• by Wayne Friedman , October 1, 2012

Not all TV shows are created equal -- and it's not just by analyzing TV ratings or even new social media results that nuances are revealed.

Viewers' emotional attachment is a better yardstick of interest, according to NewMediaMetrics, which puts together an annual TV programming study of new shows.

Looking at two distinct ad categories -- fast-food restaurants and beauty products, for example -- elicits some key detailed viewer "emotional" results.

FX's "Anger Management" and NBC's "Revolution" scored best in emotional attachment when it came to quick-service restaurants (QSRs), with a 29.6% and a 27.0% score, respectively.

In the beauty category, CW's upcoming "Beauty and the Beast" took top honors with a 35% score. Another strong contender was Lifetime's "The Client List," with a 33.5% result.

Although many TV shows tally big traditional TV ratings and high social-media numbers, Denise Larson, principal and co-founder of NewMediaMetrics, says: "What matters most of all isn't who is doing the talking -- it's not about the chatter. What's important is that you have the right brand attached."

Sometimes, two seemingly disparate advertising categories can also find the same home in the same shows.

For example, of the 50 new shows that NewMediaMetrics looked at this year, FX's "Anger Management" was No. 1 for fast-food restaurants and in second place among beauty marketers (33.7% average score). NBC's "Revolution" scored the third-best results among the beauty segment (32.5%), and the second-best results in the fast-food segment (27%).

What does this mean? Larson says overall strong shows generally can do well across all demographics and brands. She adds that the company examines an estimated 50 ad categories when it comes to emotional attachment of brands and TV shows.

The study also showed new programs with more mixed results.

For example, Fox's "The Mindy Project" was down the list when it came to fast foods -- in 32th place, for a 16.2% number -- with a stronger 10th-place result for beauty, at 24.3%. Another comedy, NBC's "Animal Practice," showed a similar trend -- better with beauty (16th place, 23.6%) than fast food (30th place, 17.1%).

Some shows don't seem to register with viewers at all.  ABC's upcoming "Nashville" tallied meager results in both categories -- with a 13.1% emotional score for fast-foods, coming in at 46th place, and a 17.3% number for beauty products, in 40th place.

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