Tyler Perry’s House of Payne
TV Program Report
Erin McPhail
TELC 425.001
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Tyler Perry's House of Payne is a comedy/ drama produced and directed by Tyler
Perry. House of Payne is an African American produced, created, acted, and directed
show. It is the first all African American show to be picked up by a major network in a
while. The show airs on Wednesday nights at nine o clock (9:00 pm) on the Turner
Broadcast System channel, also known as TBS. The network practices a strategy called
lead-in where they have House of Payne coming on after the rerun of one of the networks
most popular show, Everybody Loves Raymond. It is a thirty minute show which is
currently in its fifth season, but it was first tested with 10 episodes of season one (1) in
June of 2006, to see how the audience responded to the show. As of now, there have been
126 episodes that have been aired. The show produces solid ratings for the network;
therefore they keep purchasing more episodes. The show has won three (3) Image
Awards, and has been nominated for two (2) other awards.
House of Payne is about an African American family, the Payne’s , who all
reside in the same household in Atlanta, Georgia; thus the show being named House of
Payne. The man of the household and main character Curtis Payne, also known as Uncle
Curtis, has just opened his now overly-crowded house up to his nephew, C.J., and his two
(2) children, Malik and Jasmine. Curtis works as the chief of the local fire department.
Ella Payne, also known as Auntie Ella, is Curtis's wife and the sanest person in the
household. She is the mother figure to C.J. and his children. C.J. Payne is the other main
character of the show. He is Curtis’s nephew whose wife turned to drugs and burned
down the house while she was attempting to get high. Now, he is a single parent of two
children, and he works as a firefighter at the local firehouse with his uncle and cousin.
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Janine Payne is C.J.’s wife whom during the show was discovered that she had a drug
habit. C.J. divorces her after she burned the house down and left the rehabilitation center
that CJ paid for with his life savings. She enters another rehabilitation center, and once
clean she later returns home to her family, who at first is not acceptable of her return.
Calvin Payne is Ella and Curtis’s son who works at the local firehouse with his cousin
and father. Calvin currently attends college and is awaiting his graduation day, but the
only thing that’s holding him back is that he doesn’t like to go to class. He is also a
newlywed to his wife Miranda Lucas. Miranda Lucas-Payne is Calvin's newlywed wife.
She was first shown as a con artist who stole Calvin money, but once she turned her life
around Calvin gained interest in her, and they began dating which lead them to marriage.
Malik and Jasmine Payne are C.J. and Janine's children. Malik is a teenage boy and
Jasmine is an elementary-aged girl. The show acts as a spin-off of some of Tyler Perry’s
movies. Some of the characters are similar to those that have appeared in his movies, but
the show characters are not purposely intended to resemble characters from the movies.
Perry does this to try to capture some of the audience that views his very successful
movies to tune into his show.
House of Payne ran and premiered in first-run syndication on June 21, 2006, and
it has now been aired solely through TBS. First-run syndication is when a program is
“initially made to be sold to programmers other than the major networks”1 Tyler Perry
aired 10 test episodes on local broadcast over the world as a syndicated show, to see how
people would respond to the show and ratings. The success of a show depends on the
1
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/S/htmlS/syndication/syndication.htm
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ratings and share that it brings in. Ratings are the percentage of television households that
are watching a program. Ratings are an estimated percentage of the world, where shares
are more specific. Share is the percentage of households using televisions (HUT) that are
watching a specific program at a specific time and network.2 Once the rating and
feedback about the show came in, TBS ordered 100 episodes to run on their network.
TBS was interested in the show not only for the feedback that was given from the test
episodes, but also for the ratings they receive when they air other Tyler Perry
productions, such as his movies Diary of a Mad Black Woman and Madea’s Family
Reunion. They were also the only network to give Tyler Perry’s House of Payne a chance
even after the response of the test episodes. Other networks stated that “they didn’t need
another Cosby type show.”3 The show is placed to air directly after the rerun of popular
sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond which still produces high rating for TBS. The network
tried to capture the high number audience that tunes into Everybody Loves Raymond.
The first season was very successful, but viewing started to decline in the second season.
That’s when Perry decided to use the strategy of stunting by having the appearance of the
popular Tyler Perry characters Mable “Madea” Simmons and Mr. Brown on a couple of
episodes. Those episodes boosted viewership at the end of the second season. After that
viewership has constantly increased weekly. TBS was the only network that had rights to
the show for the first year, after that the show went into local syndication. Reruns of the
show began to air on The CW television network on September 22, 2008. Reruns are also
2
Eastman, S.T., & Ferguson, D.A. (2006). Media Programming: Strategies and Practices (7th ed.). Thomson & Wadsworth.
3 www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/House-Payne.html
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aired on the Fox network in cities that don’t carry The CW network. The reruns air every
night at eleven o clock (11:00).
Now, TBS has franchised another show based off of the success of House of
Payne. In January, Tyler Perry will be airing another show entitled, The Brown, which
will be based off of his hit play and movie, Meet the Browns. TBS has already ordered
episodes for the sitcom. “The cable network has ordered 10 episodes of a comedy based
on Perry's play and movie Meet the Browns. The show, which Perry will executive
produce and direct, is scheduled to premiere in January, joining Perry's House of Payne
on the TBS schedule. ‘Tyler Perry is an extraordinary talent who has turned House of
Payne into a record-breaking hit,’ says Steve Koonin, president of Turner Entertainment
Networks. ‘We're thrilled at having the chance to repeat that success with Leroy Brown, a
character already proven to be a big hit with audiences.’4 This time the network will be
using House of Payne as the lead-in show to grab the same type audience and ratings.
The first season of House of Payne made history when it comes to a show debut
in ratings. “The two-episode debut of House of Payne last night looks like it will make
the record books as the highest rated first-run sitcom debut in the history of basic cable,
with an average 3.2 rating/5 share in the overnights from 9-10 p.m. (9 p.m.: 3.1/ 5, 3.3/
5), according to Nielsen Media Research data. To compare that figure, Everybody Loves
Raymond, which aired in the time slot before House of Payne did a 1.6/3 rating. So we
are talking about a 94 percent increase between the two shows….But a 3.2 rating is no
4
http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-tbsorderstylerperrymeetthebrownssitcom,0,4011130.story
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joke.”5 The show falls under the demographic of African American adults 18-54. There
are approximately 3 million viewers that tune into the show weekly. Out of those 3
million viewers, the targeted demographic of people 18-34 years old make up 1.5 million
out of the total 3 million viewers. The current season just aired on December 3, 2008, but
the last season House of Payne once again brought in top ratings. For the premiere show
of the fifth and current season, House of Payne brought in a 3.8 rating and 6 share. The
major demographic that the show is has brought in is African American females from age
18- 34, 18-49, and 25-54 years old. House of Payne continues to produce high ratings for
TBS; it averages more than 3 million viewers weekly.
Rating/Shares
(avg)
House of Payne Seasons Ratings/Shares
8
5
6
4
3.2
6
5
3.6
3.3
2.7
7
6
4.1
2
0
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Television Season
Rating
Share
The graph above shows how the ratings have evolved over the past four (4) seasons to the
show. The breakdown the ratings and shares per season are as followed: Season one (1)
debuted at a 3.2 rating and a 5 share, it ended at a 3.3 rating and 5 share. It had an
average of a 3.2 rating and 5 share. It premiered on June 6, 2007. Season two (2)
5
http://www.blackvoices.com/blogs/2007/06/07/house-of-payne-has-historic-debut-in-ratings/
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premiered on December 5, 2007, and averaged at a 2.7 rating and 5 share. Season three
(3) premiered on March 5, 2008, and averaged a 3.3 rating and 6 share. Season four (4)
premiered on June 4, 2008, and showed a big jump in ratings where it averaged a 3.6
rating and 6 share. As mentioned earlier, for season five (5) it brought in a 4.1 rating and
7 share .Over time rating for the most part has remained constant but they are slowly
going up as the seasons go on. Compared to broadcast shows, the rating are actually low,
but for a first run cable television sitcom the ratings are for the show are doing well, and
they are doing exceptionally well for the TBS network. “According to Broadcasting &
Cable, the show is #1 on primetime among African Americans aged 18-54 across its five
seasons in running on TBS, as well as its syndicated double-runs. The show, in
primetime, beats such ratings monsters such as Grey's Anatomy, Dancing With the Stars,
Desperate Housewives and CSI in all African-American adult demographics….rating
climbs as audience’s age.”6 House of Payne’s biggest competition that takes place during
the same time slot on Wednesday nights are Bones, CSI: NY, and Law & Order. As of
November 13,2008 House of Payne produced the highest rating of its competition shows
within its target demographic with a 6.3 rating and 8 share. The ratings are close, but
House of Payne still comes out on top among this demographic, and what also makes that
interesting is that the other programs are on broadcast and not cable television. More
people have access to broadcast, yet the cable television show is still out beating them.
6
http://www.soulfullvibes.com/Soulfull-News/tyler-perrys-house-of-payne-1-rated-show-among-africanamericans.html
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Rating/Share (as of
11/13/08)
Wednesday Night Primetime Competition ( among 18-54
AA demographic)
10
8
8
6.3
6
7
6
6
4.1
5.1
6
4
Rating
Share
2
0
House of
Payne
CSI:NY
Bones
Law&Order
Show
House of Payne is producing money for TBS through its DVD sales and its ad
revenue. The DVD are divided into volumes by episodes, out of the 126 episodes that
have already aired. Currently there are two (2) volumes out on the market for sale.
Episodes 1-20 consist of volume one (1), and episodes 21-40 consist of volume two (2).
Each volume is sold for $29.98. There has been an estimated more than $113 million that
have been produced from the sales of DVD’s. TBS gets a profit from those sales as well.
There is a volume three (3) that will be coming on sale in January of 2009, which will
consist of episodes 41-60. House of Payne is also promoted a lot during NBA game
coverage that comes on TNT network, which gives it exposure to a different type of
audience. House of Payne also gets commercial time on African American targeted
stations such as TV One and Black Entertainment Television (BET).
Tyler Perry’s House of Payne has been nothing but a true success story. TBS took
a chance on Perry’s vision, and now they are producing some of cables highest ratings.
House of Payne isn’t the typical “black family” show like the Cosby’s or the Banks from
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Fresh Prince of Bel Air, this family goes through real life situations that any other family
will go through, and not portraying life as being all peaches and cream. Perry’s show
relates to his audience, and that is a reason why the outcome has been so good. TBS and
Perry did a prefect job when it comes to scheduling and casting the show. The characters
are played by prominent actors within the black community that people like to see
weekly, and Wednesday is the perfect day to air this show because no other big name
competition shows are really aired except for a few that House of Payne is already
beating out. Now Wednesday nights are known as one of the biggest TV nights on cable.
It’s a House of Payne night, and that is exactly the way Tyler Perry and the TBS network
wanted it.
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Reference List
Eastman, S.T., & Ferguson, D.A. (2006). Media Programming: Strategies and Practices
(7th ed.). Thomson & Wadsworth.
'House of Payne' Has Historic Debut in Ratings (June 7, 2007)
Retrieved October 12,
2008.
http://www.blackvoices.com/blogs/2007/06/07/house-of-payne-has-historicdebutin-ratings/
House of Payne Television Show
Retrieved October 12, 2008
http://tv.nytimes.com/show/180008/Tyler-Perry-s-HouseofPayne/overview?scp=1&sq=house%20of%20payne&st=cse,
http://television.aol.com/show/tyler-perrys-house-of-payne/1342139/main,
www.tvguide.com/tvshows/tyler-perrys-house/288318,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler_Perry%27s_House_of_Payne,
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/House-Payne.html
tbs.com/shows/houseofpayne, and
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0773264/
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Syndication
Retrieved November 20, 2008
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/S/htmlS/syndication/syndication.htm
TBS Wants More Tyler Perry (August 26, 2008)
Retrieved October 12, 2008
http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zaptbsorderstylerperrymeetthebrownssitcom,0,40
11130.story
Top Cable Shows For African Americans, December 3-9 (December 14 2007)
Retrieved October 12, 2008
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2007/12/14/top-cable-shows-for-african-americansdecember-3-9/2128
Top TV Ratings (Nov 24,2008)
Retrieved November 26,2008
http://www.nielsenmedia.com/nc/portal/site/Public/menuitem.43afce2fac27e8903
11ba0a347a062a0/?show=%2FFilters%2FPublic%2Ftop_tv_ratings%2Famong_a
frican_americans&selOneIndex=3&vgnextoid=9e4df9669fa14010VgnVCM1000
00880a260aRCRD
Tyler Perry's House of Payne #1 Rated Show Among African-Americans ( Dec. 8,2008)
Retrieved December 8, 2008
http://www.soulfullvibes.com/Soulfull-News/tyler-perrys-house-of-payne-1rated-show-among-african-americans.html
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