Culture: CBS is totally kicking TV ratings butt this season. Here’s why
- Big-Tent broad appeal Rather than going for the lucrative 18-49 advertising demo, CBS makes an effort to hit everyone. This season, they’re leading every demographic – including 18-49 – and they’re doing better than usual with younger viewers.
- basic, not basic cable Instead of trying to hone on on specific, profitable demographics on cable, they’ve stuck with their bread and butter. Sure, CBS owns Showtime, but they don’t have a bunch of basic cable niche channels like the other networks do.
- Building up, bit by bit CBS adds bits and pieces to their programming repertoire year after year that together create a well-oiled machine. And most of it works. (Well, barring “*#@! My Dad Says,” which has decent ratings but awful reviews.) source