A.P. Bio seems to so be fairing well in its new time slot after two weeks in the slot. In its first week in the time slot it had a 0.7 rating with 2.33 million viewers and in its second week it had a 0.9 rating with 3.07 million viewers (second highest aside from the post olympics closing ceremony episode).

TVByTheNumbers so far gives the show 3/5 Cancel Bears currently meaning that the show is in the middle of the road currently as to whether or not it is likely to be picked up or cancelled. Hopefully the improvement in its numbers this past week may help push the show towards the renewal category.

Of note this past week and this week is that the NCAA Tournament is going on and will affect the ratings and viewership of programming during game times. This week especially this could be of concern as Thursday is the first night of Sweet Sixteen games which will likely dominate viewership and take away any viewers who are following the Tournament or support one of the teams playing.

So the show in the past week has finally increased its promotions on its twitter. To sum up some of the things that have been featured on the twitter are: an exclusive trailer aired on Ellen, reviews of critics who have screened the show, comments from fans.

The fact that the show has now been featured on Ellen is huge as that exposes it to a national audience of the exact audience that ABC is most likely trying to target with this show.

Another development this week was at the Oscars when ABC aired the premiere trailer for its Roseanne revival which premieres the same night as Splitting Up together. While not a direct advertisement for this show, any ad which will attract viewers to any program on ABCs lineup on the night of the 27th will be likely to increase the viewership of the entire lineup for the night when you factor in lead ins and lead outs.

Overall it is very refreshing to see the show switching up its promotion as its launch date nears in just over 3 weeks now.

As I discussed last week AP Bio did a major shake up to its schedule this past week. Well the final results are in and it does not appear the shake up has paid off for the first week. Both episodes on 3/1 contained a .7 rating with 2.6 million and 2.7 million viewers respectively.

This is a drop from the premiere which had a rating of .8 and of course the episode which aired after the olympics closing which had a massive boost because of that. I’m sure that NBC is hoping that this week now that the schedule will remain in a regular time slot the ratings may stabilize and hopefully increase but based on all of my findings so far this seems unlikely.

I will add though that this is a show that seems likely to get more of a buzz as a watch later and binge type comedy perhaps especially if it is targeting a younger skewing audience.

Shaking Up the Schedule:

NBC announced this past a week a huge disruption to its already unique introduction to the series. The series aired a “preview” episode on Thursday March 1st at 9:30pm before taking a break until after the olympics concluded. (During this time the first 4 episodes of the show were available on Hulu).

This week though could get very confusing for viewers trying to follow the show. Last night following the Closing Ceremony of the Olympics the show premiered its second episode. This was very much out of its normal time slot. Additionally this Thursday the show was supposed to premiere into regular programming Thursdays at 9:30pm but now it will air its third episode at 8:30 pm and the fourth episode at 9:30pm. Then next week on March 8th the show will permanently move into an 8:30 time slot.

I can imagine that changing the schedule of a show around its first few weeks is critical and can easily cost a program viewers. The question here is if the decision was because NBC is already concerned about ratings for the show and trying to find a way to boost the ratings up before it hits regular programming?

With 1 month before the show airs I have seen very minimal promotion of the show beyond what I have already discussed such as the show twitter, or the show trailer. Here I will look at what the show has not been doing but should be to promote itself:

1. Cast Appearing on Late Night
   1. A great way to promote a show is talk about it on shows people already watch. This has yet to happen with the show.
2. Promoting on Social Media
   1. Beyond twitter (where you dont see promotion unless you follow the show) I have seen no promotions. A great thing the show should do is sponsor ads on instagram or on Snapchat as I have seen done by other shows I follow
3. Release updates
   1. If I google “Splitting Up Together news” most of the articles are from November or even further back. The show has not been keeping itself up to date.

Something interesting I learned this week about the show is that even though it has yet to formally premiere on NBC, aside from its preview a few weeks ago, fans still have the opportunity to view the first three episodes of the show right now on Hulu. This is an interesting thing as it shows that NBC may be concerned about the audience size for live airings of the show and it trying to target the streaming audience by giving them early access to the show.

This will potentially help NBC to connect with a wider audience since much of the younger generation does not watch live airings but rather prefers to stream content. Additionally it may be an additional revenue stream for NBC or Hulu depending on their content deal as people interested in early access to the show may sign up for Hulu if they do not yet have subscriptions.

One concern could be that NBC is not properly advertising this as I have not seen on any of the show commercials a promotion for the three episodes being available on Hulu.

Poster Analysis:

As we near closer to the air date for the show I have begun to notice trailers and promos for the premiere begin to appear in things such as ads when watching other ABC shows online through the ABC app. I thought with that in mind it would be interesting to spend a week or two analyzing the shows marketing. We learned that the best way to attract an audience to TV is to create curiosity.

In looking at this promotional flyer/banner for the show, the marketers appear to be using the phrase “nothing brings a family closer together than being apart” in order to create that curiosity. The phrase seems paradoxical which immediately engages viewers to wonder what that means and to learn more about that show. Time will tell if it will get viewers curious enough to actually tune in for the premiere to see just how living apart can make the heart strings grow fonder.

What are the Critics Saying?

Critics have had 4 episodes of the show given to them for reviews so I thought it would be appropriate to see what early reviews say before the show moves into full schedule next month. Rotten Tomatoes has given the show so far a 55% score with an audience approval of 60%. So far those critics have yet to reach a consensus on the show. On TVBytheNumbers, the show was recently given a 3/5 bear score. This means the show is currently dead center of the road for if it is likely to be picked up or not for another season.

In a review in the Hollywood Reporter, the show is described as being set up for success in all qualifications except its humor. It has the right cast for the job but the show is lacking a consistent and humorous plot. according to the review most of the characters except the two male leads are still very under developed which could be the shows saving grace if that is corrected in future episodes.

Analyzing the Splitting Up Together Twitter:

The show has been on twitter ever since it was ordered by ABC into production in May 2017. In the recent weeks as the show has begun to advertise more and more on air the twitter has begun to push its trailer as well. Many posts on the account include clips or stills from the trailer with a quick one liner joke related to the show. In my opinion this formula works well to get viewer attention. An example of a post is from January 18th and reads “When only a squirrel is checking you out … you know something has gotta change in your love life. #SplittingUpTogether”.

As the show is a family comedy it seems wise that you would advertise the show in a comedic manner. Its a great lure because if a viewer finds the joke about the show funny they are likely to then want to check out the show for that same humor used in the ads. With the show still more than a month out from premiere though it will be interesting to see  if the advertising scheme changes as the premiere draws closer.