaged a 2.5 among women 18-49. This season without The Voice lead-in, About a Boy fell to a 1.3 rating in the female demo. Sleepy Hollow was considered to be a freshman series hit for Fox last season and averaged a 2.2 in the women 18-49 demo, but this season it fell to a 1.4.
So what are the most-watched new series this season in broadcast primetime among women 18-49? They are also among the most-watched TV series among all primetime shows. Fox's Empire, which just completed its limited first season run, averaged a non-sports-programming, broadcast-leading 6.3 rating among women 18-49. How to Get Away with Murder on ABC, which also just completed its first season, averaged a 3.4 rating in the demo and that was seventh best among all broadcast entertainment shows. ABC sitcom Black-ish is averaging a 2.7 rating in the female demo, CBS sitcom The Odd Couple is averaging a 2.6, CBS drama Scorpion a 2.2 and ABC drama Secrets and Lies, a 2.0.
What those numbers show is that if women 18-49 are watching in large numbers, a new show has a solid chance to not only succeed, but to be among the most viewed shows on television. If not, that shows chances are greatly diminished.
Among all primetime shows, dramas and comedies, this season, in second place behind Empire among women 18-49 is ABC's Scandal, which is averaging a 4.5 in the demo. Next is CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory (4.2); the Monday edition of The Voice (4.1) and Tuesday edition of The Voice (3.9); ABC's The Bachelor (3.5); ABC drama Grey's Anatomy (3.5); ABC sitcom Modern Family (3.4); ABC's Dancing with the Stars (2.9); and ABC drama Once Upon a Time (2.9), which actually increased its rating in the female demo this season.
Other dramas that draw well among the women 18-49 demo include Criminal Minds on CBS (2.7); NBC's The Blacklist (2.6); and CBS's NCIS and NCIS: New Orleans (both with a 2.4). NBC drama Chicago Fire is averaging a 2.1 in the demo.
Also pulling in a sizable women 18-49 audience is CBS reality series Survivor, which is averaging a 2.6 demo rating.
On the comedy side, other Top 10 shows among women 18-49 include ABC sitcom The Goldbergs (2.5); CBS comedy Two and a Half Men (2.4), which recently aired its series finale; ABC comedy The Middle (2.4); and CBS comedies Mike & Molly and
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
27/08/2026
ESPN and Disney are launching College Football Saturdays, adding two college football games per week to Disney for U.S. subscribers as part of their existing ...
27/08/2026
Zixi will exhibit at IBC2026 (Hall 5, Stand 5.A76, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), demonstrating the Zixi Platform and the latest release of Zixi Broadcaster, ...
27/08/2026
NDI has announced that its ecosystem has surpassed 1.2 million NDI-enabled hardware nodes worldwide, spanning products from more than 200 hardware brands across...
27/08/2026
Clear-Com conducted a pre-launch field trial of FreeSpeak Cell during Carnival 2026 in Rio de Janeiro, in partnership with Brazilian systems integrator Savana C...
27/08/2026
BHV returns to IBC 2026 with an important milestone for its own SportsBox: the broadcast industry's smallest remote vision mixer and format processor has mo...
27/08/2026
TOGETHXR and Snapchat have announced the second cohort of their Snap the Gap content creator program, welcoming nine athletes as Snap Stars. The program provide...
27/08/2026
MediaKind has announced that CNBC UK has selected Beam to modernize its contribution and distribution infrastructure for live broadcast operations. The deployme...
27/08/2026
Monitor engineer Chris Dwight has deployed Sennheiser's Spectera wideband bi...
27/08/2026
Telestream has announced an expansion of its UP cloud-native platform, adding capabilities for orchestrating Telestream services, third-party technologies, and ...
27/08/2026
Swerve TV has signed a multi-year partnership with GLORY Kickboxing, bringing live GLORY events and library programming to Swerve Combat, Swerve TV's free a...
27/08/2026
Dalet has announced a new integrated content experience with Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Dalet Flex, designed to bring AFP's editorial metadata into the p...
27/08/2026
Grass Valley will demonstrate an integrated live production environment at IBC2026 (Booth 9.A01, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), combining K-Frame, Maverik X, ...
27/08/2026
The National Women's Soccer League and Roku have announced an expanded partnership, with the Roku Sports Channel becoming the exclusive streaming home of ei...
27/08/2026
FuboTV has announced the launch of ACC Network Extra (ACCNX) and SEC Network (SECN ) on the Fubo streaming service at no additional cost to subscribers with En...
27/08/2026
Sports marketers have entered the experiential age. Today, sports teams, leagues, and venues are increasingly using immersive interactions and real world events...
27/08/2026
MultiDyne will introduce the MDoG-8800 at IBC2026 (Stand 11.C12, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), extending its openGear portfolio with a high-density fiber tra...
27/08/2026
The Joint Task Force on the Dynamic Media Facility (JT-DMF), an initiative of AMWA and the EBU, will host a series of informal Ask Me Anything sessions during...
27/08/2026
Homestream, a mobile app that automatically syncs a team's local radio broad...
27/08/2026
A packager for TNT Sports, Kwokman Productions is on hand for the unique event w...
27/08/2026
After more than 3,000 games, five members of YES Network's original staff re...
27/08/2026
Physical modelling orchestral instrument announced
Following their recent cryptic hints, Dreamtonics have officially revealed the latest addition to their s...
27/08/2026
M5 Ultra-equipped Studio most powerful Mac to date
Apple have just announced a design refresh which they say makes the Mac mini fiercer and more versatil...
27/08/2026
Sampler receivers major upgrades
Bitwig's latest DAW update brings some major changes to the Sampler device, kitting it out with new slicing options, tw...
27/08/2026
Designed specifically for hard-hitting modern bass
Designed specifically for bass-heavy electronic music, the latest plug-in from Arturia aims to offer an a...
27/08/2026
Advertisers gain granular CTV targeting and turnkey reporting across eligible in...
27/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
27/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
27/08/2026
Profuz Digital makes a mark by launching a powerful upgrade to its Profuz LAPIS digital media management platform this IBC in Amsterdam at Stand 8.A88. The late...
27/08/2026
DHD.audio has chosen IBC 2026 as the launch venue for what it defines as one of the most radical advances in the companys 30 year history.
Every broadcast trad...
27/08/2026
Direct connectivity between planning, production and graphics for creativity and streamlined workflows...
27/08/2026
New Photoshop innovations bring you more choice and control at every stage of yo...
27/08/2026
First Two Seasons of Vertical Series Vultures Shot on Blackmagic Design Cameras
Brie Clayton August 27, 2026
0 Comments
Director and DoP of Vultures ...
27/08/2026
For years, the media and entertainment industry has hesitated to use AI-voiced dubbing due to concern for audience experience. New data from 3Play Media, a glob...
27/08/2026
Starfish Technologies has announced the forthcoming V9 release of its Advantage AD workstation, adding support for voice synthesis services and giving Audio Des...
27/08/2026
Lightware's UBEX is a powerful AV-over-IP product well suited for rental and staging workflows where systems must be fast to deploy, easy to repurpose, and ...
27/08/2026
Lightware has expanded the scalability of its 10G TPN AV-over-IP platform with the introduction of the new TPN-MMU-X100 Matrix Management Unit, enabling systems...
27/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
27/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
27/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
27/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
27/08/2026
PlayBox Neo Stand 7.C29 IBC2026 - 11 14 September
Well-established global specialists in media playout, automation, and streaming solutions, PlayBox Neo ...
27/08/2026
Rise Academy, the broadcast and media skills charity dedicated to delivering practical media technology learning experiences, careers resources and work experie...
27/08/2026
Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, will showcase the latest evolution of its ...
27/08/2026
Screen Australia opens applications for Global Fellowships Program 27 August 2026
Applications are now open for the Screen Australia Global Fellowships progra...
27/08/2026
Thursday 27 August 2026
Sir Grayson Perry and Rebecca Lucy Taylor (aka Self Est...
27/08/2026
Wuppertal August 27, 2026
Riedel Evolves Leadership and Global Go-to-Market OrganizationRiedel Communications is strengthening its leadership and global go-to...
27/08/2026
More Sasquatch, more fun: Today, the sneakiest crossover of the summer lands exc...