we're a neilsens household this coming week...what should we watch?

so we're a neilsens household this week. we got these little notebooks (and $30 cash! seriously, they pay you $30 for doing this) in the mail and we're supposed to write down everything we watch for five or more minutes, starting thursday and ending the following thursday.

i feel powerful, like i have the power to make or break some careers this week. ok, not really, but maybe i can fight back against all the shitty TV that people watch, right?

so what should i watch? what shouldn't i watch? should i throw in a few shows from telemundo and public access just so they think i'm smart?

 

Quite Frankly.
The Mitch Albom Show.
Sports Reporters.
Any basketball from the Pacific time zone
NHL games
Anything on cable opposite Nancy Grace
and of course
Junction Boys

 

Or you could do what I do since I'm also part of that "fraternity." Do everything humanly possible to hurt the ratings for reality TV. Watch what you normally watch and don't try to dress it up or appear "smart." They won't care.

 

They sent you a notebook? Now that's a high tech operation!

 

No notebook for me!

 

we got two notebooks! one for each TV in the house. this basically tells me that the entire ratings system is bunk. but i'll play along for a week and do my best to write down everything we watch. the wife wants no part of it. this would be impossible if we had kids old enough to decide what they want to watch on TV.

 

Having worked in TV (Web stuff, nothing for the on-air product), albeit breifly, I can verify the notebook system is crap. This thread is a perfect example why. It really hurts at the local level when you have one station that's been No. 1 in the market for 20-some years and you've got another that's trying to get outta the cellar. When people go to write in their book, they likely won't remember they watched sports on the shitty station for 5 minutes on Monday night. They'll likely reason, "We've always watched KUNT since I was a child, so I'll say I watched that all week." Then WSUK gets nothing and stays No. 3 when it really isn't.
The better system is where they put something on your TV that monitors what you watch. I'm sure that'll scare a few of the SportsJournalists.com faithly into thinking Big Brother is watching.

Disclaimer: I don't care what you write down. Everyone in TV knows it's a crap system, but they gotta use it because it's the only way to 1) boost the egos of the on-air talent wannabes and producers; 2) determine sales rates.

 

Go out on a limb. Watch American Idol. :

 

REELZCHANNEL!

AND MORE REELZCHANNEL!

Oh, wait, the network's not Nielsen-rated yet. Oh well, check back in 13 months!

 

Just write down every hockey game that's shown in your viewing area. There's homemade cookies in it for you.

 

Porn.

 

Wednesday, February 7th at 9:00 PM EST turn on ESPN2 and watch US v. Mexico.