CBS skews the oldest and it's been that way for a while. They make up for it on volume. But that strategy is doomed over the long haul. Advertisers only care about 18-49. I thought everyone knew that by now. So skewing old becomes a real problem when the average age is starting to edge out of that demo. Whether or not brand preferences are really locked in at 49 is a different issue. As long as advertisers think that way, they will continue to act on that belief, even if it is stupid and wrong. Or just look at this place, with that idiotic vertical banner in the wrong location! Somebody hit the wrong button. And before that, there were ads for Buzz Lightyear toys and underage Asian girls being served on the same page. What target market is that, exactly? Whoever it is, I don't want to meet them. It creeps me out to think they're here. Even the vaunted Netflix is screwing up. I get both streaming and DVDs. I didn't start getting House of Cards advertising on my envelopes until after I'd started watching that show. Shouldn't that have been the other way around? The nice thing about online advertising is that it's easier to tell when somebody is messing up. If they know everything about us, there's no excuse for mis-targetted ads.
NBC should not be deterred by Do No Harm (to the Network's Ratings... Please!). They can make a surefire Biggest Loser if they combine Do No Harm, Supertrain, Manimal, My Mother the Car, and The Jay Leno Show. Imagine the possibilities! Or how about a 3rd Rock from the Sun, 30 Rock, Rock Center mash-up? What 3- Rock show does NBC have planned for 2016? (Every 10 years... 3rd Rock in 1996, 30 Rock in 2006) Or how about they get Dawn Ostroff to design their schedule? She can put a third notch in her lipstick case or tv remote or something. She deep sixed UPN (though it was already on the decline), CW; she can work her magic on the NBC peacock! Maybe she can hone her laser-focus down even further, focusing not just on teenage girls but teenage girls who are precisely 17, of a certain hair color and which have two vowels (no more, no less) in their first name.
People still are taking about "Do No Harm"? Another stupid NBC show flops and the world moves on just like it always has. Big deal.
At the moment, only the people 18-49 years old matter to the networks and advertisers. The 18-49 demo ratings are used to determine which shows to keep by the networks and how expensive commercials will sell for.