Supernatural Ratings Season Six: Fridays Are Wildly Succeeding
Sure, ratings for “Supernatural” became irrelevant somewhere around the middle part of season four, but some dorks like me adore tracking them anyway. It kills a good afternoon at work. Relevant or not though, ratings are tracked, press releases are still done when they’re good, and even though they’re nothing more than a PR tool anymore, ratings bring attention to a show. Especially ones on a cut rate network.
“Supernatural” season six is in an awesome position. All it needs to do is pull numbers similar to last year and they go suddenly from demo drain to network superstar. Why? Friday nights. This is the night shows are perceived to go and die. Expectations are low. Lord knows the other networks (except CBS) have given up on it. This is finally the chance for The CW, the low rated “fifth place by a mile” network to actually compete. The CW, just like the predecessors UPN and The WB, have never competed in total viewers. They don’t want to. Their goal is to be better in coveted advertiser demo numbers. The gold standard for demo ratings is adults 18-49 but the CW is more specialized than that. They tout adults 18-34. On the other four nights, they especially go for 18-34 women. On Fridays though, any demo viewer will do. So far, the grand strategy is working.
The combination of “Smallville” and “Supernatural” on Friday nights is generating buzz for The CW. They’re actually now getting kudos from pundits that have previously knocked down whatever this network does. They’re calling it smart scheduling. “Smallville” in 18-49 recently finished first in its timeslot. Both “Smallville” and “Supernatural” are now routinely taking first place in their timeslots in 18-34. This past week, they both even drew more total viewers than Fox. Competing in total viewers is inconceivable on any other night.
I’ve just updated our year to year ratings chart so it now includes the first four episodes of season six. When comparing year to year, season six is hardly impressive. At one point in season one on The WB “Supernatural” was drawing around 5 million viewers. In season six that number at best is 2.9 million. Heck, a series low was hit just a couple of weeks ago with “The Third Man” at 2.16 million. Turns out though, they’re drawing similar numbers to season five when they were on Thursday night. The demo numbers are the same, but a 1.2 in the 18-49 demo on Thursday pulls last place where this past Friday night that 1.2 tied “Supernatural” for second place. Second! It’s also one of the best showings in the demo The CW gets all week. All that on “left-for-dead” Friday night.
Recent history proves that when shows are moved to Friday night from another night, ratings decrease. With “Smallville” and “Supernatural,” they’ve remarkably maintained. That’s a testament to their loyal fan bases that will follow them anywhere, which is exactly why they were chosen for Friday nights. The CW needed to put contenders in there, especially when their Fridays crashed after WWE Smackdown left the network. Many took this move as a condemnation of show death, but others knew it was an opportunity. The shows if anything were being pushed out of harms way and being allowed to shine.
Sure, overall viewers are down compared to other seasons, but that doesn’t matter anymore. Not too long ago a top rated scripted show, even on a Friday, took 20 million viewers. Now that number is down to 10 million. For The CW, top shows for them once took 5 million. Now, anything that comes remotely close to 3 million is golden.
It’s hard for people to get out of the overall viewers mentality though, for it’s an easy figure to swallow. People don’t care what advertisers want, they want to know how many viewers actually watched the show. That’s where the picture gets even murkier though. The fact remains we truly don’t know what the real bottom line is. Friday shows, because many of us are out and about on the weekends, get far better DVR numbers in terms of percentage increase than other nights (although the most DVR’d night is Thursday). The problem is Nielsen doesn’t release DVR numbers to the public like they do overnight ratings figures. A lot of shows will get a 30 to 50 percent bump thanks to DVR in total viewers. There’s online viewing too. Network websites and iTunes sales aren’t released, advertised and promoted the way those live ratings are. “Supernatural” and “Smallville” for the past few seasons also rank higher in DVD sales than most other shows, including top network draws like “House” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” They by far outsell any other titles on The CW.
The truth is, we really don’t know how many people are actually watching the show in the US. There’s also a whole international market out there in which we have no clue how the show is performing. All we know is internationally “Supernatural” is very popular and shown in a lot of countries. Shows that do well on the international market anymore will have a longer life, no matter how they perform in the US. For example, want to know why “The Event” was just given a full season by NBC even though the ratings are crashing? Simple, the show was sold to over 200 countries. International interest is a large reason as to why “Supernatural” has survived this long. Now, a syndication deal with TNT isn’t hurting either.
In the meantime, when we here at The Winchester Family Business get all excited that “Supernatural” and “Smallville” are getting huge kudos for pulling the same numbers on a different night, it’s just because on a Friday that means that they’re actually a top draw. The CW will take the attention anyway they can get it and us fans have never objected to love for our shows. As a matter of fact, we’ve often protested our shows never get it. If anything, season seven for “Supernatural” is looking more like a done deal, especially since this is “Smallville’s” last season. “Supernatural” will have to carry on the proud Friday night torch. It’s not a bad place to be.
Thanks for the info Alice, I love reading about the numbers too! Mostly, I’m happy people are watching! As always, thanks for a great article.
This is the kind of ‘dorkism’ I love (is that even a word? :shock:-)… Though I am a fan of the show’s story I am very interested in what goes on behind the curtain of this industry. A while back, in another life, it was somewhat important to know that and to know how to play the game.
I am so happy that our show does well. More than well. Safe paychecks for everyone involved. Not the worst thing, eh?
Thanks for this! Jas
Thanks for ‘killing an afternoon at work’, Alice. I love these moments with the numbers and a peek behind the curtain.
I didn’t worry about SPN’s move to Friday night notably because: A, we got a sixth season, and B, Smallville didn’t die there it got a 10th and final season. And since the best I can do is watch the show, and write about it here, as well as by the DVDs there isn’t anything I can do personally to affect anything (I’m not a Nielsen home) just a loyal viewer.
Still, it’s nice to see ‘our little show’ kick some butt on Friday nights and to see the little gems of CW spin that come out touting the show. I think Dawn especially is a little slow and late (not to mention reluctant) to come to the party –sluts and snots are not the future of ANY network– but in the past few years she has changed her tone a bit about SPN and there is a fair bit more positive speak and energy coming from her — heck, she even flew up to Vancouver and partied for their 100th! So there’s no doubt that the network knows what’s working and what isn’t.
I’m happy to see SPN and SMLV in fighting form on Friday nights and doing so well. Don’t know who will be hanging out with the Winchesters on Friday night next season but I’m pretty certain our boys will be back — we know they’ve already gotten their contracts in order so no doubt Dawn and company have been thinking about Season 7 for a while now.
Thanks for the dorkism (I think it’s a word, Jas 🙂 I’m happy to ‘kill a few minutes’ reading it.
🙂
Being the dork that you are, Alice (and I am so glad you are when you write an article like this!), do you know how much TNT paid per episode to get SPN? Since TNT is part of the Warner family I would assume they got some sort of deal but I’m curious what they paid.
Thanks for this article and, as always, for your wonderful site!
Thanks for this article, Alice, it’s great.
And an extra info from my country. I’m from Venezuela, and here Supernatural airs on the old Thursday nights at 9 pm on Warner Channel, in every state. I can’t give you the numbers but I can tell you that SPN is performing very well and is very popular around here, it has the biggest fan base of Warner Channel and thought season 6 have not air here yet (I have watch every ep online) it looks like the numbers will keep going as well as they have this last 5 years or even better 🙂
Thank you for the info!
Thanks for the article.
It’s nice to know that Supernatural is getting positive exposure by reason of its ratings on Friday nights (irrespective of total viewership). And this can only have a good impact for Supernatural.
P/S I have no idea how Supernatural is doing in Singapore unfortunately, but I have been told that I’m not the only individual anxious for Season 5’s DVD to arrive here, and checking every week. 😛
Thanks for the information Alice. It’s interesting to hear from your perspective the meaning behind all these numbers. They can be so confusing.
I was one of those people that was worried about SPN moving to Friday night. I thought it would mean a slow, but quick death for our beloved show. But, I am now very encouraged from what you are saying that our show is staying strong and that another season is a strong possibility. Very happy with this news. Let’s hope the ratings keep up throughout the year.
No problem, Alice.
And I forgot to mention that we have SPN on two channel, Warner Channel and Televen,thought in the last one we have it with the hot voices of Jensen and Jared changed for Spanish voices which is kind wear, but of course it helps SPN to be even more popular here. 🙂
Sorry, I meant Weird, not wear. Like I said I’m from Venezuela and my English is not the best 🙂
Since I wrote this article, DVR ratings have become available. Supernatural is gaining around a 35% increase in viewership, including .3 to .4 jumps in the demo. They’re actually drawing a 1.5 and 1.6 in the 18-49 demo on most episodes! They are even doing better in 18-34, although those exact numbers aren’t available. That’s very remarkable, especially for a Friday. That puts them near Vampire Diaries territory.
Yes, “All Dogs Go To Heaven” hit a series low, but weeks like that happen for some explained and some unexplained reasons. One week is no reason to worry. It’s the trend that people must pay attention to and so far the trend is good.
I live in Brazil and Iwhen I first heard about how low Supernatural rating is in USA I got really surprised. Here the show is a total success, especially in FTA TV where it had the best rating at the time slot.
This is a very interesting read. Its been a few months later, and the ratngs for all shows seem to be feeling the heat even (Supernatural).
How do you think were holding up now?
I just posted an updated article yesterday! We’re still doing good. Here’s the link:
[url]https://www.thewinchesterfamilybusiness.com/article-list/category16/16082-february-frenzy-why-supernatural-ratings-are-still-not-a-problem-fringe-fans-should-be-worried-though.html[/url]