11

The CW's Arrowverse, in its 2017 form, comprises 4 shows: Arrow, Flash, Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl.

The 4 shows have different atmospheres:

  1. Arrow is the most grounded of all shows, revolving around the question of vigilantes and justice, and a bit of politics. It features limited sci-fi or supernatural elements.
  2. The Flash is all about meta-humans with special abilities, time travel, and other dimensions.
  3. Legends of Tomorrow is centered about time travel and its consequences.
  4. Supergirl also has superpowered beings but deals more with aliens and how they impact Earthlings' life.

For each episode (1), these shows get around 2.21 million viewers for Arrow, 3.5 million viewers for Flash, for 2.57 million viewers for Legends of Tomorrow and 2.12 million viewers for Supergirl.

Maybe it is the mathematician in me speaking, but I always wondered how the viewership spread amongst the 4 shows. Which part of the audience watches all of them? Only one of them?

Do we have any figure (from the CW or independent source) about the viewership of the Arrowverse?

Bonus points if your answer includes a 4-sets Venn diagram.

(1) I arbitrarily took the viewership of the last season, according to Wikipedia.

7
  • I'd say there's likely a good deal of crossover at least among the comic book enthusiast crowd. But as a guess, maybe 55% +- 15%
    – Derek
    Dec 4, 2017 at 2:19
  • I'd be glad if the closevoter explains his/her decision. I was not sure if the question belongs to here or to movies.SE actually.
    – Taladris
    Dec 4, 2017 at 2:27
  • 3
    Arrow has limited supernatural elements if you ignore seasons 4 and 5, I suppose.
    – phantom42
    Dec 4, 2017 at 2:28
  • 1
    Err 3 & 4. 5 to a lesser extent.
    – phantom42
    Dec 4, 2017 at 2:37
  • 5
    This is a perfectly on-topic question. If you’re not not sure it’s listed in our help center page.
    – Edlothiad
    Dec 4, 2017 at 6:20

1 Answer 1

1

Working in the TV industry, I would like to suggest that a high accuracy answer to this question does not exist in the universe.

The sources you quote can, after a few links, be traced back to the Neilson company. And while if you are a paid member of the Neilson audience they can track exactly who watches what shows, they get a lot of their results from anonymized data (see https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/press-releases/2017/nielsen-and-comcast-agree-to-incorporate-set-top-box-viewing-data/).

So, four anonymized data sources can not be made into a Venn diagram by any means, unfortunately.

Of course, even partial data sources might reach statistical significance. So I suppose one could buy the paid member data from Neilson and see what the margin of error is. But when one considers TV and all the streaming sources, it seems like it would be a pretty wide one.

(I might mention on a personal note that I only watched one of the four series, so I can at least 100% guarantee it is not complete overlap amongst the viewership ;)

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.