Jeff Foxworthy, Sugar Ray Leonard, and the kids on Fox's 'Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?'.
Fox

It may qualify as irony that the oldest-skewing show on Fox is Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?, featuring Jeff Foxworthy and guests like Sugar Ray Leonard.

Variety is reporting on a study that indicates that broadcast television has an aging viewership, and that the median age of the live audience for broadcast networks has reached 51.

That statistic is a little misleading, however, because the median age of people who watch network shows on DVRs — as opposed to live — is only 40. Not surprising, but worth noting, in part because it underlines just how tricky it's getting to measure audiences at all, particularly once you try to get at demographic breakdowns. Just one example: The median age of people watching CBS's The Amazing Race time-shifted is almost thirteen years younger than the median age of people watching it live.

There are some great statistics in the article, though. Among them: Don't blame some new generation of trash-loving, MTV-nurtured types for goofiness like Fox's Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader, which has the oldest-skewing live audience on the network, with a median age of 57 — that's only three years younger than CBS's 60 Minutes. And don't blame them for ABC's Dancing With The Stars, which is its oldest show, at 56. How I Met Your Mother is CBS's youngest-skewing show, and it still checks in at a median age of 45.