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Ex-'Leno' Watchers Fled To Cable

  • Media Life, Wednesday, December 16, 2009 10:31 PM
Where have all NBC's 10 p.m. viewers gone? Their broadcast rivals did not pick up the viewer spillage. New data suggests the prized 18-49-year-old viewers have fled to basic cable, helping create such fall hits as FX's "Sons of Anarchy" and TNT's "Men of a Certain Age."

According to Nielsen numbers crunched by Turner Broadcasting, this season so far (through the week ending Dec. 6) the three broadcast networks are down 14% from last year among 18-49s in the 10 p.m. hour on weeknights. Nearly all that loss is attributable to the whopping 45% hit that NBC has taken by airing "The Jay Leno Show" in place of the dramas that once ran at 10 p.m.

Ad-supported cable is up 1.6 points in the demo during the 10 p.m. hour. While there has been a shift from broadcast TV, it's also likely many viewers are disinterested NBC drama fans.

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