By Darren Johnson
Campus News
Some pop culturalists say the 1984 comedy movie “The Revenge of the Nerds” exemplifies a turning point in American culture, especially in academia.
In the film — which by today’s standards is very un-PC; the nerds actually committing the most egregious war crimes, if looked at honestly — a bunch of physically weak undergrads who — egads! — are good with computers — struggle to form a fraternity while being bullied by the muscular jocks who run the Greek Council and the cheerleader debutantes who toy with the nerds.
In the end, the nerds win, and colleges, since then, have been much more welcoming of all sorts of viewpoints.
But, that’s the public representation. What students are watching on TV tells a different story.
The top shows college students watched during the 2020-21 academic year were full of jocks and debutantes! It’s all quite old-school, if you ask me.
Each year I do a story on the top shows students watch. I didn’t do it last year because of the pandemic, but came back to the idea this year. I get data from Comcast’s Xfinity on Campus, a top provider of TV content to colleges. They serve over 160 campuses and have the ability to see which shows and networks grab the most bandwidth, whether watched live or via download. The Top 20 list takes into account both types of viewing. You can find my previous stories on this subject on this site, typing “Xfinity” into the search field.
Humor aside, this data could be important for college personnel, to know the types of shows students like and to program events around them, and for marketers, to know which shows to sponsor, in order to reach the college crowd. Also, for students, it’s just good to know what’s trending, whether you like such shows and networks, or not.
“TV is not dead. Students are still watching content. It’s just how they are watching it has changed. They want to watch it on their own time, with their own devices,” Adrian Adriano, Vice President for Strategic Initiatives for Comcast’s Xfinity On Campus, said in an interview.
Getting back to my jocks and debutantes analogy, though, the No. 1 show was “The Bachelor” and the No. 8 show “The Bachelorette,” two shows with pretty, yet vapid, people, making out a lot. Holy Covid.
(Yet, I know plenty of intelligent people who watch these shows. Just realize these “Bachelor/ettes” aren’t the nerds of Lambda Lambda Lambda or Omega Mu — nerds are fetishized on “Big Bang Theory,” which did not place in this year’s rankings. (Though one can argue the title character of “The Good Doctor,” at No. 20, is a bit of an outcast.))
In between Nos. 1 and 8 are six sports events/shows. So it’s there we get our steroid rage on. “The NBA Playoffs” are tops for sports, followed by “SportsCenter” on ESPN. Overall, ESPN is the No. 1 rated network for college students, followed by ABC, which hosts those kissy-kissy shows.
“Sports dominates our charts,” Adriano added. “It’s what students like to watch. Of the Top 20 shows, 11 were sports events or sports-related. It’s very interesting.”
He added that “appointment TV” still has a market with younger viewers — shows that appear at a set time and are an “event.”
“Sunday Night Football” does better than stalwart “Monday Night Football”; Sunday usually has the better games, it seems, and maybe it’s not quite a homework night. Interesting because MNF is 51 years old while SNF is just 15.
“SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt” is broadcast after the regular “SportsCenter” and did well with the late-night college crowd. Van Pelt had Covid for awhile, but seems to be back. “Inside the NBA” followed at No. 7.
One could contend No. 9 is another “pretty people, who’s-sleeping-with-whom” show — “Grey’s Anatomy” — where, by the way, not much real medicine is going on. No. 10 was “Super Bowl LV.” I’ve always been curious as to why the NBA Playoffs does better than the NFL finale with the college crowd — maybe it’s timing. Maybe it’s that the “Super Bowl” is just one game. Maybe people are watching at large events, so the numbers are negatively skewed. Only one TV is on, but 20 people are watching it; that kind of thing.
It’s also important to note that this list doesn’t take into account streaming services, like Netflix and Hulu. But, still, what can be gleaned from the list of top shows is students will watch live TV — if by not watching, there could be a spoiler.
For example, in a previous survey, HBO’s “Game of Thrones” was No. 1. That’s because, if you didn’t watch it urgently, as soon as you turned on social media, that night’s outcome would already have been revealed — and the fun is not knowing an outcome and being surprised. Sports and “The Bachelor/ette” are like that, as well.
Two cartoon series that used to make the Xfinity list were “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy,” but the pandemic killed them off (and these shows seem so dated now, anyway), and now “Rick and Morty” represent the animated genre, ranking at No. 11, just ahead of “Election Night in America.”
Granted, the Biden-Trump decision was appointment TV, but I was teaching college journalism at that time and learned there was no one show students were getting their election news from — though they did report that they were keenly interested in the outcome of that race. My feeling is, if all election-night shows were taken into account, this event would rank even higher.
“I was pleasantly surprised ‘Election Night in America’ did so well,” Adriano said. “I’m from another country and love the way democracy works here.”
“The NFL Playoffs” did well, coming in at No. 13, followed by “The 2020 NBA Finals.”
Some retro repeat show always makes the Top 20. This year, it’s “Friends,” coming in at No. 15. This ranked No. 13 the last time I wrote this piece. I’d rather see students watching “The Office” in rotation, but perhaps that show is better on Netflix, without the ads. That said, “Friends” does do well with non-American audiences as well, as the setting is pretty universal and the language straightforward. So perhaps foreign students on US campuses are also queuing up this 1990s show. “Modern Family” fell off the list. It was once hip, but grew predictable and annoying after awhile.
“Thursday Night Football” and “The NFL on Fox Postgame” are two more sports entries, lower down on the list.
Xfinity On Campus is a great service with hundreds of channels, including premium ones like HBO and Showtime. Students can watch in dorms or via their device on the college network.
HBO’s “Euphoria,” continues to do well. It’s about a teen drug addict played by Zendaya.
“RuPaul’s Drag Race” has been a consistent winner among college students. This year it’s at No. 19, followed, as mentioned, by “The Good Doctor,” who had fallen off the charts in 2019 but now is back. Maybe the show hired some new writers to help the main character keep his medical license. If I recall, the couple of times I’d watched this show, the doctor was at-risk of being fired. Hopefully that was resolved. For the sake of ratings, anyway.
Maybe “The Good Doctor” can prescribe some Ivermectin to the “Bachelor/ette” casts.
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