Image Credit: FoxOffice fans are smug. Dancing With the Stars fans are compliant. Gleeks see themselves as experimental, and Mad Men fans are liberals. Oh market research, is there nothing you can’t categorize?
One research firm recently polled 25,000 viewers about 70 TV shows and broke down their tastes by personality traits, according to Ad Age. Some shows, like House and Bones appealed across a lot of demographics, but others had more specific viewers. Such as…
Mad Men, which is beloved by creative people and liberals. Creative folk are “41 percent more likely to watch…than less creative people,” and the liberal-minded are “124 percent more likely to watch…than other people.” All the information gathered in the survey is self-reported, so part of me wonders if creative people are drawn to Mad Men — or if watching Mad Men makes you more likely to describe yourself as creative.
Family Guy fans, on the other hand, tend to be “rule breakers or rebels,” who “won’t hesitate to make their feeling[s] known with anger or sarcasm.” Again, a chicken and a sarcastic cartoon egg: Which came first, collegiate broseph? Glee fans “may even feel happiness or sadness more intensely than others,” which is a hilarious echo of how the show operates, and also how pretty much every teenager would describe him or herself. Predictably, Dancing With the Stars attracts “traditionalists” and “get-alongs” who connect with brands like Fiber One. Seriously, that’s what the story says. Just say “old people,” Ad Age! Biggest Loser falls into similar categories, including realists, who are 20 percent more likely to watch than, uh, surrealists? I guess?
Fans of The Office sound like total tools in this survey: “folks who consider themselves superior to others are 47 percent more likely to watch this show.” Yikes! And yet… truth. “These alpha dogs believe they are extraordinary and happily brag about their accomplishments,” the story says, which again, yikes.
Finally, in what’s probably the most amazing part of the whole survey, fans of The Real Housewives of Orange County are interested in Botox. You don’t say.
I feel like Don after Dr. Miller completely psychoanalyzes everyone in the room: turned on Get out of my mind, insidious brand research people! Because you are hitting too close to home. At the same time, there’s a sort of duh factor at play here: You’re telling me Family Guy appeals to sarcastic dudes? People who like Mad Men are interested in Apple products? Glee fans don’t care about pick-up trucks? Uh, how much did this study cost?
Okay, PopWatchers: Admit it. Some of these breakdowns are ringing a little too true, no?
Re: Mad Men – Au Contraire! I am no liberal and I LOVE Mad Men….
please let this not be a comment section consisting of people disputing the stereotype It’s percentages people and none of them were 100%
…whereas I am both liberal and creative, and yet I find Mad Men aesthetically pleasing but dull.
And @@mrkittysmom… did you really expect any different?
Liberal minded, not politically liberal. However I don’t know any conservatives that would name their kid Mrkitty. I’m a Family Guy fan.
Most of them are “duhs”, but I’m not really sure I understand “The Office” one AT ALL. (Although that may be because it’s in my top 5 favorite shows ever.) Do we allegedly consider ourselves superior to others because Michael Scott is so clueless most of the time?
I second everything you said. Strange about The Office indeed. And in fact all of the people I know who watch The Office are quite the opposite of what was described – quite humble and quiet people.
Shrute-itis! Apparently, it can be contracted through the television.
But Dwight doesn’t think he’s better than Michael…he reveres him! So, if we’re better than Michael, but Dwight think she’s better than everyone EXCEPT Michael, then…oy, I’m still confused.
Pretty easy:
The Office taps into the mindset of “I’m smarter than my boss.” It praises an insubordinate, smart-ass in Jim who reacts to what’s going on in the office by rolling his eyes and mugging for the camera.
Clearly, people with superiority complexes are going to dig that.
I like your explanation and it makes sense.
However, as much as I enjoy Michael’s buffonishness, I find my favorite moments are the ones in which the “Office” members pick each other up.
it also has to do with the fact it’s based in british humor, which takes a different mindset. I’ve heard the conversation several times where a non-”Office” fan doesn’t get “it”, and the “Office” fan will just sigh and roll their eyes.
That’s how I read it too…that Office fans (I’m a big one) sometimes consider this kind of humor more sophisticated high brow than traditional comedies. I like both but I can see how someone might think that.
That makes sense…I’ve had to supress my eye rolls around my family (my mom came around recently) and haven’t always been successful.
What I really want to know – who watches Two and a Half Men? Who are those people?
Hookers who want to keep their best customer emplyed?
*employed
Probably some coke dealers, too, Mr. H.
Yes, that is one of the great mysteries of the universe.
Seriously – it’s consistently among the most-watched shows, but I don’t know a single person who watches it…
I have to admit that I watch it. I don’t go out of my way, but when I need something mindless I’ll watch it OnDemand. I also do not find the Office funny at all. Probably because I find Steve Carrell really annoying. I’m a liberal & LOVE Mad Men & Breaking Bad so I fit into that survey, I guess.
Yes! Who are those people? And where can I find them and unplug their tvs?
I have pondered this question for years… Can’t believe that CBS is continuing to roll out new eps NOR can I believe that they are able to find networks willing to pay to reshow the old eps… It is a crazy world.
Without doing the research I’d say Glenn Beck fans are uneducated and prone to fall for televangelism. Come on this stuff is just too easy.
@K: Definitely laughed at your comment.
The Glee one probably is true for me, although I’m certainly no teenager… but I’m a feeler!
The one that’s way off the mark for me is Family Guy, but even my parents make comments about how not sarcastic I am naturally, and I almost never get angry. I feel like that applies to most of my friends that watch it, though. I’m definitely the weird one!
Did they examine what you are if you cross pollinate? I watch more than a few of these shows, does that mean I am confused or a chameleon…I need a study for that!!
Yeah. I guess that means that I’m a creative liberal who feels things more strongly than others but is also old and compliant. Always thought i was sarcastic but since I don’t watch Family guy, guess not and I apparently don’t think I’m superior cause I don’t watch the Office. I didn’t know that about me.
I like Family Guy, any of you mother f**kers got a problem with that?
So Mad Men fans are creative, liberal, make the highest incomes, and are the sexiest of all TV fans. Yeah, that sounds about right.
Yeah but Family Guy fans have the biggest d**ks.
According to the study, I have to assume you’re being sarcastic.
Who? Me? Never
HAVE the biggest d–ks, or ARE the biggest d–ks?
Well, I’m a “Mad Men” and “Office” fan, so I’m all those things you said…AND I’m better than everyone else.
There might be something to this survey after all.
In other news….
Jersey Shore fans are lazy.
Lost fans are conspiracy theorists…and
Sesame Street fans are obnoxious brats.
This is so silly.
Who isn’t a Sesame Street fan?
based on this survey, I am liberal, creative, and smug. Yup, sounds about right.
Love love love Mad Men and am not a ‘liberal.’
Wow, the “Glee” comments describe me to a T. I am experimental. Everytime EW tells me to watch “Glee”, I do!
I LOVE Mad Men & Family Guy with equal obsession.
Don’t label me maaan! But yes, those two personality categorizations describe me perfectly.
Here’s the thing with this study. I watch Mad Men, Glee, The Office and on occasion, Family Guy. I consider myself a huge fan of the first three shows I listed.
Does that mean I am liberal, creative, smug, sarcastic, have a superiority complex, feel happiness and sadness more intensely than others AND am a rebel who constantly brags about my accomplishments?
Come on. I’m just a 19 year old girl who likes quality television.
I prefer American Dad to Family Guy and all things being equal preferred Futurama to Simpsons. That would make me an alienphile – which in layman’s terms is ‘worldly’.
Not that anyone asked.