# Resource for historical Nielsen ratings **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 13, 2007, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resource-for-historical-nielsen-ratings/429862 "2007-12-13T15:01:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2007, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resource-for-historical-nielsen-ratings/429862/1 "2007-12-13T15:01:13Z")
Any good online sources for historical Nielsen ratings in the US? Preferably including any information on syndicated programs but at least for the networks? ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resource-for-historical-nielsen-ratings/429862/2 "2008-05-20T18:11:14Z")
::: bump ::: Anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resource-for-historical-nielsen-ratings/429862/3 "2008-05-20T19:50:36Z")
The _Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows_ by Brooks and Marsh has the top 10 shows on network TV for every year, but I can’t think of anything that covers cable and syndicated programming. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2008, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resource-for-historical-nielsen-ratings/429862/4 "2008-05-21T03:20:21Z")
Before I post any sort of answer, two questions: How far back do you want data from, and must it be accessible to the general public? ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2008, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resource-for-historical-nielsen-ratings/429862/5 "2008-05-21T14:04:23Z")
I would like data back as far as is possible but have no specific target date in mind. I don’t care whether it’s accessible to the general public as long as it’s accessible to me, prefereably for free but if there is a reasonable fee involved I might be willing to pay it. ---
**Author:** ![iturntoyou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e36b37/32.png) [@iturntoyou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iturntoyou)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resource-for-historical-nielsen-ratings/429862/6 "2008-05-22T00:50:11Z")
Nielsen is very protective of it’s ratings, since it’s lists are copyrighted they won’t let you publish them and are pretty damn good about finding them ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resource-for-historical-nielsen-ratings/429862/7 "2008-05-22T01:09:28Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] I would like data back as far as is possible but have no specific target date in mind. I don’t care whether it’s accessible to the general public as long as it’s accessible to me, prefereably for free but if there is a reasonable fee involved I might be willing to pay it. [/QUOTE] I can search my Newspaperarchive for Nielsen Ratings. I don’t know what I will find. Would that do you any good. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resource-for-historical-nielsen-ratings/429862/8 "2008-05-22T12:32:49Z")
[QUOTE=iturntoyou] Nielsen is very protective of it’s ratings, since it’s lists are copyrighted they won’t let you publish them and are pretty damn good about finding them [/QUOTE] I don’t have any plans to publish lists. I work on Wikipedia articles about some old TV shows and I want to get ratings information for some of them, both where they ranked for individual episodes and where they stood overall for the season. I could find some of the information through newspaper archive searches myself, probably, but I was hoping there was an easy online source where I could plug in a show title and a year.