WeTV’s ‘Sunset Daze’ is a hit with its core audience but fails to attract youth

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WeTV’s new reality show ‘Sunset Daze’ (think ‘Golden Girls’ meets ‘Jersey Shore’) was a hit with older viewers, but efforts to sex up the greatest generation for folks under 50 didn’t pay off.

About 311,000 people tuned in to the 10 p.m. premiere Wednesday of the show, which got a ton of publicity including a front-page story in the New York Times, as well as some solid reviews. While 311,000 viewers doesn’t sound like much, for WeTV it is a big number.

That was the good news. The not-so-good news was that the audience dropped in the second half, losing more than 40,000 viewers, and that is never a good sign. Also, the show performed poorly with the 18-49 demographic. Women made up about 80% of the audience.

The median age of the show was a little over 60, which is about 15 years older than the channel’s average.

-- Joe Flint