I hate ratings. No I mean it I hate them. And I hate the fact that a little thing like a number can decide what stays on and what get’s cancelled. Now I wouldn’t mind them so much if it weren’t for the fact that shows like Rock of Love can keep going on and on and on and shows like Friday Night Lights or Southland have to fight for every hour they get. It just doesn’t seem fair. I know it seems like I am whining and I probably am. But whatever. And no I am not a television snob. I don’t believe that only shows that are deemed wonderful and smart deserve to be on the air. Because frankly I can not stand Dexter. I watched it and watched it and watched it again and frankly I can not stand it. After 12 episodes I finally gave up on it. I just didn’t care enough to keep going. And Dexter is a show that is loved by practically the entire critical community. But not by me. And when it comes to mindless drival TV, well I too love a little escapism that requires no more than a free hour. I mean heck I love the cheesy naturl disaster movies that come on SyFy. No really, I can’t get enough of them. I have one friend who messages me everytime SyFy is having a marathon because he doesn’t want me missing it and he knows I love them. I have another friend who texts me when the History Channel is doing a Mega Disaster show because I love them so much. So no I am not a television snob. I believe everyone has the right to watch what they want to watch no matter what it may be.
But does that mean that struggling shows like Southland should be pushed off the air because only 2.5 million people are watching it? And if you think about it is the number really even 2.5 million (which if you ask me is a hell of a lot)? Considering the fact the Nielsen’s are not even an accurate way of determining how many people are watching the show. It’s just a sample of the information they are given and even then the data only reflects the people they have either given the viewing diary to (who bothered to fill them out), the Home Unit, or through Tivo or the DVR.
Of course we can not forget about the ever important Demographics. Which I happen to be a part of. In fact I am smack dab in the middle of the ever important 18-49 year old age bracket that the almighty advertising dollar wants to snag. Well jokes on them I guess because I don’t care if it is so easy a caveman could do it or that vapid manniquins look good in a pair of jeans I have insurance and I am not changing it because of a stupid commercial and seeing as how I don’t like Old Navy jeans I’m not buying them either. So why am I so important to these advertisers? Why are any of us for that matter? Do they still really believe that we base our buying choices on a 30 second slot? Hey Coke, do you want to know why I buy Pepsi products? Well I will tell you, it’s because I like it more than I do Coke. Yep that’s it. No other reason so you see there is no reason for you to try and tell the studios that you will pay less for a 30 second spot during one show than you will during another because you think you have a better chance of winning me over. You don’t, so stop it. Leave my shows alone. Let me watch them in peace without having to worry that this might be the last time a new episode is on because they show may not live up to some impossible measure of judgement.
March 8th, 2010 at 4:08 am
The problem with television as a whole is that it is too focused on immediate ratings. We are just now getting to the point where DVR numbers are also included. And in the cases of many shows (Chuck, Heroes, Caprica) the DVR numbers make a huge difference.
The other problem is that ratings might be able to account for live viewing and DVR viewing but tracking hits on the web is different. Most of the TV industry has no idea how to properly utilize the web to make TV shows successful. They put shows on their own sites or places like Hulu, but its never really advertised. Having these shows on demand is huge and you would think they’d advertise the heck out of it.
The shows that have been successful (in my opinion at least) have learned to use the internet. Season 1 of Heroes was fantastic and grew by word of mouth. They used the internet to tell parts of the story that were woven into what was shown on the broadcast. The made the shows available online for people to watch and catch up with. Missing one episode of a serialized drama like Heroes could get you lost so having the episodes available online was huge to getting people hooked. The scary thing is that the web might be what saves Heroes now. Many people overseas watch and pirate this show meaning a lot more people watch than the Nielson ratings of 4.0ish at the end would indicate.
The internet also saved Chuck which was on the verge of cancellation. And the makers of BSG and Caprica have made huge use of the web for promoting their shows and making it viewable after airing. BSG had webisodes that aired between seasons to continue the story and the Caprica mini-series movie was available to watch on SciFi’s web-site for about a month before the series premiered on cable. Just think of all those lost ratings because the system cannot properly gauge the use of the web to watch TV.
Honestly, I think NBC Universal is getting the closest to figuring out how to harness the internet, which is kind of ironic considering how slammed they are getting lately in the ratings. Maybe that’s just more proof the system is broken and needs to be modified. However, there is some hope that maybe, just maybe, networks are starting to see the value in using the web to their advantage to hype their shows and make them viewable outside a set time slot. I for one am tired of my shows getting canceled or nearly being cancelled because of their perceived lack of ratings in what could be considered to be a broken system.
Sorry for the rant, I had no idea I was so opinionated. Guess your post just sparked some ideas in me!
March 8th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Hey I am just glad that my little rant inspired someone else’s rant. And you make some excellent points.
March 15th, 2010 at 8:33 pm
[...] I was visiting my friend Mendie’s site and she had an interesting article about how TV ratings were killing her viewing buzz. Her post caused me to have some thoughts of my own regarding how the ratings system is damaging [...]