Boom Adult Viewer Numbers For Final 3 Winter Hiatus Weeks Now Known

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1. Do the ADULT ratings even matter to Cartoon Network? I don’t think so; adults aren’t the main demographic for the series and on top of that CN is also looking at sales of merchandise to the series. Look what happened to Steven Universe: reduced airings because of the lack merch sales.

   1. I don’t think it matters either but TV By The Numbers is specifically mentioning them and it’s all we have to work with for now.

2. I’m not surprised. Hiatuses have always ticked me off *cough* Avatar: The Last Airbender *Cough*. I actually don’t think they’ll pick back up as well. It’s easy to start sleeping in on Saturday mornings again. Getting back into the wake-up-early lingo isn’t easy.

3. Easy fix, air it in the middle of the day.

   1. This ^^^

4. Where are the numbers for the actual target demographic?
   Oh wait……they arent watching the show. xD

   1. Obviously, you weren’t reading it properly.

      1. Obviously, you weren’t either.
         The target demographic is young kids… up to 12 or something I believe?
         The fact there’s this many just in the adult demo is impressive in my opinion, however.

         1. Regardless, the show’s fate is mainly riding on merchandise sales. If Boom can’t sell merch, they’ll probably axe the show after it finishes its initial run of the produced 52 episodes. Since kids may not be watching the show enough, and therefore, possibly, are not buying the toys enough, well… it might not get another season.

5. I’m surprised that Ren hasn’t just posted these first. He’s been good at getting documents and stats recently.

   1. I’m surprised Stimpy hasn’t either.

6. “We now know the adult viewership numbers (the demographic of age 18-49)”

   “Sonic Boom’s Primary Audience is Kids 6 to 11”

   Well, that’s just disturbing and pathetic all at once. 😛 This only proves that the show wasn’t made to appeal to kids, but what a bunch of 40 year olds think would appeal to kids.

   1. Your explanation is sound from a textbook standpoint but it does not hold water when you look at the real intent. TV shows often have a sticker demographic that the production crew throws on their product to make a hard sell to TV networks. However, it can sometimes be actually intended to sell to another group entirely. Take, for example, the Hanna Barbara classic cartoon box sets. Internally, they were “technically” designed to be marketed to children. However, in reality, they were actually made for baby boomers (people born from the late 1940s to the 1960s). All considered, calling Sonic Boom flat-out pathetic is rather rash and unfounded.

      1. “However, it can sometimes be actually intended to sell to another group entirely.”

         This doesn’t change the fact that Boom’s target demo isn’t watching the show. All throughout 2014, they made it perfectly clear that this wasn’t “traditional Sonic”, that it was for a “new generation of fans”, it was clear they were trying to alienate the main Sonic crowd. The point was to bring in the kids, but those kids aren’t watching the show (or buying the games) because Boom’s content doesn’t appeal to them.

         So now, they have to rely on only the most dedicated of the established adult fan-base for ratings. The intent to appeal to one crowd and gaining another isn’t impossible, but the point still stands that Boom failed its purpose. Calling it pathetic isn’t as unfounded as you make it seem.

         1. What is its purpose? To sell to kids or to sell to make money? Perhaps it “failed” a published purpose, but not its main purpose on the whole, which is, with all material in mass media, to make money. Let me repeat: ad companies do prefer adult audiences over children ones because (1) an adult will more likely remember an ad more than a child, and (2) adults (parents in particular) are the overwhelmingly most prominent factor in all buying decisions. Furthermore, the show alienating Sonic fans wasn’t in topic of my argument at all, which you happened mentioned and which seems that is the primary source of your negativity towards the show. On the contrary, the fan appeal overall is generally quite positive! Check the forums, user reviews, fan site articles, etc.

         2. So its kinda similar how My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic appealed to grown adults instead of little girls? Don’t see how its a bad thing. As long as they get money/viewers, I don’t think they who the target audience is.

         3. @Cottoncandy: Exactly. I was going to mention My Little Pony myself. However, see JustPassingThrough’s comment below. Sonic Boom isn’t quite the unintentional adult hit this article originally made it out to be.

         4. @Cottoncandy: Disregard what I just said about JustPassingThrough’s comment. The commenter misread what is actually a rating value of some sort. This article’s statistics are indeed adult numbers.

      2. “What is its purpose? To sell to kids or to sell to make money?”
         I never denied that. Of course its made to make money, of course they would prefer adults, but all the “effort” to appeal to kids and all the sympathy it received (show and game) from the fans who defended its flaws based on it being made for kids and those same kids not watching it is why I called it pathetic. In the end the “It’s for kids” excuse went next to no where.

         “On the contrary, the fan appeal overall is generally quite positive! Check the forums, user reviews, fan site articles, etc.”

         And? People on forums raving about Boom being good doesn’t constitute actual success. So far the show has obtained a little over a million adult viewers (even if it may increase or decrease) and RoL has only managed to move 25,000 or so copies. I feel people are over-blowing its success based on forum praise.

         1. 1000% correct.

   2. It shows that Sonic’s probably more appealing to adults rather than kids today because the adults watching Boom most likely grew up with the series when they were children. It shows that Sega’s attempt at reaching out to a newer, younger audience, might be in vein, as Sonic isn’t anywhere nearly as popular as he was in the 90s and early 2000s.

      1. I also see nothing wrong with adults watch shows aimed at children. As Walt Disney once said, “You’re dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway.”

         On a similar subject, Sega and Sonic Team should follow this philosophy with the Sonic games as well.

         1. Well, technically, The Hobbit and Harry Potter are books and movies intended for children and adolescent audiences, and they are massively popularly among adults as well.

         2. Sonic’s more appealing to a large number of adult fans screaming that “Sonic is for kids!”, that the series is about a blue hedgehog and needs to be as silly and wacky as possible and such. Sonic’s not appealing to kids as he used to be because he abandoned his original appeal. Classic Sonic’s image isn’t the same as Colors-Lost World Sonic’s is, I’m sure anyone could clearly see that. The games now are too childish and kids don’t like extreme wackiness, if they did then I doubt SLW and Boom wouldn’t sell so little.

            They’re drawn to more action packed, “cool” games like COD or GTA. (In no way am I implying that Sonic should be exactly like them) Sega’s attempt is only in vein because they fail to make Sonic as action packed and cool now, instead turning the series into a shallow joke fest.

            “I also see nothing wrong with adults watch shows aimed at children.”

            Like I said, what one does in their time is their business, it’s just that in something like an old Disney movie, let’s say Lion King, there’s much more substance and even a bit of depth to be found than in Boom. I’d refer to this old quote to my point into perspective.

            “A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.”

            The overall problem of the current direction of the series. It’s choosing to appeal to kids only and kids don’t like that, if they appealed more to young teens and made there games cooler the kids would naturally follow like they did in the classic days.

         3. But the problem is that the series has always been targeted towards kids. Sonic was originally designed to appeal to the 90’s crowd by giving him a hip/cool personality with a slightly edgy appearance, which many thought was appealing back then. Even the different shows which he appeared in back then tried adapting him to certain directions which were popular at the time: AoStH tried copying the weirdness of “Ren and Stimpy”, SatAM fallowed the footsteps of darker, more atmospheric shows like “Batman:TAS” and “Gargoyles”; and “Underground” tried appealing to the “Alvin and the Chipmunks” crowd with a slightly darker tone.

            But since kids naturally grow up, their tastes also change and the creators had a hard time trying to find a proper direction for the franchise. This all seemed to change once SA1 was released, which pretty much established a set tone for the fanchise to fallow. And since it was generally well received by fans (having been around for around a decade), I think it’s safe to say the series has finally found its proper place. But even then, the series still continues to experiment. Currently, they’re aiming for a more humorous approach with some personality thrown in.

         4. @LogiTeeka

            While Sonic’s always been kid friendly, it was never kid exclusive. While yes, the “cool/hip edgy” appeal worked in the 90s, Sonic’s drop in popularity isn’t simply because the fans grew up. It’s about the series abandoning its cool tone since Colors. You can clearly see the decline in sales after that game with Lost World and Boom at the bottom of the barrel. Making the series more crazy, action packed, and such instead of a shallow, boring joke fest like it has been since Colors would really help.

            Going back to the SA1/2 tone and making it even better would be a big step in the right direction. After all, Sega’s experimented with the excessive childishness and comedy for the last 4 years and I think its safe to say it isn’t working.

7. That’s not very nice 🙁

   Why can’t adults watch the show? I believe if a grown man/woman wants to wake up for 30 minute at 6:00am on Saturday just for their favorite show is their business. Its Saturdays they can do whatever they want.

   1. Well, hey, don’t let a faceless commenter on a Sonic website dictate how you spend your time. Doesn’t make what I said about the show failing to appeal to kids any less true.

      1. Oh no,

         I don’t watch the show, I just feel it was the right thing to say.

      2. Depends on your word choice, which errs on the side of negativity and pessimism against the show. The point being, the show does not depend on who is watching but more on how many are watching. A million viewers, whether granny knitting in her rocking chair or a rambunctious lot of kids, it doesn’t matter. In fact, having adults is all the better because they have the pocketbooks. It isn’t kids who purchase things in TV advertisements–9 times out of 10, it’s the adults. Having more adults is all the more appealing to advertising agencies.

         1. I didn’t buy both the wii u and rise of lyric cause that is a boatload of cash.

            P.S. I feel like there’s supposed to be a children uprising, but that is not a good idea. *punches wall into a hole*

      3. Read me: http://pastebin.com/z30fvhjD

         1. The more people watching the show the better, but not only do they lack the audience of kids they wanted, the number of adults watching the show isn’t that high either. A little over a million, which seems to be dropping slowly, isn’t that impressive for TV.

         2. Compared to other cartoons airing at around the same time (Teen Titans Go!, Pokemon XY), Sonic Boom is as good (Pokemon XY) and actually better (Teen Titans Go!). (source: http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2015/01/07/saturday-cable-ratings-nfl-wildcard-wins-night-college-football-damaged-ufc-more/344310/ ) Keep in mind that this is during the traditional mid-season hiatus that hits most shows during the holiday season. It will likely increase to the lower to middle 1 to 2 million range as the show marches on with more new weekly episodes.

            Also note JustPassingThrough’s new comment below. The numbers were misinterpreted. Those numbers above are actually for all people, not just adults. In an adjacent column in the linked statistics, it lists that roughly only 300,000 to 400,000 adults watched Boom. That is in line with the other cartoons in all cases. Besides, you can’t kill the kid in all of us! 😉

         3. Disregard what I said about JustPassingThrough’s comment. It’s a rating value of some sort. These are indeed adult numbers.

   2. I say it is beyond 100% rude (quadrillion percent) to kids because of the TV-14-D-L-S-V rating they’re going to show. By “they’re” I mean sucky 21st century sega. Great in the 1990s (20th century) sucky in the current 21st century. Sorry about the offensive comments sega, I am upset of what you done. I feel bad for my filmmaking passion in the future, it shall be wasted. :, (

8. It was a completely dumb idea to slap a “hiatus” so early into the series but then its STUPID its not in the Uk/Europe yet *throws keyboard*

   1. I feel the same way, Danielle.

9. http://pastebin.com/z30fvhjD

10. Here we go again..

11. Those viewership numbers are not just the adults. They represent the ENTIRE viewership, children, grandmas and dogs included. It’s the decimal number next on the chart under “18-49” that represents the adult viewership number.

    1. Good catch! SSF1991, can you fix this in the article?

       1. Never mind. I looked again. What you are referring to is actually the rating, or more specifically “Adult 18-49 Rating (Live + SD).”

          1. On the bright side, Sonic Boom is rated by adults as highly as Pokemon XY, Teen Titans Go!, and SpongeBob, which all share a .4 rating. I am unsure what that actually comes from.

    2. “The list below is the top 100 cable shows for adults 18-49 for the whole day.”

       Quoted from the site that provided the numbers.

       1. Ah, you are correct – my apologies!

12. Well that’s pretty good for the adult viewership,wonder how the younger audience numbers are like.I’m liking the show.

13. Man this show is dive bombing towards cancellation.

    1. its diving towards cancellation?
       umm no its still the number 1 watched kids show on foxtel… so its actually diving towards a second season.

       1. When a merchandise-driven show’s audience is primarily adults, but is aimed at children, it’s less likely for it to sell merch. If it doesn’t sell merch, the show gets cancelled and replaced as the business shift gears to something else. Regardless of ratings, the show needs merch sales to keep going. The Boom TV Show is basically a glorified toy commercial just like My Little Pony and Transformers.

          Just sayin’.

          1. Your right merch sales are extremely important to a show like this. Sega payed alot of money to make this show they got make some of that back. The Boom game really needed some good sales now its only backing is a toy line and if the kids don’t like the show the toy line wont survive. Look at Thundercats and Young Justice they had the exact same problem and they were cancelled far before they should have.

             If Sega is smart they will embraced there adult audience and put out products that would appeal to them. High quality blu rays, maybe some streaming at places like Amazon. Artbooks, soundtracks clothing. Thats how Legend of Korra managed to survive to four seasons.

    2. I like your ideas below, but isn’t exactly divebombing towards cancellation. It’s popularity is basically the same as Pokemon XY and Teen Titans Go!. We still haven’t seen the full numbers, week by week, for full audiences, so they could be just as many children with this cartoon program as the others.

       1. I like your ideas *above, but isn’t exactly divebombing towards cancellation. *Its popularity is basically the same as Pokemon XY and Teen Titans Go!. We still haven’t seen the full numbers, week by week, for *the entire audiences, so *there could be just as many children with this cartoon program as the others.

14. I think it’s really funny how articles saying positive things about SEGA or fanworks are completely ignored, you all are waiting for another Sonic based article or an article about SEGA failing. Then suddenly when one of those articles are released it get tons of comments. I think everyone here that comments just likes drama. Honestly.

    1. Aliens just sold a million copies and won an award for game of the year. Where were you in that article?

       1. I don’t go on this site too often. My friends send me articles sometimes, and other times I come and check out the site myself. I only comment on things I find worth commenting on.

    2. Could have switched to universal studios. If you don’t have an animation carnival like universal orlando resort does, you’re not entertainment certified.

15. What I still want to see is the show released digitally. I have no desire to sub to cable, and prefer to just buy online once and not pay for TV I don’t watch or months of reruns.

16. Hypotetical question, just for fun.

    If this show gets axed in the newar future do you think Sega would keep working with this animation studios to develop another TV series based on Sonic? Either based on the games or the comics?

    1. If it gets axed after season one, likely no. If after season two, maybe, maybe not. If after season three or more, certainly yes!

       Here’s the logic behind it: One season would mean it was not highly regarded by Sega and they likely want to sweep it under rug, either because it carries the stigma of the games or because it did not gain the children audience or because it did not sell enough toys. Two season would mean it did reasonably well, but it wasn’t a smash hit in Sega’s book and Sega may look to them if they want to do another cartoon in the near future, but they will have their eyes open for other, better animation studios. Three or more seasons would mean that Sega was enamored by the studio’s work and they might even ask them to do animation work for games besides other future cartoons.

       It happened to DiC, which ironically is also a French animation company, in the 90s, leading to Sonic Underground. It could very well happen again for OuiDo!

       1. Comment #2: oh no, I am getting sick already. Oh well, let’s face the facts, It is gonna be harming kids including me anyway. Sucks being a kid sometimes, right?

    2. If it isn’t a Sonic Shonen, I could care less.

       At the current moment I am watching One Piece and I can’t help but feel proven right. One Piece is the IDEAL EXAMPLE to use for a Sonic show. Friendship, morals, emotion, humor, action, drama EVERYTHING. The show has a little bit of everything and it all blends so perfectly together. Every facet is perfectly balanced and it all feels so fun. One Piece is something special. Up there with Yu Yu Hakusho definitely. [Well written] Shonen just offers more than any cartoon of today. I don’t want a boring, gag kid’s anime like Sonic X or Hero Bank. Nor do I want a show that is no fun to look at and filled with “mommy approved” drama like SatAM. God knows NONE OF US wants another Underground…just keep Sonic away from cartoons for god’s sake.

       Shonen or gtfo!

    3. Eh, at this point, I don’t care if Sonic gets another TV show at this point. The only animated Sonic adaptations I liked were the OVA and Night of the Werehog. The Japanese version of X is kind of a guilty pleasure of mine, but Chris and giving Tails a love interest in the third season kinda ruined the show for me.

       As 100Rings said, a Shonen Sonic anime done right in the vein of something like One Piece, Dragon Ball, YuYu Hakusho, etc. with the right balance between action, humor, and drama, but doesn’t take itself too seriously and takes the characters and lore established from the games and expands upon them in ways the games never had, plus a more reasonable animation budget with more consistent animation quality probably would be my ideal Sonic show.

       Though it probably would cost too much to keep going, not sell enough toys and would probably just suffer the same fate as Thundercats and Young Justice, so I know Sega probably won’t make another Sonic show if Boom gets the axe early.

17. As you all know there is a channel for night time called [adult swim]. But if it is on CN there is gonna be some trouble. Why do some people hate technology? Cause people tamed it both bad and good. The bad stuff is when they ask permmision for private to be public if you know what I mean. The good is the cartoons that have no DLS or V warning on the ratings. Get my point? If your a tv pro and know about this, you could also already know this: TV-14-D-L-S-V.
    It is that simple, DUH!

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