TV viewers' average age hits 50

This article discusses the fact that in studies performed on the median age of TV viewers, the results have been surprising. They have found that the median age of viewers is higher than it has ever been. The fact that the median age of TV viewers is growing is a really interesting fact to me. What interests me the most, is that, in my opinion, most of the primetime television shows on networks like ABC and the CW are made for people around 13 to 25 years. It is very strange for me to think that networks with shows like Grey’s Anatomy, One Tree Hill, and Gossip Girls are getting viewers that are in their late 30s and early 50s. This must mean that the young people watching these shows, are only watching these shows. They are not watching anything else on the network, instead adults and older people are.

Also, I always thought that it was teenagers and children who spent most of their time watching TV. This is evidently changing. Now, it seems that children and teenagers are just focusing their attention on those certain shows on each network that occur once a week, like Grey’s Anatomy and One Tree Hill. Other than those shows, teenagers and children must be filling their time with other activities. At the same time, the number of older people watching TV has increased. So, after work, older adults must be spending a lot of their time in front of the television, maybe as a way to relieve stress. The oldest group of people, according to this article, is watching Fox’s primetime and daytime news. This shows that the oldest people watching TV are more interested in the news of their day and are also very conservative in their political views because Fox News is known for its conservative reporting. This article shows that the youngest television watched is by 10-year-old children. I was also surprised that the median age of “Family Guy” viewers was 29 years. I watch this show and so do many of my friends who are my age. I had no idea that so many people watched it almost all the way into their 30s.

I think that this article can be interpreted in two ways. One is positive and the other negative. The positive way to interpret this article, as I have already mentioned, is that it seems to be that younger people are not watching as much TV. In every network and show discussed in this article, other than Noggin and Nickelodeon, the median age is never lower than 29 years. I interpret this to mean that children and teenagers are spending more of their time working, studying, playing sports, or taking part in after school activities. This interpretation should make people feel better about the issues of obesity in this country. With less TV watching, in my opinion, there will be less cases of obesity. The negative interpretation of this study would be that there has just been an increase in the amount of TV that adults are watching. This just shows that more adults and older people are filling their lives with TV, while the amount of young people watching TV has not changed. I personally will believe the positive interpretation because it has a more optimistic view of the future.