Carter, Bill. "Comedy Central Tries to Gauge Passion of Its Viewers". New York Times. 8/30/09 .
In this article, Carter discusses the loyalty of the viewers of the hit news report satires The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report. He reviews research performed by Harris Interactive, which proves that the viewers of these two shows "out and out love" them much more than the fans of any other shows. What exactly causes the viewers to love these shows? According to the Harris research, it is because of the "emotional connection" viewers have to these shows. It later discusses the application of these statistics that prove many things about the fans of these shows and about the shows themselves. The main application for this research is advertising. The director of media investments at Carat USA, Andy Donchin, says "'passion, engagement--that is so huge to us.'" And the research shows that the viewers of these hit TV shows are the most "passionate." So shouldn't these advertising companies be trying to exploit this by getting their product's commercials to air during these shows? Shouldn't these commercial spots be hot beds for advertising? Andy Donchin says "'I’d hate to say they can charge a premium,'" but in my opinion, according to this, they can.
As school progresses and the workload increases, there is one question in my life that is still lingering. This question is, "in which TV shows does my true allegiance lie?" I have already made some cuts to my summer television regiment, but I am starting to realize that these cuts aren't going to cut it. I going to need to narrow down my list even more. This is a very trying time in my life, because there is so much to be watched, but not nearly enough time. As I type this, I can think of countless shows burning a hole in my DVR. I'm starting to worry if I will be able to pay the accumulating debt of TV shows. This article made me realize that each of the shows that is competing for a place in my heart have advertising agencies competing for time slots. Of course, with the invention of DVR, I haven't watched a commercial in a long time. Before my full utilization of the DVR, I did watch commercials., and I can't remember how many times I saw commercials for a beer with a miraculous -10 calories or a car both luxurious and sexy. But now I just don't have the time to waste on watching commercials. There is too much precious TV to be watched. Even with my lack of commercial viewing, I am sure people do watch commercials, and it's to these people these agencies are trying to buy a place for their product in their hearts.
