For those devotees of Joel & Ethan Coen’s movie, “Fargo,” (and there are many) there must have been that cringe-worthy moment when FX announced the 2014 launch of a new TV series not only inspired by the 1996 classic, but also borrowing the self-same title. After all, the original film earned a slew of Academy Awards (and others, as in BAFTA and Cannes), and the Library of Congress judged the film to be so culturally significant that it was selected for “celluloid immortality” by the National Film Registry.

So, why in the world would anyone want to translate “Fargo” from the celluloid screen to the small screen? And who in their right mind would ever chance their careers on doing that?

But that didn’t stop Noah Hawley — the writer and creator of “Fargo” (the TV series) — who made the wise decision to borrow only certain elements from the film. The setting is the same – a cold, dreary winter Minnesota landscape. And so, too, is the highly quirky juxtaposition of “Minnesota Nice” (“you betcha”) with a string of bloody murders. But Noah Hawley was smart enough not to slavishly adhere to the original film. It is almost as though he captured the essence of Joel & Ethan Coen’s characters, and then created entirely new versions of them as they deal with weirdly macabre events that are vintage Coen Brothers. But it’s not quite the Coen Brothers anymore (if you know what I mean.)

“Nothing succeeds more than success”, and Fargo’s premiere season was nominated and/or won literally dozens of awards – thanks in no small way to Billy Bob Thornton (as “Lorne Malvo” – a very bad dude you just never want to meet); Allison Tolman (as the smart and ambitious “Deputy Molly Solverson”); and Martin Freeman (as “Lester Nygaard” – the hopeless milquetoast abused by everyone, especially his wife.)

In short, Hawley’s formula works, and it drew numerous viewers throughout its first season 10-episode run:

This dark comedy is not only delivering solid “Live” ratings – it was also recorded and played back at very high levels.  Toward the end of Season One, DVR +15-Day ratings were two-and-one-half times the size of Live-only ratings, resulting in a combined U.S household rating that easily surpassed the 2.0 mark over the last four episodes of the season:

The “Fargo” Viewer

“Fargo” is one of only a very few TV series we’ve written about in this space that cannot be so easily defined by specific demographic viewers to the show. Clearly, there is a male-skew (perhaps due to its quirky, black-humor), but when we looked at household income, the indices were unusually flat across the income spectrum. And in terms of Acxiom PersonicX clusters, those with the highest ratings were a little “all over the place”… both rural and urban; both young and old; both rich and poor.

The one definitive thing we can say about the “Fargo” viewer is that there is a (relatively) large concentration of them in specific northern markets, including (you guessed it) Fargo, North Dakota, as well as several Minnesota markets, which is not so surprising since the TV series takes place in Bemidji, Minnesota:

 

They say a “picture is worth a thousand words”, so we’ve included a heat map for the premiere episode of “Fargo” (The Crocodile’s Dilemma) that aired in mid-April of last year. TV markets with above average viewing are rendered in warm colors (red/orange), while markets with below average viewing are in blue. As you can see, the West & East North Central part of the U.S. is a hotbed for the show:

Local Cable Advertising Demand

“Fargo” has been on air for only one season, so we have no baseline comparisons to quantify year-over-year sales metrics. The sales metrics for Season One, however, are more or less in line with other first-year series we have written about in this space. In all, “Fargo” attracted over 90 inaugural local advertisers across 32 Viamedia markets and 74 local cable advertising zones. On average, each local advertiser ordered eight 30-second spots for the season, covering 80% of the 2014 episodes. (Source: B.I.G.^SM   database — Copyright © 2015 by Viamedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved)

In terms of local cable ad categories, two in particular carved out the largest shares: Automotive (45%) and Tune-In (31%). Indeed, the Top 10 largest inaugural advertisers are either Automotive or other cable (and broadcast) networks seeking to reach the viewers of “Fargo”. Collectively, these Top 10 advertisers accounted for 57% of all first-year investments in the show:

 

Season Two

The creators of “Fargo” did a smart thing. Rather than continue with the same (crazy) story line from Season One, they have “anthologized” the show ala “American Horror Story.” In other words, this series will re-invent itself in Season Two, starting afresh in a new place and time with new actors/characters. On the one hand, viewers will be sure to miss the remarkable characters developed in Season One; on the other hand, wiping the slate clean may just be what the directors and writers need as they seek inspiration once again from the original Coen Brothers’ movie. Should they succeed a second time, my bet is they’ll drive more viewers (and local cable advertisers) to their Season Two premiere on October 12^th.   

For more information on Viamedia, visit www.viamediatv.com.

– Written by Jonathan Sims, VP Media Research, Viamedia