On Tuesday night, my 15-year-old daughter said she wanted to watch the premiere of Scream Queens. Like… LIVE. When it actually aired… on TV. I almost fell over from the shock. She had to ask me how to do this. She didn’t know what time it aired or what network it was on, but she did know about the show and she knew it premiered Tuesday, and just for that fact alone I applaud Fox’s marketing team, which blanketed the nation in promo for this show. So, we watched the whole two-hour show together. And here’s the key takeaway: she LOVED it.

If the early ratings for Scream Queens seemed a little soft in comparison to the massive marketing effort that Fox put behind this show, I don’t care. To quote my kid, “don’t be basic.” Just take a closer look at the same-day ratings, and you can see that this show delivered an audience that is easily ten years younger than Fox’s average primetime show. That’s almost impossible for a broadcast network to do these days outside of sports.

Scream Queen’s strongest demo was the coveted 18-34 audience. In short, Ryan Murphy’s latest series is skewing young and female. Kinda like my daughter. And that’s based on the Nielsen same-day ratings alone. When the final ratings are in and the multi-platform views are accounted for, this show will be deemed a major success for Fox, because it is delivering a young, social audience — exactly who Fox was targeting.

My prediction? Scream Queens will continue to grow this audience. Maybe not in linear viewing, but over the course of each week and across multiple platforms, this show is going to be a cult hit.

That said, if young millennial women aren’t even watching linear tv anymore, why is Fox bothering to target them? In a nutshell, because they are the most influential demographic group that currently exists.

Little film franchises you may have heard of such as Twilight, Divergent and Maze Runner owe their success to the legions of young women who can’t get enough of the books, movies, music, merchandise that sprout Hydra-like from the heads of these entertainment properties. Fox wants its own Hydra, as it should. In fact, there’s probably a strategy deck somewhere titled “The Hydra Project,” which is all about developing Scream Queens. Also, Fox — and all broadcast networks and most of cable — would really, really like to remain relevant to this notoriously fickle and capricious audience.

The irony here is that for broadcast networks, creating a cult hit with a specific audience requires a massive marketing campaign that leaves virtually no stone left unturned. There is literally no way my 15-year-old (let’s call her Tess because that’s her name) was going to find her way to Fox to watch this show without a tsunami of marketing rolling over her. It’s not that Fox isn’t in her consideration set. It’s that linear TV isn’t in her consideration set.

On Tuesday night, Tess watched the only premiere that she will watch on linear TV this fall season. And she will watch every episode this season. Probably not live. But she will watch. And she’ll be on Tumblr, Snapchat and Instagram buzzing about her new favorite show.

If the marketing strategy was to launch a new show that delivered a young, female, highly-engaged audience with a ton of social buzz – and to leverage those viewers where and when they consume the show – then I say “you killed it, Fox.” That was a campaign that did exactly what it needed to do. Now please do something about the fact that I’m now terrified to go into my own basement alone.

Tricia Melton is the former SVP of marketing and branding for TNT, TBS and TCM. Currently, she is an entertainment and media consultant. She really liked Scream Queens, but prefers binging on Inside Amy Schumer, whom she thinks would make an excellent guest on Scream Queens.

Cube image courtesy of Fox.

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