Millennium Ratings

[Guest ZeusFaber]

Thanks, ZF. It wasn't a particularly pleasant task - usenet newsgroups can be great for information and so on, but I was reminded yet again why I don't get involved in unmoderated newsgroups.

I can imagine! I certainly don't envy you that straining exploit. Time for a rest, I should think.

But there are knowledgeable posters and in this particular case there was some good information about Nielson ratings and what they mean. In particular, ratings have to be seen in context. For example, for almost all of Season 3 MM was ranked higher than Buffy, but it isn't just the figures but also the network - Buffy being more useful to whatever network it was on, because that network was smaller than Fox. Also, there is the issue of what other shows were aired against MM on the other big networks, as well as the lead-in show. So even just comparing each season with the rest doesn't always give a true picture. I know you probably know this as much as I do or even better, but it's worth mentioning in a discussion about MM's ratings.

Indeed. It's also probably worthy bearing in mind key demographics too, which are often of the greatest interest to Madison Avenue.

I wonder if there's any figures anywhere which show the downturn in TV viewership generally over the last decade or so. I vaguely recall reading somewhere that the figures have declined, possibly because more people spend time on the internet, and possibly because people, particularly SF fans are fed up with shows being cancelled too quickly.

I certainly don't have any specific figures to draw on here, but I've certainly heard about the general decline of network television audiences in the late 90s, owing in no small part to the advent of cable programming as things like HBO and Showtime started to gain more subscriptions and swallow up a larger and larger piece of the overall television pie.