No Green Bananas

In the words of NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt, the TV series “Harry’s Law” was cancelled because the audience (mostly 55 and up) was “too old.” For those of you who are “too old” like me, you know this show was a wonderfully irreverent presentation that featured veteran actress Kathy Bates. She played a once highly paid, top-level patent lawyer who burns out and is fired from that job only to discover a new lease on life as a criminal defense lawyer.

NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt calls the audience for “Harry’s Law” (55 and up) “too old.” In reply to Robert, DMW blogger Linda Armstrong quotes another Boomer named Harry: “Yo, Robert: Make my day!”

Averaging a relatively healthy 8.8 million viewers, the drama actually drew more viewers than “Law & Order: SVU” (7.6 million), which just got renewed for next fall. Its crime was that it only had a 1.4 rating among adults 18-49 (in other words, it didn’t attract enough young viewers). Is it just me or does it seem like the entertainment world and Madison Avenue still have their heads under a rock when it comes to what the real world looks like and where the money is?

On average, boomers spend $400 billion more per year than any other generation http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/202334. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand that kind of math. I am not sure when advertisers will wake up to the value of the Boomer generation in both numbers and wealth but the smart advertisers are there already and reaping the benefits. Those who expect to win big with the ever decreasing and ever poorer 18-49 market, well, good luck with that.