Young adults became a more important demographic than ever before, regardless of all the unsuccessful Friends TV show clones.
A series with six twenty-something’s as the main characters, intensified an already growing interest in attracting a younger demographic. Advertisers saw Friends as the embodiment of a wrinkle-free series that could transfix viewers ages eighteen to forty-nine.
Thirty-one million viewers tuning in on September 13, 2001
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The screenshot shows
Audience Research
The psychographic audience when Friends first came to our screens was probably mid to late teens and young adults.
Age
The programme is generally aimed at women aged 16-34. The programme is mainly aimed at the younger audience because of the young nature of the characters. It could be also due to the programme being a sitcom and the repetitiveness of the same characters every episode and the way the characters are following a story. As well as this, the programme is aimed at this specific age group because of the romantic aspects, (Ross and Rachel's on and off relationship) and some sexual references. The time slot for Friends was 8:30pm. The audience benefited from this as it was a reasonable time, not too late. Realistically, the time when more of the teens/young people tuned in. Due to the age of this young audience, only some of this minority have jobs.
Gender
Friends could be aimed at all genders, considering the programme is about a group of friends with both male and female characters. There's romantic aspects for the female population and comedy aspects for the male population. Although, some story lines are arguably for the female population. For example Monica and Chandlers wedding is generally aimed at the female population, as the female population are usually more excited to get married than the male population. In addition to this, the storyline of the birth of children for example, Rachel and Ross's baby and Chandler and Monica's baby twins.
Lifestyle
Some of the people who tune into Friends are still in full time education therefore, this will mean they have quite a scheduled lifestyle. They will have a routine through the week, by going to school/college/university and then usually having the weekend off. However, the other half of this minority group could have children, which enables them to tune into Friends after the children had gone to bed. Generally, Mainstream people would tune in as Friends was classed as everyday television in its prime. These are the people that would have a daily routine. Much like youngsters who go to college and the people who work all day. These people who come home from a long day and want to catch up on their daily programme.
Spending Power
Friends was first aired on Channel 4 in the UK. Channel 4 is also known as a terrestrial television channel and is broadcasted everywhere in the UK therefore, everyone who owns a television has channel 4. This could then suggest that the younger age group will have access to this channel and then watch channel 4. However, people such as students may not be able to afford cable TV as it can be quite expensive per month. More evidence to support this is the sponsorship of Friends on channel 4 and E4. There are various sponsors including Appletiser, Mars Planets and Radox that sponsored the TV show. All these products appeal to the younger minority of the age group, as they're fairly inexpensive products and interest younger viewers. The products also reflect the kind of show Friends is, very relaxed and casual. The sponsors could also indicate what kind of gender they're appealing to. Radox is very feminine, as females are more likely to take care about their appearance. Appletiser is also very girly, as its not as fattening and isn't alcohol- which again appeals to the female audience.
Friends is no longer broadcasted on channel 4/E4, it is now broadcasted on Comedy Central, a satellite TV channel. Most people in this age group have satellite television, which enables them to have Sky. Sky is a broadcasting company which enables people to have more TV channels including Comedy Central. People in the age group end up spending more on sky packages so it enables them to watch programmes such as friends, that they can't get on terrestrial tv.
Psychographic profiles
When Friends first started out in the mid 90's, the physiographic profiles would've been explorers.
Nowadays, the physiographic profiles of the audiences of Friends has changed and I think the majority of the audience would be the mainstreamers. This is because Friends has been out for a number of years and many people grew up with friends and have seen at least one episode. A lot of people around the world are fans of friends because its aimed at such a large audience. Also, the popularity of the show in America, rubbed off in the UK too. As well as this, Friends is a relaxed and relatively 'normal' programme, the programme appeals to most people as the characters are realistic and could be found in most friendship groups, therefore more people can relate to the programme.
Thinkbox presents all the audience demographic profiles.
I think the suitable audience for Friends would be Women aged 16-34 due to the fact they consume the more telly out of the women category. Some of the information off Think box supports my view.
'Young women are big consumers of media on the whole, engaging with a variety of platforms on a daily basis. Shows such as Desperate Housewives form integral foundations of viewing and as a barrage of research demonstrates, young women utilise TV content within conversation to a staggering degree.'
Friends is aired on Comedy Central now rather than Sky, this suggests that less people in this category have Sky as it's quite expensive. Students cant generally afford Sky, therefore they don't have and cant watch Friends. Furthermore, its a generally good thing that Friends is aired on Comedy Central as more people can tune in.
'Young women are less likely to have Sky and more inclined to have Freeview than men of the same age.'
This quote on Thinkbox supports what I have just said about more women watching it as they have Freeview rather than Sky.
Genre
Friends is a rom com aimed at older teenagers and adults. A big part of Friends is the Comedy aspect to it due to the many jokes and references. It's also a comedy due to some of the cast that is involved. E.g.- Matt Le Blanc and Matthew Perry are commonly known in comedy shows, While Jenifer Aniston and Courteney Cox are usually recognised in Romantic/drama shows.
Themes/content
Friends is a very natural and realistic programme. The characters are all really relatable as the characters are all different in there own way.
A common theme that occurs frequently is love. The on and off relationship with Ross and Rachel, Monica and Chandlers shock relationship and marriage and also Phoebe and Mike's relationship. All of these relationships end up having children towards then end of them. This could suggest a theme of family running through, they all end up having a family of their own, which causes them to all go there separate ways. As well as this, they all get married at some point during the ten seasons of Friends.
Ratings in the USA
The ratings graph is showing us the amount of people watched the season premiere and the end of season finale from every Friends season. The ratings are so high because this is when Friends was new, and was a programme every week, so every episode/season was new and people had never seen it before. Also, the programme was broadcasted on highly popular channel, NBC, at the peak time of 8:30pm. Therefore, more people watched it as it was on a bigger channel and it was aired at are reasonable time.
| Season | Season premiere | Season finale | TV season | Viewers in millions) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | September 22, 1994 | May 18, 1995 | 1994–95 | 24.3 | |
| 2 | September 21, 1995 | May 16, 1996 | 1995–96 | 29.4 | |
| 3 | September 19, 1996 | May 15, 1997 | 1996–97 | 25.0 | |
| 4 | September 25, 1997 | May 7, 1998 | 1997–98 | 24.1 | |
| 5 | September 24, 1998 | May 20, 1999 | 1998–99 | 23.5 | |
| 6 | September 23, 1999 | May 18, 2000 | 1999–2000 | 20.7 | |
| 7 | October 12, 2000 | May 17, 2001 | 2000–01 | 20.2 | |
| 8 | September 27, 2001 | May 16, 2002 | 2001–02 | 24.5 | |
| 9 | September 26, 2002 | May 15, 2003 | 2002–03 | 21.6 | |
| 10 | September 25, 2003 | May 6, 2004 | 2003–04 | 22.8 |
Ratings in the UK- present day
This screen shot is of viewing ratings for Friends on the channel Comedy Central to this present day. From the data I can see that Friends is the fourth most viewed program on the list with 135,000 viewers. This is quite high rating as its on a Sunday night, at 17:30. 17:30 not being peak time. Compared to the USA ratings above, the audiences compared to the UK are relatively small. However, the UK is small company compared to the US and Friends is now 20 years old, which gives people a reason to stop watching the seasons as its quite an old programme. Due to research I have done, this was one of the excuses on my questionnaire as to why people don't watch friends. As well as this, people may have seen the episodes before and might have got bored of watching friends. Another reason for the small audiences is that Friends is shown on a smaller TV channel, Comedy Central.
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