Blog #31 What Women Want - Lessons from a 2023 Nielsen report
Here is the key to understanding women; the answer you’ve been looking for.
In this post, I’m going to dissect a report from Nielsen, released in 2023. The report is titled:
With almost 1 million video choices, women 18-34 turn to classic TV
Here is the link, if you want to read it yourself: https://www.nielsen.com/insights/2023/with-almost-1-million-video-choices-women-18-34-turn-to-classic-tv/
The report breaks down women’s streaming viewing habits, according to their in-house research. The results were mostly predictable, with a few surprises. Some of the answers require a bit of explanation. Here is the take-away:
Grey’s Anatomy is number 1, no surprises there. What may be surprising about it though, is the age profile of the viewers: 18 to 34. The report shows that young women don’t care about how recent a show is, whether it was delivered in 4K or if all the cast are even still alive. Another report I read here: https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2025-sub-section-tv-trends-and-realities, stated that TV is still the most popular form of delivery, ahead of streaming. So, it should be noted, they’re not solely watching the show on a late-night Netflix binge.
Number 2 is Gilmore Girls and 3 is Stranger Things. Gilmore Girls is another older show that’s still hugely popular. Gilmore Girls fits into the cosy content bracket—a safe show that you can watch late at night without becoming too stimulated, similar to The Office. This can add up to a lot of watched hours—perfect for advertisers.
Stranger Things is a bit more stimulating but can be also binged late-night easily. It’s just a very popular show. It’s well-made, from production design to visual effects; they don’t hold back on quality.
Numbers 4 and 13 are Cocomelon and SpongeBob SquarePants. I don’t imagine these being top choices for most women in their 20s, but many women in the 18–34 age range likely have young children who watch cartoons on their mother’s Netflix account. That seems like the most plausible explanation for why these kids’ shows rank so highly.
Cocomelon (2020)
From all the shows on the list, certain genres keep cropping up among the shows. These are:
Drama, sitcoms, dating shows, detective fiction and fantasy romance.
If I were a TV executive greenlighting shows, I would choose these genres as the safest bet.
It also gives an insight into the female psyche; these are the themes they are interested in. They are emotionally-driven slow burners, mostly from the early 2000’s. The only recent show that managed to break into the top three was Stranger Things. The others were there a long time already. It shows the difficulty of breaking the mold. It will be interesting to see the next report when it comes out. I would guess that more recent shows are breaking into the list, especially on the younger side of 18 to 34.
Also, interestingly, the list is heavily Netflix dominated. In 2025, there are many more options when it comes to streaming platforms, so the list will have diversified by the time the next report releases.
Another interesting fact is this: “80% of adults 18-34 start their search for video content on streaming platforms, compared with just 68% of adults 18 and older.“
This statistic shows streaming will continue to grow and become engrained in the mindset of young female viewers. They overwhelmigly choose to look for new shows on streaming sites, as opposed to television. Female viewers make up the majority of the streaming audience in 2025, so these are important factors to consider.
“It’s clear that streaming isn’t just how we watch—it’s where discovery begins. Whether it’s the latest series drop or a creator’s next big upload, streaming platforms have become the new search engines for video content.” - ChatGPT, 2025
Something to consider. Hope you found something useful in here.
Thanks for reading and if you’ve any comments, let me know down below.
Good luck out there.
-D.C.