The ABC show’s unique promotional method gives insight into network TV’s shrinking viewership
With Valentine’s Day on the horizon, if you don’t already have plans, the cast, crew and fans of ABC’s Cougar Town hope you’ll crack open a bottle of pinot and settle in for the show’s third season premiere.
On Feb. 2, lucky local viewers won tickets to a Cougar Town screening at Majerle’s Sports Grill in Old Town Scottsdale, which included a sneak preview of this season’s first episode and a visit from series stars Busy Philipps (“Laurie”) and Bob Clendenin (“Tom”).
The Cougar Town screening tour was scheduled to accommodate the show’s filming schedule, and they’ve since finished shooting the third season. Clendenin, who plays the cul-de-sac crew’s scene-stealing, oddball neighbor, has so far enjoyed the opportunity to meet the fans and promote the show.
“It’s amazing,” Clendenin said. “Hats off to [executive producers] Bill Lawrence and Kevin Biegel, who were willing to put some money behind this and fund this. That’s how much they believe in the show.”
This month’s Valley visit was just one of several road trips made within the last few months. Arizona was the final stop of the West Coast run that included Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas and Austin. Other cities visited include Atlanta, Louisville, Ky., Chicago and Sarasota, Fla.
Last week, Josh Hopkins (“Grayson”) met up with Connecticut fans, then joined Clendenin and Dan Byrd (“Travis”) in Philadelphia before a more traditional promotional event at The Paley Center for Media in New York City on Feb. 12.
Cougar Town, a show about a divorced Florida mom (played by Courteney Cox) and the antics that follow her close-knit group of wine-loving friends, has struggled to find a large audience since it debuted in 2009. Premiering the same season as ABC’s breakout hit Modern Family and The Middle, Cougar Town survived that first season with a full order. Hank, the only multi-camera comedy out of the bunch, didn’t fare quite as well.
Cougar Town’s second season didn’t plummet in viewership, though it often ranked #3 in its timeslot with an average of 7.34 million viewers. Looking back on that 2010-2011 season, there was actually quite a bit of TV show carnage. The offbeat comedy lived to see a third year, only this time it was pushed back to midseason and its episode order was recently cut from 22 to 15.
PROACTIVE PROMOTIONS, UNFORTUNATE TITLE
With such a long break between seasons, Cougar Town’s producers planned two promotional events. The first order of business included the cast making cameos on fall shows like Grey’s Anatomy, The Middle, Castle, Private Practice, Happy Endings and Hot in Cleveland. If nothing else, it became an online hit as a fun, “Where’s the Cougar Town Cast?” game.
The second, perhaps as difficult as arranging the cameos, included the multi-city screening tour. To say that both ideas were unorthodox when it comes to the usual television PR model is a bit of an understatement.
Lawrence, whose credits include Friends, Spin City and Scrubs, is no stranger to television success or the fast-paced, quirky comedic genre that has evolved over the last decade.
“Bill Lawrence is someone from the old school,” Philipps explained. “And he immediately realized, ‘Oh, social networking. This is how we’re going to connect with our base, get them motivated and excited, even though we’ve been off the air for almost a year. We’re gonna get them hooked back in.’”
With an open bar – a trademark of the Cougar Town tour – and “penny cans” galore, Phoenix fans enjoyed a unique opportunity to meet up and watch one of their favorite shows.
Bonnie Hawkes, a self-proclaimed “big fan of the show,” remembered seeing a promo on ABC and checking it out.
“I love it,” Hawkes said. “I’ve seen every episode.”
Hawkes invited Kaylee Hartley, a friend who’d never seen the show before, to the local screening. Hartley’s reason for not watching Cougar Town was something Lawrence & Co. have battled since the show premiered.
“I thought it was about something totally different,” Hartley said. “And then she told me what [the series] was about and I thought, ‘Why am I not watching this show?’ I’m gonna be converted.”
It’s been suggested that the title turns off would-be viewers, despite the fact that the show has nothing to do with “cougars,” or older women who date younger men. With Lawrence at the helm of a half-joking/half-serious name-change campaign, less-controversial show titles were tossed out by crew and fans for several months in 2011.
However, it appears those attempts to re-brand have finally been put to rest. (There was always a question as to whether the network would approve it in the first place.) The Cougar Town moniker is here to stay, allowing for several hilarious inside jokes in the show’s opening credits.
TELEVISION RATINGS: THEN AND NOW
When the third season premiere finally rolls around, it’s unclear how the screening tour’s success will be measured. Philipps, a veteran actor whose diverse TV credits include cult-fave Freaks and Geeks, teen classic Dawson’s Creek and ER, wholeheartedly believes in this unique venture that went completely outside the network television box.
“It’s really smart, and it’s really revolutionary in a way,” Philipps said. “You’re so helpless to where the network wants to spend their dollars.”
To compare network expectations from the heydays of the 1990s to now is perhaps futile, but Philipps remembers the stark contrast well when considering Freaks and Geeks’ performance.
“I remember at one point we got a 7.0 [share], and we were the lowest-rated show on NBC,” Philipps said. “It was a time when Friends was pulling a 20 [share].”
A share, as it pertains to Nielsen ratings, measures the percentage of televisions in use at any given timeslot. When Friends earned a 21-share average during the 1999-2000 season, it means 21% of every television that was turned on in the U.S. during Friends’ Thursday night timeslot was tuned in to that show. A 20-share at that time was the equivalent to nearly 21 million total viewers.
To put that in perspective with today’s current landscape, while the total viewers is important, networks now focus primarily on the share of televisions used by those ages 18-49. As a result, CBS’ NCIS can have a gangbusters performance with 20.8 million viewers for its 200th episode (on par with Friends’ 1999 performance), but its share in the 18-49 demographic means only 11% of the valued televisions in use were on CBS at that time.
On the flip side, for that same night and timeslot, Fox’s Glee received a 6 share in the same demographic and 7.72 million viewers, and can still reasonably be considered safe. These numbers don’t simply belong to Glee, either. ABC’s Last Man Standing earned 7.75 million viewers and a 9 share in the 18-49 demo, and it’s very much considered a success.
By all accounts, and more to Philipps’ point, many shows currently on-air are performing far lower in Nielsen ratings than Freaks and Geeks performed in 1999.
“It just isn’t the same operation,” Philipps explained. “And, unfortunately, we’re still abiding by the same antiquated way of judging viewership. I don’t even watch TV the way that normal people should. I watch it on my computer, I watch it on Netflix, I watch it on DVD.”
The changing landscape has paved the way for more television opportunities on cable, but Philipps believes network television has a steeper learning curve.
“What’s interesting is it has changed so rapidly, that they don’t know how to catch up exactly,” she said. “And I think that in the next 10 years they will.”
As for whether other on-the-bubble shows take on multi-city tours in the future, she believes this is just the beginning.
“It’s definitely the start of a new thing,” Philipps predicted. “I will not be surprised next year when you see showrunners doing similar types of campaigns for their own shows.”
Cougar Town’s third season premieres Feb. 14 at 7:30 p.m. on ABC15.
Check out the above video as Phoenix fans describe their love for Cougar Town, and stars Busy Philipps and Bob Clendenin explain the multi-city tours. Special thanks to Leigh Ann Dolan for coordinating the Phoenix/Scottsdale screening, and to Betty Denson for technical assistance.
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