While most viewers are concerned about March Madness and the upcoming Final Four games, madness among the television networks has been stirring up news. USA Network recent renovations make this network a force to be reckon with.
Typically, USA’s audience offers your basic variety of adults ranging from 35 to 54. With a new line up, the audience and the ratings are growing for the network. USA began controlling prime time ratings in January with 2.89 million viewers tuning in. Along with setting the mark for viewers, the network grabbed four of the top ten rated programs. Anthony Crupi examined these results in an article based of data from Nielsen Media Research.
This trend continued in March with giving USA top honors for the 11 weeks and counting. With the addition of World Wrestling Entertainment, a recent article in Mediaweek stated that viewers averaged near 5.03 million for the network.
The latest win fell short of the trend with a decrease in viewership from 18-49 year old adults. TBS stole this category increasing viewers by 6000 people as seen in an article by Crupi.
The programming of USA, part of the “Character’s Welcome” theme, has welcomed wrestling, a monk, and a psychic to network television. Matea Gold, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, discussed in a recent article that the new brand brought with it a new and younger audience. This has increased USA’s audience over 7 percent bringing in nearly 3 million total viewers. With recent success of shows including Psych and Burn Notice, the network won’t be witching program up too much for viewers. Executives gave a nod to USA for knowing who the channel was and where it was going.
Monk began the race for ratings and continues to exceed expectations. An article on Mediaweek.com reported record setting ratings for the season finale of Monk, running on its sixth season. More than 6.87 million viewers have tuned in to watch a man who for some reason catches the hearts of millions with his OCD. This made the show the most watched episode since the premiere.
In a recent article from Broadcasting and Cable, the Monk monsoon taking over the country looks to have no end in site. The drama has been cleared to show in over 99% of the country.
One strategic method USA utilizes for increasing ratings is vignettes during commercial breaks. In the season premiere of Psych this winter, viewership grew 9 percent during the live viewing for 18-49 year old adults. Applying these figures to the extended viewing of the episode, USA watched total viewership grow 12 percent to 5.31 million viewers. An article from Mediaweek, attributes this increase with ad vignettes.
The vignettes, sponsored by Alltel, created a mix genre of entertainment and advertising for television. High commercial ratings are not unusual for USA, which nests in the top of networks being able to keep audiences tuned n during commercials. USA loses just four percent of its audience during commercial breaks.
With the start of new episodes on prime time TV, USA still must deliver to the audience. The younger programming and commercial attractions have attracted newer viewers, but the loyalty has yet to be put to the test this year. The madness around USA could affect programming on all networks. Interactive commercial programming keeps audience interested and tuned into the network. The tides are changing to programming for all ages.
While this will be a gradual shift, the tides have begun moving. Networks such as USA whose programming is based off this change will be used as the forerunner to gauge audience response. If the audience continues to respond as it has, USA will be the first of many to come.