Women Prefer “Thugs in Cocktail Dresses” Over Oprah and Martha

Speaking of thugs in cocktail dresses, apparently women prefer them over a Lifetime Movie snooze fest. 

from the New York Post

NEW YORK — American women were voting with their TV remotes and choosing MTV’s Snooki and Bravo’s Bethenny  over the more traditional primetime programming on such female-focused cable networks as Lifetime, Hallmark and HGTV, the New York Post reported Wednesday.

At A&E Television Network’s Lifetime, primetime ratings slipped 17 percent in the first quarter compared to last year among women ages 18-49, while nonfiction-rich sibling History Channel — thanks to top-rated reality show “Pawn Stars” — saw a 31 percent jump among the same demographic, according to Nielsen data.

Over at the Hallmark channel, which airs “The Martha Stewart Show” during daytime, programming in the first quarter drew 17 percent fewer women than a year ago, ratings data shows.

Robert Seidman, an analyst at the blog TVbytheNumbers, said, “Women viewers just aren’t tuning to the cable homes of daytime stars Oprah and Martha in nearly the numbers that they’re tuning into Snooki, Bethenny, NeNe  and the ‘Pawn Stars.’”

The battle for women viewers was more than just a commentary on programming genres — it was set to determine how Madison Avenue spends a big chunk of its $60 billion annual expenditure on cable programming.

Hallmark’s ratings decline, which started in 2010, coincided with a two percent drop-off in ad revenue last year, to $260 million. At Lifetime, ad revenue last year totaled $564.8 million — less than the network took in five years earlier, according to SNL Kagan.

Big winners among women viewers were: MTV, up 67 percent in viewership for the quarter, thanks to “Jersey Shore;” Bravo , with its “Real Housewives” franchise, up 37 percent; and even ESPN, which rose 35 percent in female viewers in the key demo

US women choose ‘Jersey Shore,’ ‘Real Housewives’ over Lifetime, Hallmark | PoconoRecord.com