• by Carl Mayer , Op-Ed Contributor, December 6, 2024

As streaming becomes more prevalent and people continue to record programs to watch later, live viewership has become increasingly prized by broadcasters, media buyers and advertisers.  Live sports are currently the best way to make sure people see your ads when they actually air, but they usually come with a hefty price tag.  Most syndicated programs are watched live, but most of that airs in daytime or early fringe.  

What if I told you there is another way to capture live viewership, in prime-time, on wide-reaching broadcast TV, and it’s cost-efficient?  

Allow me to introduce you to Saturday evening.

It’s Saturday Night Evening Live

Aside from NBC at 11:30, the networks don’t seem to put a lot of thought into Saturday evening when building their schedules.  It’s mostly encores of procedurals, a movie from their studio catalog, or a repackaged newsmagazine.  With the temporary exception of Fox hits "Cops" and "America’s Most Wanted" in the ‘90s, they all seem to have thrown in the towel for the night.  

These programs have remained a staple of linear media plans for one main reason: they’re efficient.  Buyers love to show their clients how many premium Primetime programs they’ve snagged for them but rely on Saturday to do the grunt work of bringing down the overall CPM.

But these programs have a secret super power: People watch them when they air.  

Let’s Look at Some Charts

This past broadcast year, CBS’ highest-rated program among adults 18-49 was Survivor; the most-viewed episode of "Survivor" (again on A18-49) aired on Wednesday, Feb. 28.  

Check out how that episode performed versus what aired on Saturday of the same week:

Obviously, the "FBI" encores didn’t set the world on fire and fewer people watched them than tuned into "Survivor."  But look at how much of the audience watched live versus during the three days post-broadcast.  That’s a lot of commercials that didn’t get fast-forwarded.

Same with NBC.  "Chicago PD" is its highest-rated program, and Jan. 17 was its highest-rated episode.  That Saturday?  An hour-long primetime version of "Saturday Night Live" (Kate McKinnon/Billie Eilish in case you were wondering).

Same thing.  Only 10% of the "SNL" viewers watched in the three-day window, compared to 38% for "Chicago PD."

ABC is an interesting case, since the network can draw upon its ESPN sports properties to enhance its broadcast schedule.  Many of its Saturday evenings are populated by NBA and NCAA football games - the Holy Grail in live-viewed programming.  Still, they do manage to carve out time for other, non-sports content.  Here’s the highest-rated episode of last season’s highest-rated series (in this case "The Bachelor’s" season finale), compared to what aired the following Saturday:

Carpe Saturday

If you’ve read this far, you may be thinking, but what does any of this matter?  I only pay for the impressions that view my commercial anyway, so I’m not really wasting any money here!

Correct.  But what you are wasting is opportunity.  Wouldn’t you rather pay relatively little for people to see your ad than pay nothing for them to ignore it?  This should matter to all advertisers, but especially those with time-sensitive campaigns - retailers running a short-term sale, automakers who want to get people into their dealerships and studios that want their new movie to do well on Sunday and finish the weekend strong.  

In the End…

Saturday is the little evening that could. It’s the workhorse that doesn’t get enough credit. Saturday is unjustly unloved, and buyers would do well to realize that it offers a lot that the more celebrated evenings don’t.