Old Man, Take A Look At My Ratings

via GIPHY

In the world of media, age has always been a key variable in how we create content and then market it to the advertising community.

In radio, it’s always a matter of demographics – who your brand appeals to versus a desired target audience.  On numerous occasions, I’ve used this blog to discuss the “demographic cliff” and what it means when your radio station’s audience tips 55+.

In radio, that generally means certain death – no pun intended.  Our business model simply cannot accommodate or account for an audience that reaches 55 (or that falls below 25), even though the average listener according to our Techsurveys and Nielsen data continues to climb into “cliff range.”

And yet in television, the trend is just the opposite.  As MediaPost‘s Adam Buck calls it, “Old Coot TV” is a new trend.

We’ve come a long way since a grizzled senior – Clint Eastwood – sat on his front porch in Gran Torino and snarled a line that’s become a famous meme:

“GET OFF MY LAWN!”

That was in 2008.  The movement featuring old guys has blossomed in the years since.  And these days, when you turn on TV – the commercial networks as well as the streaming platforms – you’re likely to see famous AARP members in the lead role.

Maybe this comeback of the coots started in force with ABC-TV’s wildly successful reality TV show, The Golden Bachelor from last year.  The show turned out to be a winner on many levels – viewership, buzz, and as a pop culture milestone.

This brilliantly written trailer showcases the nicely aging single elder, Gerry Turner, embracing the show’s attitude:

Since then, there’s been a torrent of old guy TV.  Netflix, in particular, has showcased these aged dudes.  There was The Kominsky Effect, starring Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin.

And right now, one of their hottest shows is headed up by 76 year-old Ted Danson, who’s come a long way since playing Sam on Cheers.  This new series – Man On the Inside – features Danson, a retiree who ends up going undercover in a…(wait for it) high-rise retirement community.  You might be wondering how a show about old people could fare well in our modern hi-tech world.  Danson and Man On the Inside have already been renewed for a second season.

Others oldies in Danson’s building include Sally Struthers (77), Veronica Cartwright (75), and Susan Ruttan (76).  If you don’t remember these stars from other TV shows, it might be time to pop a couple Prevagens.

Over on Hulu, one of their biggest shows has been Murders in the Building starring oldsters Steve Martin and Martin Short.  While Selena Gomez has the enviable task of making fun of these elder gents, the laughs on the show are generated by these senior stars.  Murders… has celebrated four seasons with a fifth one coming next year.

Not to be left out of the geriatric game, Apple-TV’s Shrinking has become another huge multi-season hit.  Set in Pasadena, the show revolves around profanity-laced humor generated by a group of crazy psychotherapists.  The leader of the clinic is 80 year-old Harrison Ford who gets – and delivers – the best one-liners on the show.

(You know, if you added all their ages together…it would be a BIG number!)

If you ask Netflix, Hulu, or Apple TV execs if this long in the tooth group is getting a little too ancient to be competitive, they’d point you to all those subscription dollars that just keep pouring in and the impressive audiences that keep watching these shows.

And some of these platforms have lower-priced advertising tiers that carry limited numbers of commercials (like Netflix and Hulu), so that represents another base of revenue generated by this over the hill gang.

And when shows like The Golden Bachelor and its spin-off, The Golden Bachelorette, rack up impressive ratings and revenue for ABC-TV (yes, Disney), you’re looking at a broadcast network run by a group of savvy network executives that don’t abide many losers in their lineup.  They also are well aware their core audience is aging, so why not lean into the trend rather than try to run away from it?

Over on cable news, spot breaks are dominated by pharma ads and other commercials targeted to seniors.  It turns out their money spends just like everybody else’s.

When is broadcast radio going to crack the “old coot code” and carve out a path of fiscal stability by embracing this demographic sweet spot?  Why not embrace the demographic that’s still listening to AM/FM radio?

This is not a new argument, but it will fall on the same deaf ears.  It is apparently easier to right-size and “flatten out” companies than it is to stake out new demographic territory that requires actual selling on the front end to establish a beachhead and over time, a reliable track record of performance and results.

And strategically, the first station that “owns” the audience they have – 50+ – and aggressively sells it will have this position all to themselves, versus dealing with ratings compression and fighting for a tenth of a rating point.

Maybe I’ve been doing this too long, but every time a higher-up attempts to explain to me why “there are no dollars over 54” in radio, I turn on the TV and discover what American adults are watching in droves – along with all those advertisers paying billions for the privilege of having their spots run next to all this blue-haired content.

And I just want to scream,

“GET OFF MY LAWN!”