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Hi Sam,

I don't have good overall statistics on the number of viewers of science
and comedy shows - perhaps check with the Nielsen ratings and/or whatever
the UK equivalent would be - but I did do a survey asking people about what
science shows they watch for my thesis project.  The survey participants
were mostly students and faculty in North Dakota, USA, and mostly
scientists, so I don't know how helpful this would be for you.  The Big
Bang Theory was the only comedy listed in my survey, (well, MythBusters
also has some elements of comedy,) and it was among the top three most
popular science shows for both the scientist and non-scientist survey
participants.  (Of course, the fact that it's a prime-time network show
could also explain its popularity.)

http://katrina-jackson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Thesis-Final-Jackson.pdf
See pages 66-68.  (The methodology is explained pages 40-48.)

Good luck!

Thanks,
Katrina

Katrina Jackson
Katrina-Jackson.com
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571-230-9715
LinkedIn Profile <http://www.linkedin.com/pub/katrina-jackson/56/150/b47>


On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 11:56 AM, Sam Gregson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Dear all-
>
> I do a lot of science stand up comedy and need to write a report/speech
> justifying why it is an important and desirable method of disseminating
> scientific information.
>
> I'm looking for a good source of statistics RE the popularity/viewing
> figures of comedy (e.g. Mock the Week), science (e.g. Horizon) and science
> comedy (e.g. QI, Dara's sci club etc) TV/radio shows. Any stats showing the
> popularity of science comedy shows relative to straight science shows would
> be even better! Any stats showing an increase in science comedy viewers or
> the proliferation of science comedy shows would also be great.
>
> I thought someone on this list might have looked into this before and have
> some insights. I bow to your greater wisdom before I start ham-fistedly
> Googling ;)
>
> Thanks!
>
> Sam :)
>
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