Peetooplus - CBS Cares... About Total Viewers?

CBS talks about total viewers a lot when they write their press releases. Combined perhaps with people getting hypnotized by all those "CBS Cares" commercials, this has led to two schools of thought on the Internet:

1) CBS cares about total viewers significantly more than other broadcast networks. They use the number as a major part of their network strategy out of respect for the people over 50 years old who watch their network. Press releases are good indicators of network strategy.
and
2) CBS is considerably stronger relative to other networks in total viewers than they are in most other measurements. Press releases have a tendency to play up the strengths of the network, no matter their importance in a network strategy.

So which one is true?

If you'll recall my scatter plots from an earlier post, I showed visually that ad rates are considerably better connected to the adults 18-49 demo than they are to total viewers. If CBS cares about the old folk, it should be different this time. Right?


Fewer data points, but the viewer one arguably looks a little better than the viewer one for all the networks, and it plays out that way in the correlation coefficient, where r = a stronger 0.71. But the demo correlation is better, much better than even the overall demo one was. r = 0.97. That's science experiment good.

CBS' average going rate for the demo is a little lower than broadcast in general, about $36,700 per demo point, but the majority of their shows are very close to that, with only demo-heavy 2.5 Men falling more than 15% away in either direction. Here's a complete list.

	Demo	Price	Price/pt
2.5 Men	5.1	226635	44438.24
CSI	4.8	198647	41384.79
CSI: Miami	4	140065	35016.25
Survivor	4	152246	38061.5
NCIS	3.65	133304	36521.64
Criminal Minds	3.6	116553	32375.83
CSI: New York	3.4	127941	37629.71
Amazing Race	3.2	109736	34292.5
60 Minutes	2.7	93772	34730.37
Ghost Whisperer	2.5	78047	31218.8
Numb3rs	2.3	85007	36959.57
Gary Unmarried	2.2	79986	36357.27
Old Christine	2.1	80106	38145.71

	Viewers	Price	Price/mil
CSI	18.1	198647	10974.97
NCIS	17.8	133304	7488.989
2.5 Men	14.9	226635	15210.4
Criminal Minds	14.4	116553	8093.958
CSI: Miami	14.1	140065	9933.688
60 Minutes	14.1	93772	6650.496
CSI: New York	13	127941	9841.615
Survivor	12.5	152246	12179.68
Amazing Race	10.5	109736	10451.05
Ghost Whisperer	10.3	78047	7577.379
Numb3rs	9.4	85007	9043.298
Old Christine	7.1	80106	11282.54
Gary Unmarried	7.1	79986	11265.63

The differences aren't as stark here, but still... they charge just 42% more per demo point on their priciest show (2.5 Men) than on their least pricey (GW). On the viewer chart, they charge more than 100% more per viewer to be on 2.5 Men than to be on 60 Minutes. Correlation-wise, advantage: the demo.

So maybe CBS "cares" about total viewers in the sense that they'd like to be able to get money for them, but they're still selling their ads based on the exact same number as everyone else. Some people say that CBS is more of an A25-54 network, and maybe that correlation's even better, but the A18-49 correlation is quite good, and much better than it is across all the networks combined. If they genuinely "care" about total viewers and use that number to make decisions about their network, they are throwing away money, and I offer to run the network. I'll even do it cheaper than the guys you have now, CBS.