Those who have been following the ratings for 24: Live Another Day know the live overnight figures haven’t been all that stellar. But recently released data from FOX paints a different picture.
The third episode of 24: Live Another Day aired on May 12th and we now have the thirty day multi-platform ratings which count all viewings of the show (live, DVR, encores, video on demand, and streaming) over a 30 day period. We’ll attempt to break down the data below:
- Live+SD: The live + same day DVR ratings for the third episode were 8.3 million viewers. These are people who watched between the air time of 9:00pm and 3:00am when the numbers get sent to Nielsen for processing.
- Live+7: The Live+7 ratings measure live viewing plus DVR viewing up to seven days later. The total audience for this was 11.7 million meaning another 3.4 million people caught up from their DVR during the first week.
- Encores: An additional 2.1 million viewers watched the episode via the encore airing that Friday.
- VOD and Streaming: lastly is video on demand and streaming services such as Hulu and Fox.com which added another 1.7 million viewers to the tally.
Altogether it adds up to a much more impressive 15.6 million total viewers which is a massive +87% increase from the initial ratings. This means 24 is the second most popular show on FOX after American Idol (the Idol season finale delivered 17.8 million viewers that week).
For comparison, at the absolute peak of 24‘s popularity, the heavily promoted and critically acclaimed fifth season premiered to 17.01 million viewers and averaged 13.78 million viewers throughout. Back then in early 2006, DVR usage was only an insignificant 1.6% and streaming services like Hulu didn’t even exist.
What this shows is that 24 hasn’t really lost much of its total audience, many just aren’t watching it live on Monday nights.
Unfortunately that is a problem as advertisers typically only care about Live+3 ratings (which measure live viewing plus DVR viewing up to three days later). Most commercials are time sensitive: movie studios want you to see their new film on opening weekend, restaurants want you to try their limited-time specials, etc. There is also the assumption that most DVR viewers skip the advertisements.
So as large as these 30 day ratings might be, the millions of people watching via DVR and online simply don’t matter as much as the earlier figures when it comes to negotiating ad rates. Now if FOX could somehow get these millions of DVR viewers to watch the show live, it’d be a much different story.
40 Comments
Comments ClosedShaun Clark
July 4, 2014 at 9:39 amOnly 2 more episodes to go which is not good :(
Anna lee
July 6, 2014 at 11:23 amChlojack
July 4, 2014 at 9:58 amJackBauerFan1977
July 4, 2014 at 9:58 amaliniknam
July 4, 2014 at 11:30 amMax Pen
July 4, 2014 at 12:19 pm24fan24
July 4, 2014 at 12:22 pmSeason 9 is by far a better last season of the show than Season 8 was.
24bauerfan
July 4, 2014 at 3:26 pmstalyn
July 4, 2014 at 12:32 pm24bauerfan
July 4, 2014 at 3:36 pmWith LAD, I personally waited until 7 episodes had already aired to start watching on the internet. I watched the first 8 in about 10 days. This was planned so that I’d watch the first 8 quickly, but the final 4 on a week by week basis with everyone else (it’s also because I was really busy during the airing of the first few weeks and couldn’t possibly have seen them :)). It worked wonders, I tell you, since the first 5 episodes while good aren’t really comparable quality wise with episodes 6-10 which are really good, sometimes great and have gotten better and better every week.
Advertisers still won’t care though… and that goes for all network shows (most of which are crap).
24fan24
July 4, 2014 at 4:21 pmAs I look back at the first ten episodes of this season, I really am more impressed than I was when they first premiered. I have really liked LAD, and my only complaints with the season are as follows:
-The obvious CGI problems, (which I can look past due to the plot of the season)
-The Heller ‘fake-out’ probably shouldn’t have taken place
-I originally didn’t like Navarro as a mole, but I have grown to like his character more and more
-The biggest problem of the season is that Jack Bauer doesn’t feel like the main character all the time, and Kate Morgan has way too much focus
Other than those few issues, I’d consider LAD one of my personal favorite seasons, along with 3, 5, and 7.
John
July 4, 2014 at 4:34 pm24fan24
July 4, 2014 at 6:07 pmFanta
July 4, 2014 at 8:20 pmThere is basically two ways to give a character more depth in a show like this. One is to give that character more screentime. But you don’t want that…
And the other option is to give that character a lot of emotions in a short period of time, but then you run into another issue: A professional CIA field agent is pr definition emotionally rock solid -as long as we actually want an authentic character. And Kate is one of the most authentic and real characters in 24 history. Very well written with a great balance between strengths and flaws. Personally I much rather see a few complain about Kate ‘lacking depth’ than to have a cartoon figure on screen.
John
July 4, 2014 at 3:44 pmPhee
July 4, 2014 at 11:41 pmHina
July 4, 2014 at 5:22 pm24bauerfan
July 5, 2014 at 7:37 pmrwhiting
July 4, 2014 at 7:46 pmStill, they have critical acclaim to go on. LAD is by far ’24’s’ most positively-received season in years, per fans and publications; and, likely, the most critically-acclaimed drama FOX has aired in recent times (‘Almost Human’ comes close, I suppose). It even has a “chance” for a few Emmy nods in the miniseries category, especially if it ends strong (“chance” is in quotes because FOX will have to bank on the nominating committee having remembered ’24’ by next year, since LAD missed the window for 2014 by a few episodes). So there’s that, and the good L+30 ratings, which actually mean a lot for a struggling network like FOX. In a year when the CW has been beating FOX some nights in the demo, having a competitive summer show is probably a relief for the network—even if the L+3 ratings are weak.
Right now, I’d say there is a 50-50 chance of FOX ordering another series. Really, I doubt anyone at FOX knows what direction they will take right now, and are waiting for the finale to make that determination. Regardless of whether this is ’24’s’ swan song or not, I think we can all agree that LAD was definitely worth the wait.
Clayton
July 4, 2014 at 10:35 pmThat’s why I have hope for more. If it’s really a decision that has the execs thinking “meh, whatever,” pulling the trigger and going for a tenth season isn’t all that risky.
24bauerfan
July 5, 2014 at 7:39 pmMeridith Bloom
July 5, 2014 at 1:09 amJD
July 5, 2014 at 1:03 pmAnna lee
July 6, 2014 at 11:21 amSteveS
July 6, 2014 at 12:19 pmHERNAN
July 7, 2014 at 12:57 pmSONIA
July 7, 2014 at 1:00 pmI hope there is season 10!!!
Chris
July 7, 2014 at 10:13 pmDonna
July 7, 2014 at 10:56 pmwenny
July 8, 2014 at 11:47 amGil
July 8, 2014 at 9:55 pmMark
July 8, 2014 at 10:16 pmIf you are like us, we do not watch the show Monday nights – the 20 minutes worth of ads break the pace of the show. We usually contain ourselves and wait until we can watch 3 shows all at once.
It is far more exciting that way and there are less ads.
Hope for a season 10!
Alan Mochel
July 9, 2014 at 12:55 pmElaine
July 9, 2014 at 9:43 pmPingston
July 10, 2014 at 5:36 pmThey are huge. many .torrent files are created for each episode, and for each of them tens of thousands of copies are downloaded.
For example, for episode 11, three days after it aired, for one of these torrents on July 10th at 5:20 pm EDT I see 7701 seeds and 8044 peers. This is impressive, considering the file size (246 MB) means downloaders need only stay online for less than 10 minutes to grab the show — and most people don’t stick around to seed.
Within the first show after the show ended, this same .torrent file had over 27,000 seeds and 44,000 peers. If you crunch the numbers for this .torrent file alone, it may well have distributed several million copies of the show.
There are several implications for this data, of course. It shows how under-estimated the official numbers are and how popular the show really is. But it also shows that the producers/FOX have real opportunities to charge more for product placement, which is advertising that isn’t deleted by DVR, etc. watchers It may also give a glimpse into the potential for the big Blu-Ray release.
I just re-watched Day 5 in less than a 24 hour period (I originally watched the entire series from bit torrents in under 3 weeks, a few years back, never having seen it on TV) and maybe it’s just me, but it’s remarkable how the impact isn’t dulled by remembering what I did from the original viewing. It stands up to repeated viewing and is as addictive the second time around (hence Day 5 binge-watch).
I write this as someone who has viewed TV in 7 different decades, although in different quantities, and don’t watch a lot today.
Cher Ann
July 11, 2014 at 3:15 amYour number one fan,
Cher Ann
Linda Yielding
July 15, 2014 at 9:13 amBob
July 16, 2014 at 1:43 amBob
July 16, 2014 at 1:46 amhitler was right
August 2, 2014 at 1:31 pm