LATE NIGHT TELEVISION RATINGSMath in the News

Issue 100

LATE NIGHT TELEVISION RATINGS

Click the image for a great overview video on how TV ratings work!

LATE NIGHT TELEVISION RATINGS What are television ratings?

TV ratings are audience measures Ratings assess the following factors:

What most people are watching How many people are watching Demographics of those watching (race,

gender, age, socioeconomic status, etc…) Each television show is analyzed based

on these factors and given a rating

Source: Nielsen Wiki

LATE NIGHT TELEVISION RATINGS Nielsen Ratings

Most common type of rating used in the US and Canada

Used to measure the success of TV shows

Source: Nielsen Wiki, Nielsen.com

LATE NIGHT TELEVISION RATINGS How is ratings information collected?

Based on a sample of television views A representative portion of the population

to infer behavior of the entire population Ratings collected using viewer diaries or

set meters

Source: Nielsen Wiki

LATE NIGHT TELEVISION RATINGS Viewer Diaries

Self-report measure

Set Meters Collect information such as:

Programs and commercials Audience size Channel switching

Source: Nielsen Wiki, Nielsen.com

LATE NIGHT TELEVISION RATINGS What are TV ratings used for?

Success of a TV show To target commercials To determine viewing

What other uses of TV ratings can you think of?

Source: Nielsen.com

LATE NIGHT TELEVISION RATINGS What variables are used to calculate TV ratings? TV HHs – TV households – the number of

households in the US with televisions PERS 2+ – Persons age 2 and older in the

US Live, Live + SD (same day), Live + 7)—

When programs are viewed. Age demographic—2-11, 18-34, 18-49,

etc , race, gender, and other variablesSource: TV by the Numbers

LATE NIGHT TELEVISION RATINGS How are ratings calculated?

Step 1: Data sent back to Nielsen Step 2: Total number of viewers and

demographic information is aggregated Step 3: Viewership data divided by total

universe of TV watchers.

Source: YouTube via TV by the Numbers

LATE NIGHT TELEVISION RATINGS How are ratings calculated? Cont…

So, to summarize…

Ratings are written as an number, so 25% viewership would equal a rating of 25.0

LATE NIGHT TELEVISION RATINGS How are ratings written and read?

In addition to the rating score, TV shows are given a share score.

Which type of score would likely be higher, rating or share? Why?

Source: TV by the Numbers

LATE NIGHT TELEVISION RATINGS How are ratings written and read?

Cont… When the rating and the share are

calculated for a given show at a given time, it is written as a ratio:

Rating/Share For example, a show with a rating of

10.5 and a share of 14.3 would be written as

10.5/14.3

LATE NIGHT TELEVISION RATINGS Example:

Of a sample of 5,000 households with televisions, 3,493 televisions are tuned in and 342 are watching television show x. What is the rating and what is the share?

Rating = 342/5,000 = 0.0684 = 6.84% = 6.4

Share = 342/3,493 = 0.0979 = 9.79% = 9.79

TV show x has a rating of 6.4/9.79

LATE NIGHT TELEVISION RATINGS Now let’s try a real world example!

The premiere of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon had a total of 11.314 million viewers (out of the entire population, not a sample)!

If there are 115.6 million TV HHs, what was the rating of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on it’s premiere night?

Source: TV by the Numbers

LATE NIGHT TELEVISION RATINGS The Tonight Show ratings

The premiere of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon had a rating of 9.7.

LATE NIGHT TELEVISION RATINGS

Day TV Show

Rating

TV Show Share

Day 1 1.92 2.14

Day 2 1.9 2.16

Day 3 1.65 2.12

Day 4 1.7 2.1

Day 5 1.61 1.9

What is the average rating and share for this TV show over these 5 days?

What rating trends can you determine based on the chart?

LATE NIGHT TELEVISION RATINGS Now, let’s compare a few TV shows

on specific demographics for people ages 18-49, a target audience for Late Night TV

Here are ratings for the 18-49 demographic group for the week of May 5, 2014: The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon –

1.04/5 The Late Show with Dave Letterman –

0.51/2 The Colbert Report with Stephan Colbert

– 0.45/no share found

Source: TV by the Numbers

LATE NIGHT TELEVISION RATINGS Question for consideration:

The Tonight Show saw record ratings after Jimmy Fallon, a younger host, took over for Jay Leno. Stephen Colbert, star of The Colbert Report, is set to replace Dave Letterman on The Late Show. Given the ratings shown on the previous slide and the rise in viewers for The Tonight Show after a switch in host, how do you think Stephen Colbert replacing Dave Letterman on The Late Show will affect ratings? Why?

LATE NIGHT TELEVISION RATINGS More questions for consideration:

What kind of specific demographic information do you think The Disney Channel would want to collect? What about Women’s Entertainment (WE)?

Consider when it is most valuable to look at each of the following and why: Overall rating Share Rating based on a certain demographic

group