Network Loyalty Plays Into Game Show Viewer Crossover

For many, the words “game show” evoke an image of Alex Trebek on Jeopardy or Vanna White on Wheel of Fortune. But these days, networks are upping their game with new programs featuring celebrity hosts and wacky challenges, like Fox’s Beat Shazam and Spin the Wheel; ABC’s Celebrity Family Feud, The $100,000 Pyramid and Press Your Luck; and NBC’s Hollywood Game Night.

We were curious about the crossover for these shows — is one audience more likely to watch another game show, and how much of a role does network loyalty play? We turned to Inscape, the TV data company with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 11 million smart TVs, to see exactly what viewership crossover* looks like so far this summer. 

At the high end of viewership crossover: an impressive 70% of The $100,000 Pyramid viewers also watched Celebrity Family Feud, and half of Family Feud fans watched Pyramid. At the low end: only 14% of Beat Shazam viewers watched Hollywood Game Night, and 15% of Spin the Wheel fans tuned into Hollywood Game Night. 

There was also some network loyalty going on: Beat Shazam and Spin the Wheel, both on Fox, had the highest crossover rates for each other. The same trend can be seen with ABC’s shows. For NBC-owned Hollywood Game Night, the other show its audience was most like to watch was Celebrity Family Feud (35%).

*A note about methodology: You have to do more than just flip past a station with your remote to count as a “crossover viewer” in Inscape’s system. For the data set above, the minimum threshold was set ten minutes with a date range of May 1 through July 22.