I happened to read a long entry on TV by the Numbers, a site which worships the fabled 18-49 demo. (Can't blame them, it's a common religion in the TV universe.) A brave commenter referred to Neil Gabler's legendary attack on the 18-49 fetish among TV folks.
Gabler rather hurt his argument, I think, by his conspiracy theory that the fetish was all the fledgling ABC's fault in the early 1960s. Since the young and poor alphabet net (sorry, Variety-speak) couldn't hope to beat CBS and NBC in total viewer ratings, the theory insists ABC honcho Leonard Goldenson invented the obsession with the 18-49 demo. And every TV executive fell for it and has been falling for it again and again over the last five decades.
Well, maybe, but blaming one network guy for a fifty-year obsession in an entire industry sounds a leetle far-fetched. My guess is that Gabler's alternate theory falls closer to the truth: youth is a lot sexier than old age. And sex sells to everyone, including TV execs.
So what does this have to do with game shows? Well, as everybody except one shepherd in Kazakhstan knows - and he'll hear about it soon - game shows skew old in the ratings. Which has made them a hard sell for years. Even when a game show does fine in total viewer numbers, like Million Dollar Password, the old skew can kill it quick.
Maybe someday Gabler's icon-smashing will prevail, or at least make a little headway with TV people. But until then our little genre will always face that brutal demo headwind from the Nielsen Company.
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