Nielsens Schmielsens
A lot has been made of the Nielsen numbers lately, particularly since LOST seemed to lose in last weeks race. But let’s just get something in perspective here. Nielsen ratings are not scientific. In a perfect world, the participating families in the nielsen community mimic the population at large. So if there are 100 Nielsen families and 1000 gross viewers, 50 Nielsen viewers would mean 500 net viewers. Did we learn a little something about polling in 2004?
Even the raw number of viewers is not accurate, even though it predicts viewership to the tenths. Can we assume that the Nielsen model is so perfect, that all participants are honest, that there is enough social and cultural diversity to accurately predict the habits of the general population? And since share is estimated by percentage-of-nielsen-viewers times percentage-of-available-viewers, how can we be sure they REALLY know how many people are watching TV?
Thank God for the internet.
Now you can look at data like this and get a little better feeling of what the non nielsen people are into. If you take into consideration search traffic and internet chatter, LOST continues to dominate the minds of many viewers who are too busy solving the conundrums of LOST to punch their TV menu into a little box every night.
Personally… I found this piece to be more revealing then the Nielsen ratings.
It really is not credible all the alarm that the press is raising about Lost’s viewership. It is solidly in the top 10, and #6 in the stat I saw for last week. I posted more on this in a friend’s board at Lostexposed.com and here is basically my view on this issue. I think Lost lost momentum by focusing on the now not-all-that-mysterious Others at the beginning of the season. This week’s spoiler is that the show will now start to focus on the other popular characters, Locke, Hurley, Mr. Eko and Desmnod. So whether the show grows even more viewership or not will be seen in the next few weeks. Lost has been one of the few shows that challenges and entertains at the same time, and that creates hugely loyal fans. It is too early to write-off such a stable base for heaven’s sake. After all how many shows can be in the top 10, well just 10 :).
Comment by Jackie — October 18, 2006 @ 6:04 pm
Good news!
Neilson contacted me last week… and asked if I wanted to participate in their ratings survey.
Looks like we’ll get another neilson houshold for lost!
GO LOST GO GO GO!
Comment by Tom — October 18, 2006 @ 7:00 pm
You go TOM! That’s LOST monday, tuesday, wednesday, friday, saturday, and sunday right?
Comment by DocArzt — October 18, 2006 @ 7:04 pm
I myself can’t wait for the episodes to air in Brazil, so i download them from the internet… Since my cable company will air them sometime next year and i’m paying for it, i don’t see anything wrong with downloading episodes… Heck, i even think its a big complement to the show!
Anyways… just look at any Torrent download site and compare the number of downloads a LOST episode gets do a “Grey’s Anatomy” one… The numbers speak for themselves…
Comment by Lost_in_Brazil — October 18, 2006 @ 11:06 pm
Lost in Brazil..
The torrent numbers DONT speak for themselves.
All that shows is that more fans of Lost are more technically savvy than those of other shows.
Comment by Akbar Fazil — October 19, 2006 @ 12:48 am
Coming to think of it… I guess you’re right, Akbar… But who cares about the ratings… As long as it doesn’t affect the show’s continuity…
Comment by Lost_in_Brazil — October 19, 2006 @ 12:58 pm
Maybe the numbers will help convince the executives that the pace needs to quicken. From the spoliers it sounds as if nothing happens until the series continues next winter. I thought last night’s episode and the season preimer was a snoozer.
Comment by B. — October 19, 2006 @ 6:19 pm