The Bachelor and The Mindy Project are the most popular shows among young, rich, educated people

By Caroline Siede | June 12, 2014 | 7:57pm

Aux Features TV

What do the rich and educated watch on TV? It turns out, the same stupid stuff as everyone else. According to Deadline, Nielsen has released new statistics on what particular wealthy and educated segments of the key, 18 to 49-year-old demographic watch, when they aren’t busy buying expensive watches or discussing Chaucer and quantum physics. The highest-indexed non-sports show for 18 to 49-year-olds who make over $150,000 per year was The Bachelor, followed closely by The Good Wife, The Bachelorette, 60 Minutes, and Modern Family. For 18 to 49-year-olds with at least four years of college, The Mindy Project topped the list, with Modern Family, Parenthood, and New Girl following. Rounding out the top five is Fox’s dreadful—and just-canceled—reality program, I Wanna Marry Harry.

These rankings differ fairly significantly from the 2013-2014 season series rankings for 18 to 49-year-olds that don’t assign limits by income or education, where The Big Bang Theory, The Voice, Modern Family, Grey’s Anatomy, and How I Met Your Mother topped the list of non-sports shows. Interestingly, on the more generalized list The Bachelor places 16th and The Mindy Project a distant 75th. While this information probably has the most practical applications for TV executives and advertisers, the general population can take comfort in the fact that the next pretentious rich person you’re forced to talk to at a party also likely wastes several hours of their life watching reality dating shows.