Rob Riggle's Ratings Humiliation Gets Worse After Failed Hunt for Holy Grail

3/19/2020

As coronavirus continues to shut down much of global life, there isn’t a lot of news from the world of fake history, space aliens, and other imaginary things. The real virus commands much more attention than fictitious threats. So, today I am going to devote some of my time to making progress on revising the chapters for my upcoming book on pyramid legends. I’m not sure what will happen when the deadline hits since the publisher currently has its offices closed and the staff are working remotely, though not consistently. In the meantime, here are the latest ratings figures for Rob Riggle: Global Investigator and Ancient Aliens in a week when people are stuck inside and watching more TV.

Ancient Aliens rose slightly to 1.03 million viewers, but its share of younger viewers continues to remain low. Ancient Aliens is now only the fiftieth most watched show on Saturday in the coveted 18-49 demographic, behind even HGTV’s prime time decorating shows, which one wouldn’t expect to be a huge draw for young adults. Bizarrely enough, William Shatner’s The UnXplained attracted 1.07 million viewers but cleaned the clock of Ancient Aliens among viewers 18-49, making it the thirty-third most-watched show on Saturday for that demographic. I wonder who those few thousand young adults are who tune in just for Shatner.

Meanwhile, Rob Riggle: Global Investigator actually lost ratings during this week of increased TV viewing. His viewer haul fell to just 523,000, losing almost 50% of the audience for his lead in, Naked and Afraid. His only saving grace is that he attracted almost exactly the same number of adults 18-49 as Ancient Aliens, so his show eked out sixty-sixth place on their strength, despite his miniscule overall viewer total. The audience has spoken: They hate his half-assed, unfunny pseudo-history show.

On Tuesday, Curse of Oak Island continued to dominate the fringe history ratings, with 3.5 million viewers. It remains cable’s number-one nonfiction series, and it drew a massive number of young adult viewers. Last week, Expedition Unknown clocked in with 1.2 million. Its spinoff Expedition X scored 1.19 million, and the after-show, After the Hunt, had 815,000 viewers. All three Expedition Unknown shows attracted more young adult viewers than either Ancient Aliens or Rob Riggle.

21 Comments

Donna

3/19/2020 11:48:52 am

Considering there are zillions of planets it is very doubtful that space aliens are imaginary.

Bezalel

3/19/2020 12:49:16 pm

Not the point
There is no compelling evidence to date that aliens are here. What pseudoscientists continually fail to do is effectively test for evidence.
Of course the likelihood that aliens exist elsewhere is very high based on knowledge we now have, but that does NOT equate to aliens being on earth.
It may appear that those on AA and other purveyors of pseudoscientific nonsense have these huge imaginations because of their ability to leap to the alien hypothesis when confronted with certain facts, The reality is actually the opposite.

If you cannot realize that ancient carvings or rituals or UFOs or underwater pyramids or other such things are of either terrestrial, military or psychological origin then it is YOUR imagination that fails. Failure to realize this simply means that you do not know how to think critically and you have not yet gained enough experience with basic life.

Physics helps.

3/19/2020 02:36:17 pm

Speaking of evidence I find it rather strange that experienced military men cannot tell the difference between an alien spacecraft and a weather balloon.

Doc Rock

3/19/2020 11:57:45 am

Marketing is not my forte. I sorta understand the importance of the 18-49 demographic. However, it seems at times that it is overemphasized when shows go down the toilet for low 18-49 numbers despite having overall solid ratings. With an aging U.S. population and the fact that a retired 70 year old probably has more disposable income than an 18-22 year old college student or entry level worker I find it a bit hard to digest the 18-49 as the magic number. But then again that could be because my parents are still bitching about Longmire being cancelled by A&E for low 18-49 numbers despite attracting around 4 million viewers per season over 3 seasons.

Jim

3/19/2020 12:55:33 pm

I would guess it has to do with the target audience of people who buy advertising time during the show.
Ca-ching $$$

3/19/2020 02:16:23 pm

Jim,

I'm certain that is the logic at work here. Just seems strange to me that the 18 to 25 portion of the demographic would be deemed more valuable in terms of consumer dollars and advertising than much of the 50+ demographic. But like I said marketing is not my forte and my frame of reference is listening to complaints about the cancellation of Longmire from people now in their 80s who spend more money on consumer goods than their 20-something (in age) grandkids.

Jason Colavito link

3/19/2020 02:29:25 pm

Advertising isn't as simple as running an ad to make viewers buy stuff. The 18-49 demographic is favored because advertisers believe they are the group that is most persuadable. Older consumers are thought (probably wrongly) to be brand-loyal and unlikely to change their habits in response to an ad. So it's not just about spending power but about whom you can lock into brand loyalty before age hardens their habits.

3/19/2020 02:49:41 pm

That makes sense, Jason. Is there any published research on this or is it more along the lines of what guys in expensive suits pitch to TV execs? I can see where getting them young in terms of brand loyalty could make some sense. On the other hand I would assume that there are many like me who are downright whorish in their lack of brand loyalty. I come from a family where most aren't inclined to get into fist fights over things like Ford vs. Chevy, though.

3/19/2020 05:02:46 pm

Doc, I'm thinking impulse buying plays a big part. Youngish working people with dollars to spend would be the prime target audience.
Most people younger than 18 don't have the cash to spend and older folks learn to be a little more deliberate when spending their hard earned money. My thoughts anyhoo, backed up by nothing at all.

P.S. On a quiet evening you can actually hear a Ford rust.

3/19/2020 05:43:29 pm

Jim,

When I was 18 to 22 my idea of an impulse buy was the first brand of beer I saw that went for under $2 a sixpack. On the other hand I have buddies who have been committed to the same brands of booze and smokes since their sophomore year of high school.

Joe Scales

3/19/2020 12:07:25 pm

Last episode of Oak Island, they pulled the old permit has expired before they could venture further into what looked to be (to only them) a "flood tunnel". Kinda like the stories they peddled a century and a half ago where they strike something hard believing it to be a treasure vault... but it's dark, so they have to come back tomorrow... or was it Sunday and they had to go to church... and come back the next day to find the hole flooded. Well, whichever it was, this new "permit" wrinkle is a nice tip o' the cap to the con of old.

geoff

3/19/2020 03:04:30 pm

They have to add drama somehow.. The difference between Oak Island and the other shows is there appears to be at least an attempt to do a proper science. The claim is that the government requires them to have experts - ie an actual archaeologist etc. I get the feeling that they recognise that their desire to discover treasures like the ark of a covenant is just a dream, but that "what really happened here" is more the focus.

3/19/2020 09:23:27 pm

No, their "science" is just as corrupt as any other fringe history show. Their onsite geologist continues the charade that there are manmade flood tunnels on Oak Island; which was disproven as a matter of geology over a hundred and fifty years ago. I do remember a great line he got in on one show. A line worthy of Wolter himself. He gets a hold of something they dug up and says that it "looks like rock". Yeah... science.

Machala

3/19/2020 12:28:56 pm

I think the 18-49 viewer demographic is passé and over-hyped - usually by networks that have programing deficiencies. As the United States grays, this demographic has diminished and represents only 55% of the adult population - down from 62% a decade ago. This 18 to 49 demographic is a smaller percentage of the overall population in numbers. In the last year, 18-to-49-tear-olds have declined one percent since last year to 126,540 people.
So why would advertisers want to continue to sell and focus their selling on a shrinking part of the total population?

kent

3/19/2020 02:41:31 pm

"In the last year, 18-to-49-tear-olds have declined one percent since last year to 126,540 people."

True, in the sense of being completely wrong. When you're writing about numbers numbers are the part you should proofread.

3/19/2020 04:54:20 pm

Numbers are accurate but the sentence is fractured. I should have written that "....18-to-49-year-olds has declined by 1% ( 126,540 ) since last year." Sorry, I should have realized it was unclear.

Kent

3/19/2020 10:09:14 pm

Still completely wrong (assuming you're talking about the U.S. and not San Corridor). 126,540 is 1% of 12,654,000

https://www.statista.com/statistics/241488/population-of-the-us-by-sex-and-age/

There was a time when the money demographic was 18-54.

TONY S.

3/19/2020 12:57:41 pm

That's encouraging, hopefully they'll mercy kill the show before it gets any worse, if that's possible.

I understand the appeal of the Expedition Unknown programs, and Shatner's show. But hopefully the powers that be are starting to realize that you can't just give anyone a show (like Zachary Quinto or Rob Riddle) and expect it to automatically be successful. Especially if you're going to cover the same old tired fringe topics that have already been done over and over again.

Bill

3/19/2020 01:54:06 pm

One fortunate outcome of COVID-19 will likely and hopefully be the end to this show. Travel certainly won't be an option for a bit. I suppose they could restrict the stories to within the US.... Let's hope it just fails.

An Anonymous Nerd

3/19/2020 09:10:24 pm

General reply.

As has been pointed out there's no good reason to think the aliens are here -- the same mathematical certainty that they exist someplace debunks the idea that they even know about us, for the same reasons.

Whether or not it's easy to tell the difference between a weather balloon and an alien spacecraft depends on a lot of things, one of which is under what circumstance the observation takes place. And what the properties of alien spacecraft are. See above for why you have no idea of that.

This is a red herring anyway. Reminds me of those folks who say "alien sightings are too numerous to be mass hysteria." Of course, it doesn't require hysteria, merely power of expectation that's compounded by pop culture.

Regarding demographics and their buying habits, there indeed is published research. What I'm not aware of is if there's research on whether or not the folks actually making the decisions read, much less understand, that research.

Regarding demographics in the United States, how about we go to an actual source: The US Census Bureau.

https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-03.pdf

See page 2. 0.6% more 18-44 year olds reflected in the 2010 census than in the 2000 census. But they were down 3.4% with respect to the overall population during the same period. As to whose side this helps in the above discussion? I don't know and don't care.

More-detailed information is available elsewhere on the Census site -- as is, to a limited degree, information from in between decennial censuses.

But you won't find any outer space aliens there, because they aren't here.

-An Anonymous Nerd

B L

3/25/2020 10:40:04 am

Hey Jason, I finally watched the first two episodes of Rob Riggle's show, and I gotta say....

I'm very surprised by your reaction to this show. I found it to be very enjoyable. Many parts were hilarious. Riggle approaches these subjects with humor and spends nearly the whole hour making fun of himself. It's kind of like a cross between the Ali G Show (where the industry experts consulted aren't in on the joke until after it becomes painfully obvious that Riggle is playing a doofus character) and a Josh Gates/Scott Wolter themed stand-up comedy routine.

Viewers get to see some pretty exotic locations they wouldn't otherwise be introduced to, and get to enjoy what is obviously humor directed at the circular thinking pseudo-scientist often critiqued here on your blog.

So far, both episodes have ended with Riggle not discovering anything and poking fun at himself for it. It's the anti-America Unearthed. Funny stuff.

Coming down on this show is like critiquing George Carlin's social commentary comedy as if Carlin had a seat at the United Nations.

It's okay to laugh once in a while.