A very good friend of mine was the original research “guy” at Food Network way back in 1994 and he used to grouse about how bad the ratings were, save for one program hosted by some chef by the name of Emeril Lagasse. Pressured to come up with ways of generating higher program ratings, my friend used to joke about running Emeril 24 hours a day and just re-branding the entire Network, T.E.N. — “The Emeril Network.”

Of course, the network’s owner (Scripps) never went quite that far, but they didn’t exactly suppress the energetic and exuberant Emeril Lagasse. You’ll forgive the pun when I say Food Network “spread” Emeril all over the place…but I think you get the idea.

Eventually, Emeril metamorphosed into his own “culinary brand” and is no longer with the network (at least not as a regular), but Food Network hardly missed a beat when it began showcasing a new “unofficial face” for the network — the happy-go-lucky, Guy Fieri.

Once you lay eyes on Guy Fieri, you won’t forget him.

He’s the cherubic one with the two-toned Fu Manchu moustache and the bleach blond spiked hair, who hosts several Food Network shows (and specials), including the hit-show, “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” (“3-D”), which has been on the air since 2007 with well over two hundred episodes… and still counting!

“3-D” isn’t really a cooking show per se, although there’s plenty of good cooking to watch. Rather, it’s a reality series in which Guy Fieri hits the road in search of unique recipes applied to what is essentially plain ol’ regular road-stop diner food. You’d be amazed at some of the elaborate preparations that go into dishes served in places you’d never walk into!

But maybe the real secret sauce to all that good cooking is actually Guy Fieri, who knows how to stroll into a place and establish a (seemingly) instant rapport with the owners, cooks and clientele as though he’s just another regular. And when he finally chomps down on some unique, savory creation, his eyes light up right along with his ratings, which have been consistently strong for several years:

Up-Scale Viewers (and Everyone Else)

Just who are the viewers attracted to a reality road show that takes us into “Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives?”

To answer that question, we analyzed the show on the basis of Acxiom’s PersonicX Clusters that Rentrak has overlaid on its set-top-box data.

In a nut-shell, PersonicX is a household-level consumer segmentation analysis that divides practically every home in America into one of seventy unique clusters across an array of demographic, behavior-graphic and lifestyle characteristics. By matching the unique characteristics of PersonicX clusters to their set-top-box panel homes, Rentrak has created PersonicX HH ratings for all the programs they measure.

As you can see in the chart below, the PersonicX Clusters with the highest “3-D” ratings (105 or above Index cut-off) range from Middle Income up to Affluent, with a skew much toward the latter.

But notice, as well, the actual cluster indices, which reach no higher than 109 (for “Shooting Stars”). Out of all the high profile shows that we have analyzed in these blogs through a PersonicX Cluster lens, we found “3-D” to exhibit the smallest range in cluster indices. Indeed, one-half of the 70 clusters fall within an index range of 95 – 105. Our interpretation is that, while there is a somewhat upscale skew to the show, it is much more the case that “3-D” actually appeals to a broad swath of viewers who cannot be so easily classified:

 

Local Cable Advertising Demand

Over the past two years (2013 & 2014), 100 clients across 32 Viamedia markets have ordered over 500 30-second spots. And, if we confine our analysis to only those markets that exhibited advertising on the show in both years, we find a +9% growth rate in advertising driven by an increased investment in 30 second spots.

_{(Source: Viamedia internal analysis of B.I.G.SM    database (Sports & High Profile Tracker module). Copyright © 2015 by Viamedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)}

Advertising Categories

As we saw back in May with another Food Network high profile show (“Restaurant Impossible”),  it’s somewhat surprising to find that the restaurant category represents just 3% of total “3-D” ad revenues — a figure that is more or less in line for this category company-wide (across all programming).

But there are a few noticeable differences between the two shows. For example, the automotive category represents only one-quarter of “3-D’s” total local ad revenues (versus 45% for “Restaurant Impossible”.) Taking up some of the automotive slack are above average share levels for the tune-in and entertainment/travel categories (16% and 12% respectively). And the medical/health care category is much higher (9% vs 3%), which may have something to do with the enormous amount of cholesterol in all those savory burger creations devoured by Guy Fieri!

One Perpetual Road Trip

What has kept this show going for the last eight years with no sign of slowing down?

It has to be the show’s host, Guy Fieri, who – despite just a few years short of 50 – exudes the excitement and exuberance of a teenager on one perpetual road trip, hunting down the best diner food wherever it may be served. And that has been the real recipe for “3-D” that continues to attract both viewers and local cable advertisers alike.

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

– Written by Jonathan Sims, VP Media Research, Viamedia