Finding Bigfoot: Ratings Success
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on June 3rd, 2011
Animal Planet riding ratings wave ahead of ‘Whale Wars’ premiere
“River Monsters, “Finding Bigfoot” score in key demographics as network continues to reel in the eyeballs.
Animal Planet is on a roll.
The Discovery-owned network is posting some big numbers in growth thanks to some original television programming that’s been attracting one huge demographic: Men 25-54.
The third season of “River Monsters”, the best performing series in network history, recently wrapped on Monday with ratings that helped push AP to third among all ad-supported cable networks in its timeslot. It was immediately followed by a special preview of the new series “Finding Bigfoot”, which nabbed 1.3M viewers.
Back in February, I mentioned that AP was filming a new series based on the legendary ape – and it appears that their timing in terms of national interest was spot on. Whether by coincidence (or some clever viral marketing?) a purported video of Bigfoot was placed online last week, recorded with an iPhone by some hikers in Spokane, Washington.
In a little over a week, it’s already racked up over 1.5M views on YouTube and countless media articles. The full six-part “Finding Bigfoot” series is set to premiere this Sunday – but the network by apparent sheer luck was genius in running a preview this past Monday. You can’t plan better publicity than an actual sighting – which may be all the more reason in today’s hyper-media-connected world to be cynical of a connection.
Either way, while “River Monsters” is exiting stage left, Season Four of “Whale Wars” is set to bow tomorrow evening (9PM/ET) – ensuring that the ratings wave will continue. Last year’s Season Three exceeded Season Two levels by double-digits among all key demos.Michael d’Estries
Mother Nature Network
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
well… Let’s keep in mind that it was just a preview episode during the lull in network programming between seasons. The show may have gotten decent ratings to begin with, but I don’t see it keeping up with the knowledge that most, if not all, of the “evidence” was faked on the show.
“River Monsters” is a great program, despite the fact that it is obviously heavily edited. It takes events out of sequence and reassembles them in a manner that makes the show dramatic and entertaining. What’s the alternative? Jeremy catches what he’s looking for on the first try and makes small talk about it for the remaining forty-nine minutes? That might be more authentic, but it would make for terrible television.
“Finding Bigfoot” is also a good program, despite the editing. Television is all about ratings and good ratings come from keeping the people entertained. It is difficult to translate expedition-driven programs into something engaging. A balance must be struck between authenticity and drama. This may upset the purists, but “Finding Bigfoot” isn’t being made exclusively for Bigfoot enthusiasts and armchair experts. It has to appeal to a broad audience, including many who neither know nor care about the fine points of Bigfoot research, and keep them tuned-in for fifty minutes.
One thing “Finding Bigfoot” lacks is a likable protagonist. Matt Moneymaker is clearly no Jeremy Wade. It may also ultimately suffer from the lack of a conclusive outcome. In the end, Jeremy always catches his fish. Fishing isn’t exactly a spectator sport, yet we’re willing to watch him do it for the first forty-five minutes because we know we’ll be rewarded in the final five. “Finding Bigfoot” will have a great first season, but if it can’t provide viewers with some sort of gratification that goes beyond what most people are already familiar with (i.e. blurry videos and footprints) it will become stale. I for one hope it succeeds in living up to Moneymaker’s grandstanding.
Praetorian makes a fine point. In its current incarnation I think Finding Bigfoot would do better as a 2 hour special, not a weekly series. Now, throw in a few skeptics and have them ‘argue’ the evidence and get sides to root for and that dynamic may make the series last a bit longer. Or have competing BF teams in different areas showing how/what/why they do what they do (a la Swamp People) and that may get more people invested for the long haul.
Personally I don’t know any of the people involved in this show either personally or by reputations, Bigfoot isn’t my thing, partly because I would find it odd that North America would be the only continent (not counting the Poles) without a native primate species. I mean we have marsupials for heaven’s sake, why not primates?
I also ‘get’ the post production editing, it can be tricky and one heck of a balancing act. And unfortunately, depending on who is calling the shots the editing can easily go from ‘enhanced’ to outright ‘fraud’ in little to no time.
As for River Monsters, I have to admit I adore that show. Not because I know he always catches his monster but because Mr. Wade keeps the show lively, entertaining AND informative. I LEARN new things every time I watch his show and not just about fishing. He includes a lot of peripheral information as well; the indigenous people, customs, myths, historical accounts. This adds layers and depth to the show that many other shows simply are missing. I don’t know if Finding Bigfoot could do something of that nature and I don’t know how well it would go over even if they could.
Still, at least the series is opening the doors for other shows. What is the old saying? No press is bad press.
This site is one of the litmus sites for networks to gauge how well their shows are really doing as Neilson ratings have become quite unreliable due to legal/illegal streaming, mobile playing, DVRs, Netflix, Hulu, etc.
Pretty sure “best performing series in network history” should read “best performing series in Animal Planet’s history.”