Shark Tank Attention Scores Bite Hard

With all the Shark Tank reruns airing on CNBC and ABC, we had a sinking suspicion the show’s staying power is rather sticky when driving audience attention (for similar reasons behind why MTV has leaned on Friends re-runs to snag young viewer attention).We decided to compare Shark Tank reruns on CNBC and ABC versus the ABC’s live in-season episodes that air Friday nights. We used iSpot.tv to compare the attention scores, which measures the propensity for interruption -- IE, the higher your score, the less likely viewers are interrupting their viewing experience.The verdict?Yes, audiences watch plenty of ABC’s new Shark Tank episodes live on Friday nights. And yes, viewers are tuning in to the reruns on CNBC and ABC.Let's be clear: there are no losers in this franchise, which has delivered over 11 Billion TV device impressions in the last year.But more interestingly, viewers are actually sticking through commercials as much if not more for  the re-runs even more than the live episodes.Ads running during Shark Tank reruns are less likely to interrupt ad plays than during the new episodes according to iSpot.tv, which measures attention and view rates for TV ads directly from millions of smart TVs. This could be for a few reasons-- ABC in prime on a Friday lends itself to FOMO, perhaps more. Also, people watching on CNBC are likely in binge mode.Looking at rerun airings only from Sept. 23, 2016 (when season eight premiered) through last week, Shark Tank ads earned a 93.03% attention score out of 100. Compare that to a 90.27% attention score posted by new episodes last season. While both are high one could argue that brands appearing during reruns are getting more bang for their buck.The two types of episode airings also bring different advertisers into the fold. While new episodes were populated by family-focused brands (Target, Lowe’s, Toyota, Tide), reruns were more business-focused.Shark Tank reruns perform really well for industries such as Banks and Credit Cards, Travel Websites, and Investment Services-- all of which generated 30% less interruptions than the average category.CNBC brought high attention rates for brands like the Institute of Management Accountants, NetJets, Personal Capital, Cognizant and Capital One, which all scored above 98.75 . And that was just the beginning of a lengthy list of business-focused brands. E*TRADE, Dell, American Express and Comcast Business all aired some of the show’s top-performing spots -- with E*TRADE’s “Plane Truth” headlining.

Some of the success comes from just how loved the show is -- or how much “love” social media users show Shark Tank year-round, according to emotion analytics company Canvs.tv. Using the same range as above, 33.3% of all emotional reactions (ERs) to Shark Tank were categorized as “love.” And nearly 20% of those reactions were actually driven by the judges themselves. (nice work creating conversation, Mark!)As the hit show enters season nine of live broadcasts on ABC, it’s worth keeping an eye on the advertisers that jump into the pool for Friday nights, and which wait around for the re-airs. There’s benefits to both, clearly. But for this past year, the business crowd does seem content to what it knows (CNBC).