TV Buzz is Building This Fall: Old Favorites & Newcomers Both Drive TV Talk This Season - Ed Keller - MediaBizBloggers

A difficult economy is proving to be a benefit to TV amp8211 at least when it comes to word of mouth TV show talk levels are up six percent from this time last year according to my firm39s word of mouth tracking research With the fall TV season now hitting its midyear stride we see interesting and important dynamics taking place this year that ratings alone do not unveilSome of the brightest of this season39s shining stars when it comes to TVrelated word of mouth are new shows Glee and Vampire Diaries While neither is yet in the top 20 when it comes to their Nielsen ratings they both do quite well when it comes to word of mouth amp8211a likely precursor to future ratings growth Fox39s Glee has already broken into the word of mouth Top 10 for Fall 3909 ranking at 7 in terms of WOM The CW which bills itself as providing quotTV to Talk Aboutquot is living up to its motto this year with Vampire Diaries which falls just outside of the Top 10 12Major buzz isn39t limited to new shows though CBS has experienced some of the biggest gains thus far this season with veteran shows NCIS and Survivor experiencing 142 and 52 gains in WOM activity respectively fueling big jumps for both shows NCIS is up from 8 this time last year to 3 now and Survivor broke back into the Top 10Not all of this movement is positive however with some of the most talked about shows last year dropping in rank amp8211 some out of the Top 10 altogether Heroes showed a significant drop amp8211 from the number 3 spot to 10 amp8211 a result of WOM activity decreasing by 51 Even still at 10 its word of mouth performance is better than its rating performance as the show is not in the top 20 among Primetime series Desperate Housewives and Fringe both fell off the Top 10 list due to drops in WOM activity of 47 and 41 respectively Law ampamp Order also dropped off the list with a smaller WOM activity decrease of 27 Top 10 Programs in Terms of WOM amp160 Fall amp821709 vs Fall amp821608 Fall 2008 Fall 2009 1 CSI 1 House 2 House 2 CSI 3 Heroes 3 NCIS 4 Dancing with the Stars 4 Dancing with the Stars 5 Family Guy 5 Family Guy 6 Law ampamp Order 6 Greyamp8217s Anatomy 7 Greyamp8217s Anatomy 7 Glee 8 NCIS 8 Survivor 9 Fringe 9 The Office 10 Desperate Housewives 10 Heroes Sourceamp160 Keller Fay Groupamp8217s TalkTrackamp174 Comparing the Top 10 lists by gender also yields some intriguing results for this season While the rank order differs it39s notable that seven of the 10 most talked about shows are common across genders Unique to the men39s top 10 are Family Guy 2 The Office 5 and Heroes 9 while Law ampamp Order 8 Vampire Diaries 9 and Supernatural 10 are unique to the women39s top 10 Top 10 Programs in Terms of WOM amp160 Fall amp821709 By Gender Men Women 1 House 1 CSI 2 Family Guy 2 NCIS 3 CSI 3 House 4 NCIS 4 Dancing with the Stars 5 The Office 5 Greyamp8217s Anatomy 6 Dancing with the Stars 6 Survivor 7 Glee 7 Glee 8 Survivor 8 Law ampamp Order 9 Heroes 9 Vampire Diaries 10 Greyamp8217s Anatomy 10 Supernatural Sourceamp160 Keller Fay Groupamp8217s TalkTrackamp174 When it comes to word of mouth among teens ages 13 to 17 six of the top 10 shows are the same as the total public39s top 10 The four that are unique Gossip Girl 4 Vampire Diaries 5 Sponge Bob Square Pants 8 and South Park 9 Top 10 Programs In Terms of WOMamp160 Fall amp821609 Ages 1317 amp160 1 Family Guy 2 House 3 Glee 4 Gossip Girl 5 Vampire Diaries 6 NCIS 7 The Office 8 Sponge Bob Square Pants 9 South Park 10 CSI Sourceamp160 Keller Fay Groupamp8217s TalkTrackamp174 If TV buzz has risen this fall who39s driving the rise There are interesting changes between this time last year and now In particular the rise in unemployment amp8211 from approximately 7 in November 2008 to 10 in November 2009 according to US Department of Labor figures amp8211 seems to be driving more talk about TV showsIn the fall of 2008 unemployed people accounted for 146 of all people talking about TV shows That number has now jumped to 204 for that same time period this year amp8211 a 39 increaseWhile more unemployed people are talking about TV that shift has only nominally translated in terms of where TVrelated conversations are taking place Workplace TV conversations have declined but not in a statistically significant way Rather more conversations are taking place while people are in transit amp8211 up 62 from this time last year In all other categories the numbers have remained relatively stableSo what do we learn from all of this It39s clear that TV is still capturing a large share of the national conversation even if the people having those conversations have changed It seems that in these trying economic times people want more than ever to be entertained amp8211 and they want to talk about itEd Keller CEO of the Keller Fay Group has been called quotone of the most recognized names in word of mouthquot The publication of Keller39s book The Influentials has been called the quotseminal moment in the development of word of mouthquot Ed can be contacted at ekellerkellerfaycomRead all Edamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Ed Keller MediaBizBloggersFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBlogger

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TV Buzz is Building This Fall: Old Favorites & Newcomers Both Drive TV Talk This Season - Ed Keller - MediaBizBloggers

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