# Nielson Ratings: Were You Ever Polled? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 29, 2009, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nielson-ratings-were-you-ever-polled/519331 "2009-11-29T15:04:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Winnie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e480ec/32.png) [@Winnie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winnie)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nielson-ratings-were-you-ever-polled/519331/41 "2009-12-04T23:05:33Z")
We are currently a Nielsen family. They do scrupulous interviews every few months to see if one tiny bit of your demographic has changed. We’ve done it for 2 years and just signed on to do an extra year because we also agreed to do computer monitoring as well on our laptop. Same as **Shodan** we get checks a few times a year and a little gift catalog for my son to choose from. The computer monitoring will factor in a little more cash with very little work on our part. The only bad part is it’s a holy pain in the ass when people use our TV’s that don’t live here (babysitters, people who house-sit for us when we’re out of town, etc.). We’re so tuned into keeping the monitor updated it doesn’t seem challenging but it seems everyone else just ignores the wildly blinking device just above the tv screen and doesn’t update it despite a very long, detailed description of how to do so by us that goes something like “When that light above the tv starts blinking wildly, press button #4”. The next day Nielsen calls us to remind us how to update the monitor. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nielson-ratings-were-you-ever-polled/519331/42 "2009-12-04T23:07:31Z")
I’ve kept a Nielsen diary before. I annoyed a lot of Dopers by asking what shows y’all wanted me to say I was watching that week. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nielson-ratings-were-you-ever-polled/519331/43 "2009-12-04T23:15:54Z")
I was a “Nielsen family” (a Nielsen individual in my case) twice, while I was in grad school. I also did a similar survey about my radio listening habits. I was honest on the Nielsen survey, although I modified my viewing habits during the survey period. I was in the habit of using the TV for background noise between the time when I got home and the time when shows I actually wanted to watch came on. I’d turn on some syndicated sitcom while I was reading my email or cooking dunner or whatever. But during the Nielsen survey period I either kept the TV off when I wasn’t really watching it, or I’d use PBS for background noise. ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2009, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nielson-ratings-were-you-ever-polled/519331/44 "2009-12-05T04:08:59Z")
I did the diary thing for them back in the 80’s, when I was in college. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2009, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nielson-ratings-were-you-ever-polled/519331/45 "2009-12-05T06:28:29Z")
n/m, answered in the previous posts. ---
**Author:** ![Reno\_Nevada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2009, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nielson-ratings-were-you-ever-polled/519331/46 "2009-12-05T22:17:46Z")
My family kept a Nielsen diary for, I think, one week back when I was a kid. We were fairly scrupulous about accurate recording, but it was that week that the Rankin Bass “Return of the King” came out. _Where there’s a whip there’s a way!_ I watched the whole damn thing, but thought it was so terrible that I did not record that time. ---
**Author:** ![adhemar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@adhemar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhemar)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2009, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nielson-ratings-were-you-ever-polled/519331/47 "2009-12-05T23:34:59Z")
> [@Jinx](#): > > I’d like to know who Nielson is polling…have you ever met anyone who was polled by the Nielson ratings? And, for the poll to be meaningful, shouldn’t some of us have rubbed elbows with someone who has…somewhere in our lifetime? I have a friend who was a “Nielson family”. They called her to let her know that someone was watching porn in the afternoons thinking her teenage kids were watching, turned out her roommate was the one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nielson-ratings-were-you-ever-polled/519331.md?page=2)