Advertising Age has just released its annual survey of the average cost of an advertisement on broadcast TV shows, and the results are fascinating brain candy for the TV fetishist. Fox dominates the ad dollars with five of the six most expensive shows on TV. The upcoming Simon Cowell-free season of American Idol ranks at No. 1 with an average of $467,617 for a 30-second spot. While slots 3-6 are taken up by Glee, Family Guy, The Simpsons, and House.
The list makes for interesting reading: check out the complete top ten after the jump. It’s especially fascinating to see the relative old age of all the most expensive shows: Setting aside Glee, the four youngest shows in the top ten are House, The Office, Grey’s Anatomy, and Desperate Housewives, which are all in their seventh seasons. (On the opposite end of the spectrum, The Simpsons is approximately a billion years old.) You can’t but wonder: Was 2004 the last year for new popular hits on broadcast TV?While you’re pondering that — keep in mind, 2004 also saw the debut of a tiny little pop culture juggernaut called Lost — enjoy some other fun bits of wisdom learned from perusing the Advertising Age survey:
- Mike & Molly is the most expensive new show for advertising with an average cost of $189,160. Last year, that honor belonged to FlashForward ($175,724), so there’s no accounting for good taste.
- Dancing With the Stars‘ Monday broadcast would be No. 11 with $204,806 (although you could also factor in the Tuesday broadcast, which gets $167,821.)
- -CBS has only one show in the top ten — Two and a Half Men — but its shows tend to earn a groovy $120-150k. Conversely, NBC — which owns the No. 2 show, Sunday Night Football, and No. 8, The Office — only has five other shows that break $100k. (And one of them is The Event, so there’s no accounting for good taste.)
- -The least expensive hour of original programming is The CW’s Supernatural, with $29,100. But we still love it.
- -The CW’s most expensive show is The Vampire Diaries, with $74,913.
- NCIS: LA gets bigger dollars than NCIS ($154,670 vs. $150,708), so there’s no accounting for good taste.
Here’s the top ten most expensive shows for advertisers:
1. American Idol (Fox), $467, 617 ($400,546 for the results show)
2. Sunday Night Football (NBC), $415,000
3. Glee (Fox), $272,694 ($373,014 in the spring)
4. Family Guy (Fox), $259, 289
5. The Simpsons (Fox) — $253, 170
6. House (Fox), $226, 180
7. Grey’s Anatomy (ABC), $222,113
8. The Office (NBC), $213,617
9. Desperate Housewives (ABC), $210,064
10. Two and a Half Men (CBS), $206,722
Lost was not a juggernaut… not quite cult but not quite a phenomenon.
First of all, I think it is crazy that advertising time is so expensive, but it also creates competition. I only watch one show on this list, and the commercials are all ususally good ones; but, are also messages about the show you are watching. American idol with ideally have many commercials about Coke, and Greys Anatomy — more about safe family cars and things that women woud pay more attention to. As a consumer of these commercials while watching these shows you have to think about how much some company paid to have their product on that time space, and why. The why is the most important. Then make your mind up if you like the product or service or not. Digital Media Literacy
Not surprised about Supernatural, the poor bastards.
How can EW can’t filter out the, um “dating” posts? They’re always here.
Where does Modern Family rank?
Is this per ad slot?
Tell me it’s not per hour.
It would seem impossible to run a show like Supernatural on $30,000 in an hour.
I cant believe that shows like supernatural thats original and great get that kind of money and every show you put characters with fangs is now famouse people wheres the brain