By “justice,” we don’t mean the highbrow,
backroom-detective type of
justice, but the hunt-’em-down-andlock-’
em-up reality type of justice;
the kind with big characters, outlandish
scenarios and live-action heroes
and villains. The justice genre was
particularly active in June, with five
of the CableU 30* networks carrying
seven programs that fit the classification. There were a total of 54
telecasts and 25 new episodes of
justice programming in the month.
Three new programs debuted in June
alone. And after eight seasons, A&E’s
Dog the Bounty Hunter came to an
end on June 23 — not necessarily
signaling the end of the genre as
much as failed contract negotiations
with some of those big characters we
mentioned. Poetic justice, if you will.
For the most part, the core
justice audience demo is men 25 to
54. Most of the genre leans male,
with the notable exceptions of both
of A&E’s programs and truTV’s Bait
Car. National Geographic Channel’s
Wild Justice and Spike TV’s Undercover
Stings skew a bit younger.
Interestingly, none are the top-rated
program for their respective network.
Of all the justice programs,
Animal Planet’s Whale Wars took the
highest ranking among its network’s
primetime programming, coming in
fourth.
The justice genre, as a rule, is not
a ratings star. It does have staying
power, though, and it is heating up as
programmers explore new ways to
depict their own brand of justice.
For more from this report, visit
cableu.tv.
* CableU selects 30 key U.S. ad-supported cable networks
to analyze based upon their distribution levels, influence in
the marketplace and their reliance on programming from
independent television producers.
Norwalk, Conn.-based CableU is a television research
company that publishes monthly reports on U.S. cable-TV
network and program performance and offers custom
research as well as a database on cable-TV people,
programs and production companies.
SOURCE: June 2012, Nielsen Live-Plus-Same-Day National Ratings, Monday-Sunday 8 p.m.-11 p.m.
