Adult Swim Broadcast Ratings

SplashBreeze

SplashBreeze

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Joined
Jul 28, 2018
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Shenmue
I posted this on Twitter and figured it's worth creating a thread here to track ratings performance of the anime. The site ShowBuzzDaily releases cable TV numbers for the US market on a daily basis. With this data we can extrapolate total number of viewers and get a sense of performance with the 18-49 demographic, which advertisers rely on to decide what shows they want to purchase commercial slots for. These ratings cover the number of people that tuned into the Adult Swim Toonami block at 12:30 and watched enough of the episode to be counted in the rating.

Crunchyroll numbers won't be included here and I'm not sure they even share any viewership metrics with the public. This also won't include streaming numbers for US viewers watching on the Adult Swim website after the air date, and likely doesn't include DVR numbers either that usually get added a week later.

For Episode 1 we have these numbers:

Show Ranking - #33 in key demographic for Feb 5th
Total viewers - 212,000
18-49 demo: 0.11
12-34 demo: 0.12
25-54 demo: 0.08
50+ demo: 0.04

According to ShowBuzzDaily, the 18-49 number is in line with weekly averages. 12-34 was slightly above average. 25-54 was slightly below average, and 50+ was below average. Total viewers is down compared to overall averages and I read elsewhere some speculation that American Dad replacing Family Guy as the Adult Swim lead in to Toonami is dragging the entire programming block down. That could explain why Shenmue's number is reported below average. Critical to remember that 18-49 is more important than total viewers to networks and it seems to be doing fine there.

The show airing the previous week: Assassination Classroom drew 109,000 viewers and scored a 0.05 for 18-49 in the 12:30 slot, so Shenmue basically doubled the performance of that time slot. The network would be expecting a bump in viewers for a night that contains a season finale of Blade Runner and the premier of Shenmue. If I had to guess, I would expect the ratings are in line with the network's expectations. Regardless of what any execs may think, it's pretty cool that hundreds of thousands of people are watching Shenmue.

Next week the show moves to 12:00am, which should be a friendlier time slot. Attack on Titan airs at 12:30am. AoT is a high interest anime so we'll see what effect on ratings it has.

SHOWBUZZDAILY’s Saturday 2.5.2022 Top 150 Cable Originals & Network Finals UPDATED | Showbuzz Daily

showbuzzdaily.com showbuzzdaily.com

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Update to the OP - Added all weekly ratings for the first season.

Season One Average Ratings (Final):

Average Total Viewership - 240,385
Average Rating in 18-49 demo - 0.11


Episode 1: Thunderclap (02/05/22)
Total viewers - 212,000
18-49 demo - 0.11

Episode 2: Daybreak (02/12/22)
Total viewers - 219,000
18-49 demo - 0.10

Episode 3: Yin-yang (02/19/22)
Total viewers - 301,000
18-49 demo - 0.14

Episode 4: Shackles (02/26/22)
Total Viewers - 243,000
18-49 demo - 0.11

Episode 5: Equal (03/05/22)
Total Viewers: 203,000
18-49 demo - 0.09

Episode 6: Dignified (03/12/22)
Total Viewers - 222,000
18-49 demo - 0.10

Episode 7: Future (03/19/22)
Total Viewers - 274,000
18-49 demo - 0.14

Episode 8: Aspiration (03/26/22)
Total Viewers - 202,000
18-49 demo - 0.09

Episode 9: Distinct (04/02/2022)
Total Viewers - 251,000
18-49 demo - 0.13

Episode 10: Comeback (04/09/2022)
Total Viewers - 198,000
18-49 demo - 0.08

Episode 11: Entangled (04/16/2022)
Total Viewers - 261,000
18-49 demo - 0.11

Episode 12: Guidepost (04/23/2022)
Total Viewers - 278,000
18-49 demo - 0.12

Episode 13: Shenmue (04/30/2022)
Total Viewers - 261,000
18-49 demo - 0.11


Comparison to Adult Swim/Crunchyroll originals Fena: Pirate Princess and Blade Runner: Black Lotus -
Shenmue-Fena-BladeRunner Ratings Comparison.png
 
Last edited:
SplashBreeze said:
I posted this on Twitter and figured it's worth creating a thread here to track ratings performance of the anime. The site ShowBuzzDaily releases cable TV numbers for the US market on a daily basis. With this data we can extrapolate total number of viewers and get a sense of performance with the 18-49 demographic, which advertisers rely on to decide what shows they want to purchase commercial slots for. These ratings cover the number of people that tuned into the Adult Swim Toonami block at 12:30 and watched enough of the episode to be counted in the rating.

Crunchyroll numbers won't be included here and I'm not sure they even share any viewership metrics with the public. This also won't include streaming numbers for US viewers watching on the Adult Swim website after the air date, and likely doesn't include DVR numbers either that usually get added a week later.

For Episode 1 we have these numbers:

Show Ranking - #33 most watched on cable for Feb 5th
Total viewers - 212,000
18-49 demo: 0.11
12-34 demo: 0.12
25-54 demo: 0.08
50+ demo: 0.04

According to ShowBuzzDaily, the 18-49 number is in line with weekly averages. 12-34 was slightly above average. 25-54 was slightly below average, and 50+ was below average. Total viewers is down compared to overall averages and I read elsewhere some speculation that American Dad replacing Family Guy as the Adult Swim lead in to Toonami is dragging the entire programming block down. That could explain why Shenmue's number is reported below average. Critical to remember that 18-49 is more important than total viewers to networks and it seems to be doing fine there.

The show airing the previous week: Assassination Classroom drew 109,000 viewers and scored a 0.05 for 18-49 in the 12:30 slot the week prior, so Shenmue basically doubled the performance of that time slot. The network would be expecting a bump in viewers for a night that contains a season finale of Blade Runner and the premier of Shenmue. If I had to guess, I would expect the ratings are in line with the network's expectations. Regardless of what any execs may think, it's pretty cool that hundreds of thousands of people are watching Shenmue.

Next week the show moves to 12:00am, which should be a friendlier time slot. Attack on Titan airs at 12:30am. AoT is a high interest anime so we'll see what effect on ratings it has.

Here's the link to Feb 5th ratings if anyone wants to take a look at the numbers: https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/...2-top-150-cable-originals-network-finals.html
Click to expand...
Without having any context as to whether that's good or bad I'm assuming this is good.

The fact that around 212k people watched it in America is great. I'd love to know the CR numbers as well to see how that's gone along.
 
spud1897 said:
Without having any context as to whether that's good or bad I'm assuming this is good.

The fact that around 212k people watched it in America is great. I'd love to know the CR numbers as well to see how that's gone along.
Click to expand...
If this is anything like the BARB ratings system In the UK, I’d take this number with a massive pinch of salt. Our numbers used to fluctuate wildly from day to day depending on how many BARB viewers we managed to hit (we’re talking anywhere between a few thousand and a few hundred thousand). The good news is that it swings both ways, so this could just as easily be a massive under-estimation than a massive over-estimation.
 
It's hard to form an opinion based only on these numbers given the diminished status of broadcast TV in a streaming world. I expect Crunchyroll is where the majority of viewership is, so these numbers can only paint half a picture. If we continue to see the 18-49 demo hovering around 0.1 as the weeks drag on then I would bet the Toonami people are probably happy with that.
 
SplashBreeze said:
I posted this on Twitter and figured it's worth creating a thread here to track ratings performance of the anime. The site ShowBuzzDaily releases cable TV numbers for the US market on a daily basis. With this data we can extrapolate total number of viewers and get a sense of performance with the 18-49 demographic, which advertisers rely on to decide what shows they want to purchase commercial slots for. These ratings cover the number of people that tuned into the Adult Swim Toonami block at 12:30 and watched enough of the episode to be counted in the rating.

Crunchyroll numbers won't be included here and I'm not sure they even share any viewership metrics with the public. This also won't include streaming numbers for US viewers watching on the Adult Swim website after the air date, and likely doesn't include DVR numbers either that usually get added a week later.

For Episode 1 we have these numbers:

Show Ranking - #33 most watched on cable for Feb 5th
Total viewers - 212,000
18-49 demo: 0.11
12-34 demo: 0.12
25-54 demo: 0.08
50+ demo: 0.04

According to ShowBuzzDaily, the 18-49 number is in line with weekly averages. 12-34 was slightly above average. 25-54 was slightly below average, and 50+ was below average. Total viewers is down compared to overall averages and I read elsewhere some speculation that American Dad replacing Family Guy as the Adult Swim lead in to Toonami is dragging the entire programming block down. That could explain why Shenmue's number is reported below average. Critical to remember that 18-49 is more important than total viewers to networks and it seems to be doing fine there.

The show airing the previous week: Assassination Classroom drew 109,000 viewers and scored a 0.05 for 18-49 in the 12:30 slot the week prior, so Shenmue basically doubled the performance of that time slot. The network would be expecting a bump in viewers for a night that contains a season finale of Blade Runner and the premier of Shenmue. If I had to guess, I would expect the ratings are in line with the network's expectations. Regardless of what any execs may think, it's pretty cool that hundreds of thousands of people are watching Shenmue.

Next week the show moves to 12:00am, which should be a friendlier time slot. Attack on Titan airs at 12:30am. AoT is a high interest anime so we'll see what effect on ratings it has.

Here's the link to Feb 5th ratings if anyone wants to take a look at the numbers: https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/...2-top-150-cable-originals-network-finals.html
Click to expand...
Excellent work, compiling and explaining this info, my friend. Thanks!

And that's only the US, right? So the online viewers are not part of this equation, the rest of the world also isn't . That means hundreds of thousands of people around the globe have watched the first episode.

Shenmue is alive.
 
hyo_razuki said:
Excellent work, compiling and explaining this info, my friend. Thanks!

And that's only the US, right? So the online viewers are not part of this equation, the rest of the world also isn't . That means hundreds of thousands of people around the globe have watched the first episode.

Shenmue is alive.
Click to expand...
Thanks! Yes, this is live cable tv numbers for the US only, so only a fraction of the global audience.
 
Shenmue has pride of place at the start of the Toonami block from this week, so no matter what happens it's gonna do fine for whatever their average ballpark is. Might even get a nice boost this week because of that and leading into Attack on Titan at 12:30.

But yeah, generally agree that TV viewing figures are diminished/not hugely important in a VOD world.
 
Episode 2 numbers:

Show Ranking - #38 most watched on cable for Feb 12th
Total viewers - 219,000 (+7,000 from last week)
18-49 demo: 0.10 (-0.01)
12-34 demo: 0.11 (-0.01)
25-54 demo: 0.12 (+0.04)
50+ demo: 0.05 (+0.01)

The show continues to be average in 18-49 and slightly above average in 12-34 demos. Some observations:
  1. Attack on Titan did worse than Shenmue at 12:30 pulling 172,000 viewers and 0.08 in 18-49. That suprised me considering how much hype I see for the show online. This reinforces the idea that the majority of viewers for these anime shows exist on Crunchyroll or other streaming services, not Adult Swim/Toonami.
  2. The 18-49 demo is truly all that matters to advertisers and networks. I noticed a news program ranked two slots lower than Shenmue despite pulling 1.8 million viewers. 1.4 million of those were in the 50+ demo, which seems not to hold any clout whatsoever in ratings.
  3. The Super Bowl has a negative impact on TV ratings for other programming, even the day before. There could be a small bump next week now that the NFL season has wrapped.

SHOWBUZZDAILY’s Saturday 2.12.2022 Top 150 Cable Originals & Network Finals UPDATED | Showbuzz Daily

showbuzzdaily.com showbuzzdaily.com
 
Last edited:
SplashBreeze said:
Episode 2 numbers:

Show Ranking - #38 most watched on cable for Feb 12th
Total viewers - 219,000 (+7,000 from last week)
18-49 demo: 0.10 (-0.01)
12-34 demo: 0.11 (-0.01)
25-54 demo: 0.12 (+0.04)
50+ demo: 0.05 (+0.01)

The show continues to be average in 18-49 and slightly above average in 12-34 demos. Some observations:
  1. Attack on Titan did worse than Shenmue at 12:30 pulling 172,000 viewers and 0.08 in 18-49. That suprised me considering how much hype I see for the show online. This reinforces the idea that the majority of viewers for these anime shows exist on Crunchyroll or other streaming services, not Adult Swim/Toonami.
  2. The 18-49 demo is truly all that matters to advertisers and networks. I noticed a news program ranked two slots lower than Shenmue despite pulling 1.8 million viewers. 1.4 million of those were in the 50+ demo, which seems not to hold any clout whatsoever in ratings.
  3. The Super Bowl has a negative impact on TV ratings for other programming, even the day before. There could be a small bump next week now that the NFL season has wrapped.
Click to expand...
I'd say that's pretty solid all in all.
 
Beating Attack On Titan is a very solid sign. Crunchyroll numbers may be very different, but it shows there is at least a fairly formidable market on Toonami so far. Would love to see these ratings with the "live+" numbers added in. I'm a huge fan of the show 24, and I remember going on a website looking at ratings week to week where people would track them, and they always wee able to find numbers of the "live+", which includes streaming, at least partially.
 
24Nathan said:
Beating Attack On Titan is a very solid sign. Crunchyroll numbers may be very different, but it shows there is at least a fairly formidable market on Toonami so far. Would love to see these ratings with the "live+" numbers added in. I'm a huge fan of the show 24, and I remember going on a website looking at ratings week to week where people would track them, and they always wee able to find numbers of the "live+", which includes streaming, at least partially.
Click to expand...
These numbers include Live+ Same Day DVR, though I'm not sure there's actually enough time to count any DVR stats since the show technically airs on Sunday for the east coast, but is counted with Saturday's numbers. I'll bet the Live+ 3 day and 7 day DVR numbers are hidden behind a paywall somewhere.
 
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