For mature audiences: Networks court older viewers

For three decades, prime-time television has been obsessed with appealing to younger viewers for the benefit of advertisers. But this youthquake may show signs of abating - at least a little.

A few weeks ago, cable network WE debuted "Sunset Daze," a reality series set in an Arizona retirement community.

In June, TV Land premieres "Hot in Cleveland," a sitcom co-starring 88-year-old Betty White.

Network series in development for fall include " -- My Dad Says," based on a Twitter feed by a 29-year-old guy who posts the acerbic witticisms of his 73-year-old father (William Shatner).

In early 2011, TV Land will debut the sitcom "Retired at 35," about a young businessman who leaves New York to live with his parents (George Segal and Jessica Walter) in their Florida retirement community.

"The population is getting older, and the median age is the highest it's ever been," said Brad Adgate, senior vice president for research at New York media-buying firm Horizon Media. CBS skews oldest at 55, followed by ABC (52), NBC (51), Fox (46) and CW (34).

Advertisers continue to covet younger viewers under the assumption that it's better to hook a buyer on a product when he is 20 to benefit from 60 years of sales, Adgate said. Generally, younger people spend less time watching TV; older people spend more time watching TV.

Because young viewers are more difficult to reach, advertisers will pay a premium to pitch their products on shows with youth appeal, which is why most networks target viewers ages 18-49.

With ratings for broadcast networks down, some channels may be happy for any success. ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" is not as much of a demographic hit, skewing older than Fox's "American Idol." A recent "Idol" telecast drew 9.6 million viewers ages 18-49 compared to "Dancing," which was watched by 6.3 million viewers in the same demo. But "Dancing" can draw 7 million more viewers than the more demographically desirable "Glee," a show about a high-school glee club that drew 13 million viewers in its April 13 spring premiere. 

Truth in advertising

Because advertisers covet younger viewers, "Idol" remains the ad-sales champ, drawing $642,000 for a 30-second commercial. "Dancing" charged $209,000 for an ad in its fall edition, the most recently available numbers from the Nielsen Co.

Last summer at the TV critics' press tour, TV Land president Larry Jones said his network planned to add scripted comedies designed to appeal to the network's target audience: viewers 40-54, with age 48 as the network's "sweet spot." The average age for a TV Land viewer is 53, according to a Nielsen Co. report. Jones described the TV Land viewership as 48 percent male, 52 percent female.

The network's recent forays into shows targeting these viewers have been reality series such as "First Love, Second Chance," about former lovers who attempt to rekindle their romance when they are older.

"Nobody is making shows specifically for the 45- or 48-year-olds, and we see a huge opportunity for that," Jones said last year.

White has become more popular than ever in the past year from her role in the movie "The Proposal," an appearance in a popular candy-bar commercial that aired during the Super Bowl and a Facebook group demand that she be invited to host "Saturday Night Live" (which she did on May 8). So her casting in the TV Land sitcom is perhaps less notable than three other sitcom veterans tapped.

"Hot in Cleveland" stars Valerie Bertinelli ("One Day at a Time"), 50, Jane Leeves ("Frasier"), 49, and Wendy Malick ("Just Shoot Me"), 59, as three friends who get stuck in Ohio and discover they don't face the age discrimination they are accustomed to in Los Angeles.

Although dramas starring older women began to gain in network favor a few years ago as Glenn Close, 63, Holly Hunter, 52, and Kyra Sedgwick, 44, were cast as series leads in "Damages," "Saving Grace" and "The Closer," respectively, sitcoms headlined by women outside the networks' 18-49 target demo have been few since "The Golden Girls" premiered in 1985.

Cable shows its maturity

 AARP welcomes members at age 50, and Hugh Delehanty, editor in chief for AARP publications, said television's approach to the portrayal of older Americans has been changing for about a decade.

He points to Close's starring role in "Damages" and the TNT series "Men of a Certain Age" - starring Scott Bakula, 55, Ray Romano, 52, and Andre Braugher, 47 - as examples of that change.

"I think there's been an incredible amount of success on the cable front," Delehanty said, pointing to USA's "Monk," which ended last year after a successful seven-year run that began when star Tony Shalhoub was 49.

"Suddenly they were creating big audiences with a cable show. What used to be an offbeat idea became, 'Oh, my God, you can do a show with a 50-year-old in it and it becomes extremely successful.' " It's a given that as people live longer, they're more active longer. Baby boomers and even "people in their 60s and 70s are living a lot differently than people were in the past," Delehanty said.

That approach to life is front and center in WE's "Sunset Daze," which follows seniors on dates and assorted adventures (a former nun sky-dives).

"I would say there was an epiphany: Why hasn't anyone done this before?" said WE senior vice president John Miller. "I think people were slow to realize that [seniors] are more like us and there's less of a disconnect."