Republican-Voting States Drive Viewing For 'Roseanne'

by Wayne Friedman , March 30, 2018

Republican-voting states in the November 2016 election helped push ABC's “Roseanne” to high initial Nielsen levels, according to Samba TV.

Eight of 10 Republican-voting states scored higher viewing results, when compared to overall U.S. viewership for the return of the TV series, per Samba measurement.

They included: Nebraska, with 60.1% higher than national viewing levels of the show; Wisconsin with 46.8%; Oklahoma with 42.9%; Missouri with 36.6%; Iowa with 36.5%; Pennsylvania with 34.4%; Ohio with 32.2%; and Michigan with 28.3%.

Democratic-voting states Illinois (34.1%) and Massachusetts (23.7%) were also in the top 10.

However, a number of Republican states under-performed in viewing: Montana (17.7% below national viewing levels for the show), Louisiana (21.6%), Florida (40.6%), Arkansas (41.3%), and Utah (41.5%)

The biggest individual metro areas for viewing were Pittsburgh, 50.8% higher than “Roseanne” national viewership; Cleveland, 42.2%; St. Louis, 38%; Philadelphia, 30.2%; and Chicago, 28.6%.

The show also had a cable news consumption index of 1.89 on Fox News Channel; 1.56 on CNN; and 1.54 on MSNBC.

Samba TV gets its data from 14.4 million smart TVs, set-top boxes, TV apps and connected devices.

Nielsen reported that the first two episodes of “Roseanne” averaged a big 18.2 million viewers and a 5.1 rating among 18-49 viewers.

nielsen, politics, tv

3 comments about "Republican-Voting States Drive Viewing For 'Roseanne'".

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Joshua Chasin from KnotSimpler, April 2, 2018 at 2:48 p.m.
Roseanne didn't find an audience because of its politics. It found an audience because it was-- and is-- funny. Indeed I'll note that the first of the two episodes packaged together as the premiere was the one with the politics, and wasn't nearly as good as the second one (because much of the air time of the first epiode was devoted to sharing character backstory and intrpoducing the new characters.)

What makes Roseanne funny? It's simple.

The jokes.

Laurie Metcalfe, John Goodman, and Sarah GIlbert are all still great. I'm looking forward to more jokes, shennanigns, horse play, and maybe even another Halloween episode.
Reply

Rick Thomas from MediaRich Marketing, April 2, 2018 at 6:51 p.m.

These are the forgotten viewers/people in our society. Nobody looked at them as targets for advertisers. They considered them low income, low education, not the upscale viewers brands wanted.

That has all changed. Those people buy toilet paper, tech products and cars & trucks as well. They just happen to be buying Ford F-150's instead of Teslas. To dismiss them as has been the case over the last 25 plus years is silly. Roseanne is about them. And that's why more content needs to be created to reach out to them. These people care less about 60 Minutes and more about Honey Boo Boo.

Where they live and who the vote for may be meaningless.

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, April 2, 2018 at 8:12 p.m.

Rick, as a matter of fact, the "forgotten" viewers are also the most frequent viewers by a wide margin over the upscale, elites who look down on so much TV fare. You don't have to cater to their lifestyles and/or values in order to get them to watch a show. Just feed them ample doses of "Juge Judy", "Dr Phil". Jerry Springer", and many other types of basically middle- low brow fare and you will get them.