As TV Viewing Habits Shift, Networks Vow Patience With Fall’s New Shows

The 2021-22 TV season is officially underway, and following last year’s pandemic upheaval, the broadcasters have returned to their traditional fall TV schedules. Over the next month or so, ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and The CW will debut 14 new entertainment series, as well as 58 returning series. But while the September premieres are back, another annual fall TV tradition seems to be gone for good: the networks’ practice of quickly cancelling some of their new shows after just a few weeks of low ratings. Viewing habits shifted dramatically from linear to streaming during the pandemic, and while broadcasters are optimistic that they will be able to recapture some of those audiences on linear this fall, they are also vowing to be more patient than ever as they evaluate the performance of their new shows. “I think it requires much more patience than we've ever experienced before,” said Frances Berwick, chairman, entertainment networks, NBCUniversal television and streaming, who cautioned against labeling shows hits or flops based on overnight ratings, “when it’s such a teeny, tiny piece of the equation.” These days, “you can’t really ask an audience to find and fall in love with a show in two or three weeks anymore,” said CBS Entertainment president Kelly Kahl. “Not too many years ago, after three weeks, we could tell you with pretty good certainty whether a show was going to succeed or not. Now, we know it can take months—or even in some cases, a couple of seasons—for people to really discover a show.” Networks Bet On Franchises Like FBI, CSI to Boost Broadcast’s Fall Ratings That’s not an exaggeration. Now more than ever, some shows that don’t make a splash on linear are later discovering huge audiences on streaming, from All American to Manifest, which Netflix picked up last month following NBC’s cancellation. More multiplatform metrics For several years, networks have focused more on live-plus-3 or live-plus-7 ratings instead of the overnight numbers that used to seal a show’s fate. But as multiplatform viewing—and especially streaming—has surged, executives are parsing more metrics than ever before as they try to determine the performance of the shows beyond the overnight rating. “We try to have as direct relationship with our viewers as possible. And there's a multitude of ways that we measure the viewing, whether it's live-plus-3, live-plus-7, multiplatform—all of those go into the recipe of how we evaluate the shows,” said Craig Erwich, president, ABC Entertainment and Hulu Originals. “And then it's really important that these are shows that we think are great, that are serving our viewers, that we can stand behind. And that's the stew by which we come to understand how we're doing.” Given the fact that Erwich also oversees Hulu, where almost all ABC shows stream the day after they debut on linear, “I get to see now how the ABC shows do stack up in the larger context of Hulu,” he said. “The ABC shows are consistently some of the most popular shows on Hulu.” From Grey’s Anatomy to The Good Doctor to The Conners, “it’s exciting to see that different audiences are accessing the same content on different platforms,” said Erwich. In addition to linear and streaming numbers, an audience’s “passion for a show,” social engagement and buzz “are increasingly important factors,” said Berwick. “Because there are shows that people really love and they are slower to build. That doesn’t mean that they’re not going to grow into juggernauts.” This Is Us > ER Those streaming hits aren’t the only examples of how delayed viewing enhances a show’s audience. NBC notes that when delayed viewing is factored in, This Is Us actually has a larger audience than ER, which was part of its Must-See TV lineup in the ’90s and ’00s. ER’s series premiere in 1994 had a 12 rating in the adults 18-49 demo, while This Is Us’ 2016 debut tallied a 13.1 rating in that same demo after a season of delayed viewing. More recently, the penultimate season of ER, in 2007-08, averaged a 3.4 rating in the 18-49 demo and 8.7 million viewers, while delayed viewing in This Is Us’ 2020-21 penultimate season averaged out to a 5.2 demo rating and 16.2 million total viewers. We know it can take months—or even in some cases, a couple of seasons—for people to really discover a show.—Kelly Kahl, president, CBS Entertainment “So even with all this audience fragmentation, This Is Us still by far has much more viewing than ER ever did. It’s just happening over a much longer period of time,” said Berwick. Meanwhile, three of ABC’s dramas delivered a larger digital audience in the 18-49 demo than on linear last season, in multiplatform-plus-35: Grey’s Anatomy (3.74 digital rating vs 2.07 linear), Big Sky (1.54 digital vs 1.29 linear) and A Million Little Things (1.30 digital vs 1.10 linear). Those same three shows more than quintupled their 18-49 ratings from live-plus-same-day to multiplatform-plus-35. Berwick notes that with her cable background heading up E!, Bravo and Oxygen, she’s more used to the slower growth of shows, “as opposed to hits out of the gate, which has typically been the broadcast norm.” Just because it takes longer for audiences to discover new shows doesn’t mean that networks won’t do everything they can to accelerate the process. “If we believe in the quality of a show,” said Kahl, “we have to put our money where our mouth is and be patient, redouble our efforts in promoting it and then trust that the audience will find it.”