A few weeks ago we got a call asking if we wanted to be a Nielsen family. We got the log book yesterday. So, Dopers, how can I distort the television industry?
We really don’t watch all that much TV. I’m not going to start watching prime time crap. I thought about putting the TV on the NASA channel 24/7, but that’s too easy.
We have satellite, but we don’t have any premium channels. I do watch the Daily Show already, so that’s easy. We watch a couple of obscure things also, like the Horse TV channel. (My daughter is a rider.) What other cool stuff should I watch this week? Especially, what should I watch during the Stupid Bowl?
What an interesting opportunity.
I rarely watch the main networks anymore. I more often watch Discovery Health channel (I think the surgery shows are fun) and TLC.
For the love of all humanity, please DON’T watch any reality shows. Something has to stem the tide of reality crapola being thrown at us. I never watch any of it, but it doesn’t count because I don’t have a Neilsen box.
From a rarely-used portion on my college education is an story along these lines.
When they make you a Nielsen family they don’t want anyone who in (for want of a better word) out-of-norm. They take a lot of steps to make sure of this.
One precaution is that for your first few weeks, they monitor your diaries and compare them against the statistical average. For you spend all your TV time ogling Wild Bunny Cam on the Playboy Channel, you will simply be dumped without explanation.
Therefore, for a month or so you should reflect the ongoing trends. After that, go nuts.
Yeah, it’s pretty stupid. They don’t really randomly select from the entire population, they pick and choose families to use. Perhaps they need to hire better statisticians, like ones who have actually taken a class or two.
I don’t get a box, just a log to fill out for the week.
We’re hardly average, so can’t do that. We actually do watch the NASA channel and HorseTV from time to time. And the weather channel. Lots of Weather Channel. Even more when we lived in a place with weather.
As for reality shows, I’m deeply disappointed that there is no place on the log to say that I wouldn’t watch these shows if I was threatened with boiling oil. Leafing through the TV listings in our paper, that actually applies to most of what is on.
I need to get a TV Guide, I suppose, and also need to see if MST3K is on at some ungodly hour. You get to list things you tape also.
Alias
West Wing
24
Arrested Development
Joan of Arcadia
Las Vegas
CSI (not the Miami show)
The Handler
Line of Duty
Monk
Malcom In the Middle
The Practice
Without A Trace
The Shield
Sopranos (if you have HBO and when it returns)
But please, do not watch ANY reality shows!!!
I believe it comes on at 9 am on Saturdays. Which is why I never watched it until I got a DVR. So don’t let them cancel it, I’ve hardly seen any of the shows!
Odinoneye: Family Guy is already going back into production due to the popularity of the DVDs. They’re going to make a another small amount of full episodes.
Howie Reynolds: MST3K is already canceled. They’ve only been showing the last few seasons since the series ended years ago. But it’s final episode aired is this month. Then it’s off SciFi.
Paul in Saudi, I got dumped after a year or so b/c all I watched were occasional reruns of classic comedies like Leave it to Beaver, Full House, the Cosby Show, and so on, as there are no good, family-friendly things on TV anymore, as someone (maybe you) alluded to; nothing good on network TV. I suspected that what you said was the case.
Now, on to Voyager, who gets a diary, not a box...
I would watch what you normally do and list that; there's a place at the end I think where you can list comments, or there shoudl be. There was for the radio one I did a couple months ago.
I'd also tune in tot he same shows I did; TV Land, Nick at Nite, ABC Family. And watch the old stuff like I did. Maybe they'll start to realize we're normal and it's the people who make all these reality shows and sleazy, vulgar stuff that are really nuts.
