New Nielsen Ratings: Jericho

There seems to be a huge misconception about Nielsen ratings that involve DVR's. Please do not rush out and get a DVR thinking you will be counted. You will not. Nielsen uses random samples when choosing who they monitor. They do not include every home as we well know by Jericho being canceled. Even if your cable or satellite provider sent information to Nielsen what would be the use since only Nielsen homes matter? The networks only rely on Nielsen.

Read the following- included is a message from someone who called Nielsen. It can't be made any plainer than this.



"If you are one of those people who watches most of your television time-shifted using your DVR, then you'll be interested in this news. For the first time in history, Nielsen Media Research - the organization relied upon by the TV networks and advertisers will be using a new ratings system called "live-plus-three-day commercial rating" that is changing Nielsen's methods in two ways. First, it measures TV viewership for commercial breaks instead of the entire TV program. Secondly, Nielsen will include TV viewership of a show over a three-day time period. This second change means if you time-shift TV shows and watch a show up to three days after it airs it will be counted as being viewed. In the past only those shows watched during the original airing date were counted."


Update:

"I just got off the phone with a Nielsen representative. According to the very nice lady, DVR usage is only measured for Nielsen families...not for the general public. While I'm sure this is disappointing to a lot of people on the board, let's just remember that Jericho is already one of the most DVR'ed shows out there. Also the Nielsen's new www.heynielsen.com is intended to let the general public interact with the ratings generator. Sign up as a beta member today!"



Operation Skippy:
Send CBS a nice polite letter about your disappointment in them for their lack of Jericho promotion. Before you seal the envelope peel the label off of your peanut butter jar and enclose it in the envelope as a reminder of times past.

Yes, CBS, today its peanut butter jar labels.... tomorrow.... who knows. Jericho fans are capable of anything.

Idea from Callisto925 of Jericho Rally Point

Jericho and Broken Ratings

Fri. night ratings:

The ratings are very odd this week. First, Nielsen had "technical difficulties" so the Fast Nationals weren't released until today. Secondly, it was reported by numerous people that their affiliates showed a movie instead of Jericho so who knows what the numbers really are?

I am in agreement with savejake who says,
"Don't you think those numbers are odd. It shows that even GW gains another 1/2 million for the end of the show. Then at 9PM all the networks lose several million viewers...only to see them all return at 10PM................???
So, do we turn our TV's on at 8:30, then off at 9, then back on at 10PM?
Is that the normal viewing pattern for our Nielsen Families? They watch only the end of a 60 minute show no matter what channel it's on...just to turn off the TV at 9PM. Then we sit down and watch TV from 10-11PM....on Friday night....!!!!!
Does anyone else find this strange or is it me? Eight to ten million people turned their television off for an hour............. ?"

While we're on the subject of ratings here's an interesting article that discuses the measurement of TV and online viewers and rates the quality and quantity of viewers for shows like Jericho, Lost, and The Black Donnellys. There are excellent charts too. The author says, " The TV ratings system is broken. Everyone knows it, but nobody wants to admit it."

That hits the nail on the head. Wake up Moonves.