To know if a show will be a hit, NBC administers a series of national surveys. If 40 percent of respondents say they are aware of a new show, and 40 percent of that 40 percent say they want to watch it, and 20 percent of that 16 percent say they are passionate about the new show, NBC can confidently predict that the program will be a hit. This is the 40-40-20 test, and it works. One of the last shows to pass this threshold, The Blacklist, debuted on NBC as one of the ten most popular shows on television.
