Survey Says: Chuck Fan Survey 2.0 Results

With Chuck season 3 now part of the archives, we decided to take the pulse of the fandom and see where we stand now compared to when we surveyed fans a few weeks before season 3 premiered.

General Overview

2574 people took the survey, compared to 1507 in November 2009. This reflects that Chuck was on more people’s minds, having just concluded its third season. However, it is a slightly smaller percentage – 1% vs. 1.7% – of the average number visitors to ChuckTV.net during season 3, which was about 250,000/mo.

Of those 2574 people, 63.9% were male and 36.1% were female, virtually identical to the demographic makeup of November’s respondents. This correlates with NBC’s analysis the Chuck skews more male than female.

The age breakdown is also very similar, although the 18-24 group saw some growth this time around. For the 2.0 version of the survey, 35.5% of respondents are 18-24 (compared to 31% in November), 17.2% are 25-30, and 13.9% are under 18. That means 66.6% of survey respondents are age 30 or under. The rest of the breakdown is as follows: 9% are 31-35; 7.8% are 36.40; 6.7% are 41-45; 5% are 51-60; 3.8% are 46-50; and .06% are 61-70. No one over 71 responded to the survey.

We again note that because this is an online survey, on a fansite, the odds of reaching older viewers is much lower than reaching younger.

Not every person answered every question, but the bulk of respondents did complete the survey. In the case of Question 5, respondents only saw that question if they answered “Yes” on Question 4. Each question was restricted to one answer per respondent.

Note: screencaps will not be posted this time. We quickly hit the limit of respondents allowed on our free PollDaddy account, so within the first 24 hours we changed to a paid account with SurveyMonkey. Although the percentage breakdowns between the two were very similar, we wanted to be sure to include ALL responses, so we manually combined the results and calculated new percentages. Scans of our math, showing our work, may be posted later, but in the interest of time, are not currently available.

Question 1: Which element of Chuck is the main reason you watch?

Debates raged during season 3, and before, about which element of Chuck was most important to fans. Question 1 of our survey forces fans to choose only one element as the main reason they watch the show. Last November this question was easily won by the Chuck/Sarah relationship with 41% of respondents naming that the most important element to them. Not this time. Questioning fans post-season 3 revealed that 36.6% see Team Bartowski as the most important element, closely followed by the Chuck/Sarah relationship with 35.8% of the vote.

Meanwhile, The Comedy garnered just 11% and The Hero’s Journey fell to 8.5%. Both of these categories had 15% of the vote last time. Least important with a single vote? Ellie and Awesome.

Question 2: Rank the various elements of Chuck by MOST favorite to LEAST favorite.

The tough questions continued as we forced fans to rank the elements. This time we were able to restrict answers so only one could be ranked at 10 (MOST favorite), one at 9, etc. We saw some surprises in light of the answers to Question 1, but even more interesting is the difference in ranking compared to November.

39% of respondents ranked the Chuck/Sarah relationship as their favorite, giving it a 10 on the scale. Compare that to only 35.8% saying it’s the main reason they watch. Meanwhile, 4% said that it was their least favorite part of the show. In second place was Team Bartowski with 35% of fans marking it their favorite element and 2% saying it was their least favorite. By contrast, in November 54% said the Chuck/Sarah relationship was their favorite part of the show and 37% gave the honor to Team Bartowski. With the software forcing people to choose, we do seem to get a clearer picture of which elements are most important, correlating with the results from Question 1, although flip-flopped.

The Comedy (13.8%) and The Hero’s Journey (11%) were third and fourth runners up for most favorite element in the show. Ranked lowest on the scale were Ellie and Awesome with 42.6% giving their relationship a 1 on the scale and The Buy More with 25% saying it was their least favorite element.

Question 3: Rank these season 3 developments in order of MOST favorite to LEAST favorite.

A new question for this survey asked fans which developments in season 3 worked for them. Surprising no one, Chuck and Sarah officially becoming a couple ran away with the category as 59.6% of respondents ranked it most favorite. Coming in a distant second, Morgan finding out Chuck’s secret garnered 13.8% of the top vote.

Tied for third place with 11% of the vote each were Chuck becoming a full-fledged spy and Orion leading Chuck to the vault full of intel.

Least favorite developments were Orion’s death, with 38.7% of respondents giving that development a 1, and the Buy More exploding which earned 22% of the least favorite votes.

Question 4: Do you feel strongly enough about any element of Chuck to STOP watching if the storyline doesn’t go the way you want?

Initially created to examine the early response to rumored storylines before season 3 premiered, in light of some polarizing moments over the last couple of months, we were pleased with our foresight in including this question. The results have changed a little since November: 86.5% answered no this time, compared to 82% then. Which means only 13.5% answered yes, compared to 18% then. A result of the means justfying the end?

Question 5: If you answered yes to question 4, which element?

Only those respondents who answered yes to Question 4 saw this query. Of those 13.5%, 72.4% noted the Chuck/Sarah relationship as the element that would cause them to quit watching the show if it doesn’t go the way they want. That’s a significant drop compared to the 86% who cited that element in November.

9% said they’d stop watching over Team Bartowski, and 5.3% cited The Comedy as the element they feel most strongly about. Both of those elements saw percentage increases over November.

Question 6: How do you feel about spoilers?

Although we post some spoilers here at ChuckTV.net, we know not all fans want to have information ahead of time. This season we received a few emails from fans wondering why people wanted spoilers at all, and Zachary Levi posited the same question at WonderCon. At the same time, there are those who are constantly asking if anyone has information about this storyline or that plot point. So how do Chuck fans feel about spoilers?

49.9% say the love spoilers and 31% say that while they don’t seek them out, they do read them. That’s a whopping 80.9% of Chuck fans who are into being spoiled. Not everyone likes them, though. 16.5% said they hate spoilers while 2.3% said they don’t trust them.

Conclusion

What can we learn from these numbers? Online Chuck fandom, at least, skews young and male. This season Team Bartowski rose in importance to equal the Chuck/Sarah relationship. Although we wonder how the results would have differed had we surveyed fans at mid-season, we suspect that this balance of what’s deemed important has to do with how the season ended. Chuck fans are slightly less ready to throw in the towel if a specific storyline doesn’t go the way they wish, but there is a little more concern about the status of Team Bartowski and The Comedy than there was previously.

This survey was conducted by ChuckTV.net and measured opinions of fans who visit our site. It was not endorsed, sponsored, or affiliated with NBC, College Hill, Wonderland Sound and Vision, or anyone associated with Chuck.