{"id":1703,"date":"2011-03-22T13:00:40","date_gmt":"2011-03-22T19:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=1703"},"modified":"2011-08-25T18:03:24","modified_gmt":"2011-08-26T00:03:24","slug":"limiting-your-audience-janeane-garofalo-criminal-minds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=1703","title":{"rendered":"Limiting Your Audience: Janeane Garofalo & Criminal Minds"},"content":{"rendered":"

My wife and I enjoy watching the television program, Criminal Minds.\u00a0 <\/em>We have followed the exploits of the fictionalized B.A.U. (Behavioral Analysis Unit) from the very first episode, which aired in September 2005.\u00a0\u00a0Even though we\u00a0fit into the\u00a0key demographic — 18-49 year-olds — we are now beyond that even more coveted sub-group, the 18-35 year-olds.\u00a0 Alas, with age and experience come some downsides.<\/p>\n

Although\u00a0older viewers tend to be some of the\u00a0most loyal, advertisers believe that the younger demographic is where it’s at.\u00a0 A series can lose the over-50 crowd and still survive.\u00a0 But, heaven forbid if the show hemorrhages younger viewers.\u00a0 When this begins to happen, it’s only a matter of time before the series is either cancelled or fails to get picked up for another season.<\/p>\n

Because of the obsession with the youth culture and all things young, television shows are now produced for and marketed to 18 to 49 year-olds (especially 18 to 35 year-olds).\u00a0\u00a0The studios don’t mind the older folks watching their shows, but they much prefer the younger audiences.\u00a0 Ponce de Leon did not have anything on this generation.<\/p>\n

With the intense competition in today’s fragmented television market, it’s no wonder that producers and advertisers target a younger audience.\u00a0 CBS shows like The Big Bang Theory<\/em>, How I Met Your Mother<\/em>, and NCIS<\/em> appeal to the young demographic, although NCIS<\/em> has an even broader appeal.<\/p>\n

You would think that Hollywood would want to have as big an audience for their product as possible, but you would be wrong.\u00a0 Many times, Hollywood has such a narrow target audience in mind that it misses out on a\u00a0broader audience, which translates into more market share and higher ratings.\u00a0 However, the youth culture so drives Hollywood that they would rather\u00a0have lower overall numbers if they could have\u00a0higher numbers in the key 18-49 year-old\u00a0demographic.<\/p>\n

How does this narrowing of the target audience happen?\u00a0 In one of two ways:\u00a0 content and\/or casting.\u00a0 If the content of the show is too narrow (think Jersey Shore<\/em>), you might have a higher share of younger people watching, but the overall ratings will suffer because you have limited the audience.<\/p>\n

The other way that Hollywood often limits its potential audience is through bad casting choices.\u00a0 Take the new Criminal Minds <\/em>spin-off, Criminal Minds:\u00a0 Suspect Behavior<\/em>.\u00a0 When the characters for this new show were introduced last year, it looked promising.\u00a0 Because my wife and I both love the original Criminal Minds<\/em>, we had a built-in loyalty to the new show.<\/p>\n

However, one bad casting decision can affect viewership.\u00a0 When I discovered that Janeane Garofalo was added to the cast, I knew immediately that I would not watch Criminal Minds:\u00a0 Suspect Behavior<\/em>.\u00a0 I did make a concession by watching 24 <\/em>when she was on, but I will not invest in a new show with her as one of the stars.<\/p>\n

Why the producers and the executives at CBS would, right out of the shoot, limit their potential audience by casting\u00a0Garofalo is perplexing.\u00a0\u00a0She\u00a0is not only an annoying actress in just about any role, but she has gone out of her way to alienate and offend a huge portion of\u00a0potential viewers for this show.\u00a0 While\u00a0she has the\u00a0First Amendment rights to say things that many Christians find objectionable and offensive, CBS and the producers of Criminal Minds:\u00a0\u00a0Suspect Behavior <\/em>should understand that people like my wife and me, who might have otherwise been favorably inclined to watch the spin-off, have instead been turned off by the casting of Ms. Garofalo.<\/p>\n

Hollywood is not unique in its penchant for limiting its audience through content and casting choices.\u00a0 Check back on Wednesday for an in-depth analysis of how the content and casting for this\u00a0year’s\u00a0Southern Baptist Convention Pastor’s Conference may likewise limit the potential audience who will show up and tune in\u00a0at Phoenix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My wife and I enjoy watching the television program, Criminal Minds.\u00a0 We have followed the exploits of the fictionalized B.A.U. (Behavioral Analysis Unit) from the very first episode, which aired in September 2005.\u00a0\u00a0Even though we\u00a0fit into the\u00a0key demographic — 18-49 year-olds — we are now beyond that even more coveted sub-group, the 18-35 year-olds.\u00a0 Alas,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,26],"tags":[203,266,267,3385,540,584,1058],"class_list":["post-1703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-hollywood","tag-cbs","tag-criminal-mind-suspect-behavior","tag-criminal-minds","tag-hollywood","tag-janeane-garofalo","tag-key-demographics","tag-youth-culture"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-rt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1703"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2575,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703\/revisions\/2575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}