Top Ten Shows Viewers Make a Special Effort to Watch

In a highly competitive viewing environment, some shows stand out as “appointment television.”  These are the programs that viewers “make a special effort to watch.”

With the growth of DVR and online viewing, many TV watchers have shifted their viewing paradigm from planning to be in front of the TV when a show airs, to making time to watch a show on their own schedule.

We wanted to compare these two trends and, using Program Pulse Broadcast, we looked at the top broadcast TV programs viewers make a “Special Effort to Watch” for the month of October to see if there is an effect on live viewing of those programs.

Shows Viewers Make a Special Effort to Watch

Viewers of each show were asked to describe their future viewing intent based on a scale ranging from Make a Special Effort to Watch to Definitely Not.

The Vampire Diaries topped our list with 80% of viewers claiming they Make a Special Effort to Watch -almost 30 points higher than the average for broadcast shows.  Chuck, One Tree Hill, Glee and Castle also earned scores of over 70% Special Effort to Watch.

The shows in our Special Effort to Watch list were also Watched Live at a rate 12 points lower than average (54% vs. 66%).  In turn DVR and Other Media viewing for our list of shows scored higher than average.  Survivor and Glee stood out as exceptions to this pattern, with higher levels of live viewing.

In the minds and hard drives of viewers; making a special effort to watch a show turns out to be less about when to sit on the couch, and more about using the DVR to make sure you don’t miss a show.

Program Pulse has the ability to look beyond ratings into motivations and future viewing intent.