• Media Life, Tuesday, March 6, 2007 11:30 AM

The rich are indeed different in many ways, one of them being what they like to watch on TV. Among the favorites of the well-heeled set are ABC's "Saturday Night Football" and "What About Brian," along with NBC's "Friday Night" and "30 Rock." All four shows rank in the top 15 among affluent viewers, while none are higher than 80th among general households, according to a Magna Global analysis of Nielsen Media Research ratings.

While a couple shows matched with the general viewing public's favorites -- including "Desperate Housewives," most were different. The skew is also seen in the networks. Though NBC has slid from first to fourth place in 18-49s over the past few years, it ranks No. 2 in median household income behind ABC, and it has seven of the top 20 shows in median income.

"Affluent programs are important to advertisers because [their viewers] have more money to spend," says Steve Sternberg, executive vice president of audience analysis at Magna. "But obviously, they are more important to some advertisers than others." By the numbers, ABC's audience has a median income of $64,000, based on adults 25-54 in fourth quarter, compared to NBC's $60,000, CBS' $59,000, Fox's $53,000 and the CW's $45,000.

Read the whole story at Media Life »