Fox' Spike Feresten and "Tim and Eric Awesome Show: on Adult Swim Deliver Enhanced Late Night Ad Value

While Late Night television hosts and programming generally proved their immunity from negative impact resulting from the writers strike, JackMyers Media Business Reportuncovered fascinating data that could upend the fundamental economics of how advertisers value Late Night programming. To put it simply, in Late Night television, it appears the maxim "size doesn't count" is actually true.

Among ten late night talk series evaluated in JackMyers Emotional Connections Survey of 8,000 Americans on Late Night Television Programming, a specialty series on Adult Swim and Talkshow with Spike Feresten on Fox, generate significantly higher measures of emotional connection than their higher rated counterparts on NBC, ABC and CBS.

Only Talkshowand Adult Swim's Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! generate consistently positive ratings across the five JackMyers Emotional Connections measures. (Based on adults 18 to 49 in multi-channel homes). Slightly more than 50 percent of the viewers of both series say they view the programs frequently, compared to 42.5% of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno viewers who say they watch frequently, and 37% of Late Show with David Letterman viewers.

Especially critical to advertisers, an impressive 47% of Spike Fereston viewers and 41% of Tim and Eric viewers say they are likely to "consider advertising on these shows a recommendation and are more likely to consider purchasing products

Only at JackMyers.com: Ed Martin's TV Buzz:
General Hospital Sadness: Remembering Nurse Amy Vining

and/or services being offered." Comparatively, all the other late night talk shows achieve high advertising responsiveness scores among only 12% to 20% of their audiences. Oxygen's Talk Sex with Sue Johanson generates the 20% positive responsiveness score, while ABC'sJimmy Kimmel Live falls last at 12%

Advertisers will also be impressed by the exceptionally high ratings accorded both Talkshow and Tim and Eric for commercial attentiveness. Forty-eight percent of Spike's audience and 43% of the Tim and Eric viewers say once they "tune into the programs they are likely to stay tuned without skipping commercials." Among Leno viewers, 28% say they are likely to stay tuned for commercials and among Letterman viewers, 24% say they will stay tuned to watch commercials.

Based on the JackMyers data, Fox would be well served making Talkshow with Spike Feresten available through video-on-demand, iTunes and other pay-per-download venues. Although ratings to the series are comparatively small, an amazing 43% of the program's viewers say they "value the program enough to pay a special fee to watch whenever they want." Thirty percent would pay to watch Tim and Eric Awesome Show, which is entering its second season, The other eight late night talk shows included in the study (see chart below) register VOD interest among only 11% to 16% of their audiences.

Wikipedia describes Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! as "an American television series, created by and starring Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, which premiered February 11, 2007 on Adult Swim. The show, which expands on the live-action material featured in Heidecker and Wareheim's previous show, Tom Goes to the Mayor, consists of sketches, songs, and mock commercials. It features several characters and segments seen in Tom Goes to the Mayor, such as Gibbons, the "Channel 5 Married News Team", and the Cinco Corporation with its various useless products. New recurring characters and sketches include "Uncle Muscles Hour," a cable access variety program hosted by a gravelly-voiced "Weird Al" Yankovic. The episodes are sold on iTunes and Xbox Live Marketplace after initial airing.

The show features a variety of celebrity cameos from such actors and comedians as Maria Bamford, Michael Cera, David Cross, Will Forte, Zach Galifianakis, Neil Hamburger, David Liebe Hart, A.D. Miles, Bob Odenkirk, Brian Posehn, John C. Reilly, Paul Reubens, Fred Willard, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Jeff Goldblum, Rainn Wilson and Michael Q. Schmidt."

Talkshow with Spike Feresten is described by Wikipedia as an American talk/sketch/variety television program on FOX starring Spike Feresten.

Writers include: Joe Furey (Late Night with David Letterman, Newsradio), Jeff Cesario (The Larry Sanders Show, Comedy Central Presents), and Adam Felber ("Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!"). Some of the regular sketches on the show include "Idiot Paparazzi", where photographers hit the streets and take photos of people who vaguely look like famous people; "Comedy for Stoners", where a comedy sketch specially designed for someone who might be stoned; "Tomorrow's Headlines Today", when Spike reads headlines ("Ford Lays Itself Off", " Al Gore Melts", "NBC Pre-cancels Fall '07 Lineup", etc.) from Sunday's paper from various newspapers; sponsors for the show (such as Pitters beer, a very flammable beer sold in a breakaway bottle, with an AIDS test on the label, etc.), and "Backfat Sponsorship", where Spike uses one of his writer's (seemingly Felber, although not identified) backfat to advertise Fortune 500 companies (Red Bull, PS3, and Ign.com). On May 7, 2007 FOX renewed Talkshow With Spike Feresten for a 2nd season, making it the longest running talkshow on FOX.

Conducted June 2007 among 8,000 Americans aged 15-64 in multichannel homes. Detailed methodology is available at www.jackmyers.com/research.