Amusing Story about Ratings unless you're favorite show got dumped

[phrelin]

You've really got to wonder about who makes the decisions to sponsor or not sponsor your favorite show when you read this (http://www.phrelin.com/Dish/tvboard.pdf) from MediaPost's TV Board: "Wow. Sixteen million, seven hundred thousand people watched 'Dancing With the Stars.'" At 35,000 feet and above the roar of the jet engines, 3B nudged me out of my book. I looked over at her. She stared back.

"Sixteen million," she repeated.

"Really," I deadpanned.

"Says right here in the New York Times. Sixteen million, seven hundred thousand people sat in front of their televisions and watched those celebrities on CBS twirl," she asserted.

"It's an estimate," I said.

"No, it's a count," she replied with conviction.

At this point I had to make a decision. I could not have cared less what she thought. But while waiting on the tarmac before takeoff, she had told me in great detail how she was recently promoted to be the head of all advertising for her organization. Her business card stated she was an EVP with a well known, Fortune 50 company. We had talked briefly about online and on-demand television strategy. Could she really be that ill-informed? I must have misunderstood her. Or perhaps she was joking.

It goes on (http://www.phrelin.com/Dish/tvboard.pdf) and is worth reading.

[Sirshagg]

While I have never watched this show I always thought it was on ABC not CBS.

[Nick]

Never watched it -- but I've heard that the so-called 'celebrities' are
mostly washed-up stars or 'stars' not many people have even heard of.

(Note: site requires registration to read the article.)

[phrelin]

Never watched it -- but I've heard that the so-called 'celebrities' are
mostly washed-up stars or 'stars' not many people have even heard of.

(Note: site requires registration to read the article.)Sorry about that registration thing. That didn't used to happen. It can be bypassed by putting your cursor over the "publications" tab and selecting "blogs" then selecting "TV Board" from the list and then the blog entitled "Who Is Watching Television".

Edit: well apparently not. So I put it up here as a PDF (http://www.phrelin.com/Dish/tvboard.pdf) and will correct the links in the first post.

[Nick]

Interesting article...thanks for adding the link.

Would it be unreasonable to ass/u/me that the Nielsen numbers are not just 'estimates', but are fictionalized? That the industry (networks, programmers and advertisers) would rely on such a flawed, error-prone system is more than amazing -- it is folly!

It appears we know more about the planet Mars, and the mating rituals of the Arctic Puffin than we do which tv programs Americans are watching at any given moment. With the highly-advanced state of today's technology, certainly we could do a better job of counting ourselves, but taking at quick look at what are purported to be the most highly-rated programs, either the data are seriously flawed, or we are a nation with a significant sub-population of blathering idiots, or both.

BTW, did the writer say if the woman on the plane was a blonde?

[trainman]

While I have never watched this show I always thought it was on ABC not CBS.

That's pointed out in the article. What it's not accompanied by -- because it would detract from the theme of the article -- is the observation that this ABC/CBS confusion is further evidence that most people watch shows and not networks, despite the networks' best efforts at branding (i.e., the continuous on-screen logos).