With all the talk about “new media” lately, I’m sure many of you have been wondering the same thing: does any of this really matter? Sure, kids are all illegally (and legally…?) downloading their favorite shows onto their laptops, iPods, Zunes, Zens, etc. and catching up on T.V. while riding the bus, instead of staying glued to the sofa. But surely, it takes some kind of technological expertise to replace all T.V. in your life with some kind of digital counterpart. Do these new media kids really comprise a significant part of the T.V. watching demographic?

According to Variety, yes.

According to a study released by Magna Global’s Steve Sternberg, the five broadcast nets’ average live median age (in other words, not including delayed DVR viewing) was 50 last season. That’s the oldest ever since Sternberg started analyzing median age more than a decade ago — and the first time the nets’ median age was outside of the vaunted 18-49 demo.

T.V. has officially become the medium for people who don’t understand The Google. Even my technophobe mom started watching Ugly Betty on the ABC website. It’s so convenient and so much better than being a slave to the network’s schedule; plus, it eliminates the possibility of screwing up a VHS recording.

AICN’s Hercules, fascinated by the article, extracted his own breakdown of the shows that attract the youngest and oldest viewers on each network:

The CW
Youngest: One Tree Hill (26)
Oldest: Life Is Wild (45)

Fox
Youngest (tie): American Dad; Family Guy (29)
Oldest: Canterbury’s Law (55)

ABC
Youngest: Supernanny (31)
Oldest: Women’s Murder Club (57)

NBC
Youngest: Scrubs (34)
Oldest: Monk (58)

CBS
Youngest (tie): Big Brother; How I Met Your Mother; Kid Nation (45).
Oldest: 60 Minutes (60)

(In my opinion, the Fox tie can be explained by the fact that the shows run back-to-back.)

They’re all about as predictable as it gets. Older folks love mysteries, murder, the law, news, and whatever “Life Is Wild” is. 20-somethings like their comedies and teen dramas. But many of them choose something other than broadcast T.V. to get their fix - and that’s a statistically supported fact.

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