PERFORMANCE/SCHEDULE ANALYSIS
(Updated as of September 16, 2009)
CURRENT AND SIGNATURE PROGRAMS:
16 AND PREGNANT (REALITY)
A look at real life "Junos" - girls who are in high school, but pregnant.
Status: Premiered on June 11, 2009, 6 x 60. Executive produced by Morgan J. Freeman.
AMERICA'S BEST DANCE CREW (COMPETITION)
Teams of dance crews compete to see which one is the best.
Status: New season airing.
BULLY BEATDOWN (REALITY)
Bullys are challenged to fight MMA fighters while the teens they tease look on.
Status: Season 2 ordered
THE CITY (SCRIPTED REALITY)
Spin-off of THE HILLS set in New York City.
Status: Re-runs currently airing, new season premieres September 29th.
DADDY'S GIRLS (SCRIPTED REALITY)
RUN'S HOUSE spin-off in which sisters Angela and Vanessa move to Los Angeles to launch their own clothing line.
Status: Season 2 premiered on August 11th
DEGRASSI (SCRIPTED DRAMA)
Series about teenagers in high school and the drama as they face obstacles such as drugs, STDs and violence.
Status: Premiered in June. Acquired from Nickelodeon's The N.
DISASTER DATE(REALITY)
Hidden-camera comedy focusing on bad blind dates. What the dater doesn't know is that he or she gets cash for every minute the date continues.
Status: Premieres on September 28th, 2009
DJ AND THE FRO (SCRIPTED COMEDY)
Scripted comedy about two office workers who swap viral videos.
Status: Premiered in June. 20X30
THE HILLS (SCRIPTED REALITY)
Reality show that follows the story of college student Lauren Conrad as she navigates Hollywood, her career, and her relationships.
Status: Re-runs currently airing, new season premieres September 29th.
HOUSE OF JAZMIN (REALITY)
Follows the daily life of a 20-year-old girl who is a talented fashion designer lanchung her own clothing line.
Status: Currently airing.
MADE (REALITY)
With the help of a Made Coach, someone attempts to be made into something (an athlete, prom queen, etc) that is as far from the current person they are as can possibly be.
Status: Currently airing.
MAKING THE BAND (COMPETITION)
Sean Combs oversees the creation of the hottest new band.
Status: New season (MAKING HIS BAND) premiered July 27.
MY SUPER SWEET 16 (REALITY)
An inside look at some of the most lavish sweet 16 parties imaginable.
Status: Currently off the air
NITRO CIRCUS (REALITY)
Jeff Tremaine and Johnny Knoxville, producers of MTV's Jackass serves up a series showcasing freestyle motocross rider Travis Pastrana. The series watches Travis and his buddies as they try to outdo each other with daring stunts.
Status: Premiered February 8, 2009. Produced by Dickhouse Productions and Godfrey Entertainment.
P. DIDDY'S STARMAKER (COMPETITION)
Young people compete to be the next artists on P. Diddy's Bad Boy label while living together in a house in Los Angeles.
Status: New season currently airing.
POPZILLA (SKETCH COMEDY)
Animated pop culture sketch show making fun of celebrity news and gossip.
Status: Premieres September 28th
REAL WORLD (REALITY)
A group of strangers (and seemingly endless booze) picked to live in a house and have their lives taped. The latest season takes place in Cancun, Mexico.
Status: New seasons have been ordered. Produced by Bunim-Murray Productions
ROB DYRDEK'S FANTASY FACTORY (COMPETITION)
A behind-the-scenes look at Rob Drydek's skateboard empire.
Status: Season 2 premiered in August.
RUN'S HOUSE (SCRIPTED REALITY)
Series follows the family of Rev Run formely of rap group RUN DMC.
Status: Currently airing.
TAKING THE STAGE (REALITY)
Created by Nick Lachey and Colton Gramm, this show follows talented high schoolers from Cincinnati's School for the Creative and Performing Arts as they pursue dreams of fame.
Status: Premiered on March 19th, 10 x 60.
TRUE LIFE (DOCUMENTARY SERIES)
Series documenting young adults who struggle with some sort of obstacle in their life. (Ranging from poverty, to working in the sex industry, to living on Staten Island, among others.)
Status: New and old episodes currently airing during prime-time and daytime.
AUGUST 2009 PRIMETIME SCHEDULE
TOP PRIMETIME SHOWS:
REAL WORLD XXII, AMERICAS BEST DANCE CREW, P. DIDDYS STARMAKER, JACKASS 2.5, GET RICH OR DIE TRYING, THIR13EN GHOSTS, DADDYS GIRLS, SHAKIRA VIDEO PREMIERE, PRANKED
SCHEDULING STRATEGIES:
MTV's schedule is constantly changing. They usually have at least 3 nights of primetime first-run programs, while the other nights are either re-runs or other specials. Lately, they've been occasionally filling gaps by showing feature films relevant to their audience. The timeslots leading up to premieres are usually a marathon of episodes of weeksâ€(Tm) past. They rely on a lot of repetition in the form of marathons, especially on the weekends. They also make good use of tent poling by scheduling old reliables like THE HILLS and THE REAL WORLD at 10pm and new, untested content at 10:30 or 11pm.
UPCOMING PREMIERES:
MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS will premiere on September 13, 2009
POPZILLA will premiere on September 28, 2009
DISASTER DATE will premiere on September 28, 2009
THE HILLS will premiere on September 29, 2009
THE CITY will premiere on September 29, 2009
GONE TOO FAR will premiere on October 5, 2009
RATINGS ANALYSIS:
Live Primetime Ratings Comparison:
August 2009 vs. August 2008 (% Change)
Source: The Nielsen Company's National Television Audience Sample
MTV's overall household share was flat in this month as compared to last August. Male viewership was up 29%, while females were down 8%. These numbers should change when program nights switch up for fall and new programs and seasons are introduced.
As part of a new scheduling strategy, usually female targetted Thursdays will feature new seasons of male-skewing programs, NITRO CIRCUS, FANTASY FACTORY AND BULLY BEATDOWN perhaps not to compete with the return of highly successful female-skewing PROJECT RUNWAY on Lifetime on Thursdays.
Tuesdays were down from last year, but should rebound starting on September 29th with the return of THE HILLS and THE CITY, moving over from Monday. MTV often uses hit programs to anchor nights with untested content. However, this has not worked as they hoped for Tuesday nights. HOUSE OF JAZMIN, a reality program featuring a young designer launching her own clothing line, was paired with successful 2nd season of hit DADDY'S GIRLS, but brought in less than half the share of its anchor's lead-in audience.
Friday nights at MTV are up 100% in share among males and 40% overall because of the male-skewing feature films they've been airing including Get Rich or Die Trying, Jurassic Park and Ali G Indahouse. Friday movie nights was a strategy MTV used last summer, stopped in fall '08 and continued earlier this year. With the success of the movies this year on Fridays, a night usually hard to program, the network may consider continuing acquiring and airing relevant movies.
AMERICA'S BEST DANCE CREW has been bringing in pretty strong numbers on Sundays. Compared to last year, Sunday nights are up 86% overall in share and up to 200% among People 25-54. They've picked up more older viewers as compared to the show's last season. Its new slot on Sunday nights seems to working better for ABDC. This is MTV's program with the most broad audience demographics making it a good family program for Sunday nights. As compared to last season, the show has picked up some older viewers now that it has moved from Thursday to Sunday. P. DIDDY'S STARMAKER, produced as a companion series for ABDC, benefits tremendously from its lead-in audience. This is evidenced by the fact that when not paired with ABDC, STARMAKER records below average numbers.
MTV splits their audience by gender on most nights of the week. Some of their most successful programs are picked and programmed to either heavily skew female (16 AND PREGNANT, THE HILLS) or male (NITRO CIRCUS, FANTASY FACTORY). This is a good strategy for attracting advertisers and overall, the demos at the end of the month have been somewhat even. However, what generates the most buzz and renforces the brand of the channel are the programs and specials that attract more diverse groups like AMERICAS BEST DANCE CREW, MTV MOVIE AWARDS, MICHAEL JACKSON SPECIALS and THE VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS. CABLEU predicts that in addition to programming for niche audiences, MTV will roll out more specials that have mass appeal following the success of recent such programs.
PROGRAM ACQUISITIONS:
In August, MTV aired feature films like Scream 3,Get Rich or Die Trying, Jurassic Park and Ali G Indahouse.
PROGRAM RENEWALS:
MTV has ordered new seasons of THE HILLS, THE REAL WORLD, RW/RR CHALLENGE, RUN'S HOUSE, AMERICA'S BEST DANCE CREW, 16 AND PREGNANT, IS SHE REALLY GOING OUT WITH HIM?, SILENT LIBRARY and TEEN CRIBS.
PROGRAM CANCELLATIONS:
No recent announcements.
