What's Hot? The Family Guy!

Moderator: Anything else help you get 'away' from it all?

Kevin: when im stressed, I usually grab a beer and watch some family guy dvds...thats the only way i can be happy again lol

Matt B: I second the family guy dvds :)

Gregg C: Family Guy is a great stress-reliever

James: ps3, and yes to The Family Guy.

This exchange happened yesterday in an online focus group about beer. All of these guys are 25-29 years old, young professionals, some married, some not. Why has Family Guy become the 'escape' of choice?

Upon investigation, I became aware of how what I have been missing. The Family Guy is a cultural phenomenon.

There are six boxed DVD sets, one for each season. The Family Guy has sold over 5 million combined DVD units, making it the fourth-largest TV series seller ever.

The Family Guy series won 3 Primetime Emmys. IMDB.com lists another 7 wins & 26 nominations. . It has set viewership records on Fox's Adult Swim block.

A Facebook application with over 55,000 subscribers.

There was a 'live' show at Carnegie Hall in November 2008.

There are several Youtube clips with 5-8 million views.

After watching a few (Puke-a-Thon, Stewie Beats Brian, Electric Man), I am baffled. These are not only not funny to me, I don't see how they could be funny to anyone else either. Perhaps that is the point? If I liked them, perhaps Millennial Men would not? Oh, we also did a focus group among 25-29 year old Millennial Women; The Family Guy never came up.

Millennial Media: What Are They Watching?

According to Alloy Media, 24% of teens are on the Internet 15 or more hours a week, and the average time spent is 11.5 hours. They also watch a lot less TV than the rest of us. According to MRI's Mediamark Reporter, the top TV Quintile of 18-24 year olds are indexes just 66 vs. Total Adults. So what, in fact, are they watching, online and ontv?

MRI Medimark Reporter (Fall 2007) shows MySpace and MTV are the most highly penetrated channels with over 40% of 18-24 year olds watching (see table)with VH1 and YouTube are right behind. The surprise for me was the high popularity of [Adult Swim]. With 21% penetration and an index of 368, its penetration rivals that of Facebook.

For those of you over 30 who may not be familiar with [Adult Swim], it's what runs between 11PM and 6PM Eastern, 7 nights a week, on the Cartoon Network, the HBO of animation. While it began as a spinoff, today it is a channel in its own right. Adultswim.com carries a variety of streamed video, games and social media opportunities. Here's what that most knowledgeable of sources, Wikipedia, has to say about it:

Adult Swim, (usually stylized [adult swim] with its signature square brackets), is an adult-oriented television network sharing channel space with Cartoon Network in the United States.[1] The programming features animated shows, including original programming, syndicated shows, and Japanese anime, generally with minimal or no editing for content. The shows are geared toward a 16+ audience, in contrast to the child and pre-teen daytime programming on Cartoon Network. The shows and commercial breaks are usually interrupted by "bumps", or moments where short jokes or internet fan feedback (which they sometimes respond to in a sarcastic manner when it is negative) are broadcast in simple white letters over a black screen. The network is programmed by Williams Street Studios, who have created Toonami and Miguzi; they play American animated series and shorts geared towards adults, and in the past have played a wide variety of Japanese anime series, OVAs, and movies. Promotions for Adult Swim are targeted towards the college age and 20something/30something group, constituting the majority of their viewers. According to a September 1, 2004 article in Promo magazine, representatives travel to 30 universities across the U.S. to promote the Adult Swim lineup, including handing out posters for students' dorm rooms.

David Carson reports in today's Ad Age that online video has a bigger audience than cable TV. Sites like YouTube.com, MTV.com, and Adultswim.com are making the idea of one channel, three screens seem more like a reality all the time. Reaching Millennials may be a matter of allowing them to direct the content they want to the screen -- TV, computer or mobile phone -- they want.