Two new studies that sought to measure public awareness of television shows indicate that Batwoman is leading the pack of new broadcast series in terms of viewership awareness and demand. This could mean that Batwoman will draw large audiences when it premieres this fall.
Among thousands of individuals between the ages of 13 and 64, Batwoman drew the highest number of individuals who expressed their “definite interest in viewing” the show. This information comes from Ipsos’ TV Dailies report, which Thomas Kelley, the lead project manager, organized. He shared this information with Variety in an exclusive report earlier this week.
Parrot Analytics likewise created a study, at Variety’s request, that used a proprietary “Demand Expressions” metric that reviewed shows that would be premiering this fall. It also concluded that Batwoman over-indexed when compared to the average interest rating for all television series.
This interest and early recognition should come as no surprise, as Batwoman is based in an already iconic franchise. This allows consumers to readily recognize the series in an otherwise overcrowded market. This holds true for other shows that fared well in the two studies: Nancy Drew and Mixed-ish. Nancy Drew is based on the popular novel series, and Mixed-ish is a spinoff of the hit Black-ish.
Samuel Sadler, marketing vice president of Parrot, further explained the study’s findings with, “For Batwoman, its demand is more than three times the market average title in the U.S. already. This says to us that this is a very strong contender, a release that should go very well… there are so many drama titles out there, if you have a hook against existing IP or audiences are already aware of the universe you’re about to explore, it’s much more likely that series will resonate.”
Interest studies such as the one that Parrot conducted on behalf of Variety give marketing executives an idea of how their campaigns are resonating with prospective viewers. Networks typically conduct internal awareness studies of their own, but these findings are not released to the public or members of the press. That being said, these studies never definitively determine which shows will succeed once they make it to air.
Ipsos TV Dailies’ measurement “Top Box Intent to View” provided measure of how many audience members would definitely watch the program in question. This would mean that they had to be aware of the title, know which network it was airing on, and affirmed that they had plans to watch the show. The study found that 32% of respondents age 13 to 64 had an intent to view Batwoman. All of these individuals were aware of the upcoming series, knew that it would air on The CW, and said that they would definitely watch it.
In the same study, Emergence trailed Batwoman at 28%. The CW’s Nancy Drew earned only 22% comparatively.
Parrot Analytics’ measurement was entitled “Demand Expression” and added up streaming, peer-to-peer downloads, social media, comments, blogs, and other sources to gauge public interest and recognition.
“We track demand irrespective of whether or not a show is on air,” Stadler further explained. “Obviously the demand will increase once we get some trailers into market and once it airs. The value of this is, our partners work out where to deploy their marketing budgets. Because if we can give them a view on which particular show is resonating well with audiences, and how that is different relative to other shows, that allows them to make better decisions in terms of prioritization of effort.”
Batwoman will air on Oct. 6, 2019, on The CW. Only time will tell whether or not early audience interest will translate into high ratings. It stars Ruby Rose as Kate Kane. She’s joined by fellow actors Meagan Tandy, Camrus Johnson, Nicole Kang, and Rachel Skarsten.
Watch the trailer for Batwoman below.