The “median age” of a show is the age at which an equal amount of its viewers are above and below that age. For instance,  The West Wing’s median age is 54 (meaning that half of the show’s viewers are younger than 54 and half are older than 54). E-Ring, the new West Wing spin-off based in the Pentagon, also has a median age of 54.

Many of today’s new shows have relatively high median ages; something that might cause concern in an industry that tends to cater to a younger demographic. It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that last season’s Commander in Chief had a median age of 55 years, while CBS’s NCIS has a median age of 56. Cold Case also had a median age of 56. 

What was unpredictable was the median age of Fox’s Bones: 44. Any show starring heartthrob David Boreanaz (of Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame) certainly expected a younger audience than that! 24 also had a relatively high median age at 45 years, which is interesting considering Fox’s youth-centric reputation.

On the other hand, The Simpsons – which has been on the air for a whopping seventeen seasons – has the same low median age of 29 that it had several years ago.  Despite being an “old” show, it hasn’t had any trouble engaging younger viewers.