Republicans Prefer Family-Friendly, Funny, Good vs. Evil Programs
In a recent analysis, E-Score identified the top 10 favorite programs among folks who identify themselves as Democrats or Republicans.
Among the key findings: Democrats prefer programs that are sexy, edgy, emotionally involving, ethnically diverse or have strong characters. These shows may be more attractive to supporters of Clinton.
Meanwhile, Republicans prefer programs that are family-friendly, funny, plot driven or have storylines that involve “good vs. evil.” These shows may be more appealing to supporters of Trump.
Family Friendly vs. Sexy | Funny vs. Emotionally Involving
Republicans prefer broadcast programs that are safer for families and more likely to be described as “Family Friendly” and “Funny” while Democrats prefer edgier programming and describe their favorite shows as “Sexy” and “Emotionally Involving.” The top 3 favorite shows described as “Sexy” by Democrats were Game of Thrones, The Haves and the Have Nots, and Suits. By contrast, half of the top 10 shows on the Republican list had more than 25% of respondents describing the shows as “Family Friendly” and air on broadcast television.
Ethnically Diverse
On the Democrats’ list, 3 of the top 10 shows: The Haves and the Have Nots on OWN, How to Get Away with Murder on ABC, and Empire on FOX all have a racially diverse cast and have powerful lead roles for women. This reflects the Democratic viewer who is also typically more diverse, with higher concentration of black and female supporters.
Good vs. Evil
Republicans enjoy clearer “good vs. evil” characters and storylines compared to the Democrats’ favorites. Republicans prefer shows featuring superheroes like The Flash, Arrow and the super intelligent team on Scorpion. Procedural programs such as NCIS and Blue Bloods also have the “good vs. evil” component, as well as skewing slightly older than some other programs in the list.
E-Score analyzed more than 750 prime time broadcast, cable and streaming programs among Americans of voting age whose political affiliation is either Republican or Democrat and ranked the results for shows described as “One of My Favorites” by each group. E-Score Programs is a monthly tracking survey that measures awareness, viewing and perceptions of more than 3,000 US television programs. Surveys are conducted monthly among a representative sample of US viewers with 1,200 respondents per show. E-Score is a product of E-Poll Market Research.
Source: E-Poll Market Research; edited by Richard Carufel.
