Although it’s still early in the 2017-18 TV season, Fox seems to have a promising new show on its hands: The Gifted, which expands on Marvel’s X-Men franchise and follows a family on the run from the government because their kids have mutant abilities.
B&C worked with Inscape.tv, the TV data company with glass-level information from 7 million smart TV screens and devices, to reveal live-viewership trends during the first three episodes. Also below: brand and advertising data courtesy of iSpot.tv and a look at fans’ emotional reactions via Canvs.
So far The Gifted has seen steady upticks in live viewership, meaning that more people are tuning in as each episode progresses. (The dips in the graphs below represent people switching to different channels during commercial breaks, which is typical when it comes to watching TV live).
Related: The Return of ‘Mr. Robot’: A Viewer and Advertiser Deep Dive
The show may also be benefiting from a lead-in audience watching Lucifer, which then, already primed for a fantasy/comic-book-esque story, sticks around for The Gifted. Notably, each week after The Gifted concludes, a subset of the audience switches over to ABC to catch its new show The Good Doctor—a drama about a young doctor with, yes, special abilities.
According to iSpot, which has attention and conversion data from more than seven million smart TVs, so far 64 brands have spent an estimated $8.1 million running 109 spots 161 times during The Gifted. Mobile device companies as a category are leading in spend, followed by automakers, with Verizon and Lincoln topping the list of individual brands that have shelled out the most. But interestingly—and perhaps fittingly—the single commercial with the highest estimated spend is a trailer for Blade Runner 2049 from Warner Bros.
When it comes to viewer attention to ads during The Gifted, GEICO is leading according to the iSpot Attention Index, with 77% fewer interruptions during its commercials (interruptions include changing the channel, pulling up the guide, fast-forwarding or turning off the TV).
There have been 16,006 Emotional Reactions (ERs) on social media to episodes of The Gifted so far, according to Canvs, the emotion measurement company. Love has been the most prominent emotion, appearing in 29.9% of all ERs about the show. Many fans have also been expressing excitement (18.2%) and enjoyment (16.%), while some have been talking about how crazy the show is (5.6%).
The character Polaris, who also goes by Lorna Dane and is portrayed by Emma Dumont, has been the most-mentioned so far. Not only are fans loving her abilities, which include controlling magnetism, they think she’s just beautiful.
There are seven episodes remaining in the season, so stay tuned to see if The Gifted remains the gift that keeps on giving for Fox.
