I just got a phone call from nielsen media research, telling me we have been selected as a research home for the week of Nov. 23rd. Has anyone ever done this?
Off the top of my head I can only think of 3 TV shows that are on consistently in this house, Jeopardy!, Pokemon, and Battlebots. guess we won’t be much of a help to the ratings system, but I thought it would be a neat thing to do.
If you have a watch-worthy show, make a suggestion, I could just leave the TV on with the volume off I suppose. Actually, a new show on History comes to mind, The Most, my new favorite show, and it is a crying shame The Straight Dope isn’t aired anymore.
Now you have a duty to watch wrestling every week.
For your consideration: Gilmore Girls, WB, Thursday nights, 8-9 Eastern.
It was kind of a hassle… Always having to “log in” to the set-top-box, and then select a channel, and then “lock in” your choice, and then if you leave to go to another channel for any amount of time, you have to relock in the channel.
They will open your TV and VCR (if it is used as a tuner) and solder some connections onto the tuner circuitry (this won’t void any warranty)
Personally, the “prestiege” of being a Nielsen family is diminished by the hassle, and I particularly didn’t like having my electronics violated by rogue soldering irons… While the guy who did it has the knowledge and skill, I still don’t like it.
I recommend that you skip it.
I’m a single guy, but was a Nielsen “family”. I think they have a couple of different ways of doing it, set-top monitoring boxes being one of those.
But the most common way, I believe, is the way that I was a Nielsen family – and it can be a real pain. They send a journal for you to fill out, with who watches what for a week. No high-tech devices that actually can TELL what you’re watching – it’s the good old honor system. It’s been about three years since I did it.
And they sent me a fresh crisp one dollar bill for my time. I suppose the joy of contributing to the ratings system is enough.
It’s a pain in the ass. I did it five years ago and had to log all the entries in my journal the day I sent it back to them.
hmmm… mayhaps I procrastinate…
We did it for onw week and it was a pain in the butt.
The logs are so inflexible, if you channel surf at all and people come in and out of the room, you just give up.
And that was the first hour. You have my sympathy. Just realize you won’t be the first to quit with reality and show everyone watching all your favorite shows.
3rd Rock From the Sun.
Blind Date.
Do not watch WWTBAM or MNF.
I’ve been a nielsen family twice. When I was a kid we had one of their boxes one our TV. All I had to do with the whole thing was to set zomie-like in front of the tube, in other words, business as usual. In 81 I moved back in with my mother and she was doing the log thing for a few months. I did’nt really have much to do with it then, either.
I worked for Nielsen about ten years ago. They were talking then about automating the whole process, even down to being able to monitor who was in the room. I wouldn’t be surprised if it never was deployed, though; the project I was on never saw the light of day even after several years and who knows how many millions of dollars…
Whose Line is it Anyway?
Definitely watch that.
Gideon’s Crossing.
I just know ABC is trying to kill this one. It is ridiculous to show it opposite The West Wing. I don;t care how good it is, you don’t put a newcomer opposite the Emmy sweetheart. GRRR.
Malcolm in the Middle
and I second Whose Line
shows NOT to watch:
The Trouble With Normal (sorry, Jon Cryer)
Cursed
and, sad to say, The Simpsons and Spin City
i watch too much tv.
** I CAST THEE OUT! **
I did it a couple of times, many years ago when it was still the manual journal thing. I felt so guilty when I went on a ski trip and missed my favourite shows so I lied and said that I watched them anyway.
I’m starting to wonder if most Neilson families (in the journal days) actually just filled in the shows that they liked to watch all at once, and skipped filling it in day by day.
Anyway, make sure you get Angel in on that thing. I would go nuts without watching that hunky guy every week. It’s all up to you.
hmmm, well we really don’t watch TV much, an hour a day would be a lot and that’s not everyday. Mostly the TV’s are big PSX and N64 monitors. But we’ll see how it goes.
Its an absolute pain in the ass. We had two bumbling idiots come out here on three seperate days hooking all this shit up (granted we have 6 tv’s and they had to install a phone line but still…) The backsides of all our TV’s look like an electricians worst nightmare and it absolutely ruins the picture quality. By the way, what they do now is install a neilson phone line that reports everything automatically, no more journals or “locking channels in” so that part isnt so bad…but try getting a new tv or something…
I’ve wondered what they do about surfers. I actually watch 2 shows at the same time, quite often.
I have participated in the radio survey a couple of times a really long time ago. That’s why I always wondered what happens when people watch TV like I do. As you can imagine, my log for the radio survey was mostly one station except when commercials came on when I would switch to another station and then back to the other. (And, no, I do not have ADD, like my sister keeps trying to tell me. I don’t like commercials.)
Sounds like the Nielsen people need to get together with the TiVo folks. TiVo already has the phone line and program schedules, and will happily sit there and record your programs as they watch you. It’s just a box that sits between your cable and the TV, so installation’s a snap. And it could easily record everything you watch in super low quality, so Neilsen could not only see what you watched, but if you flipped away when and why you did so. Matter of fact, it already keeps an eye on what you watch, and when it’s bored it will record shows it thinks you might like based on what you watch and record. I recorded Dr. Strangelove last week, and a few days later, I came home to find it had recorded A shot in the Dark and Being There.
I always figured the real flaw in the Nielsen ratings was that when you’re a Nielsen family, you know someone is watching your viewing habits, and that has to affect what you watch. I mean, how many times have you been watching some horrible piece of fluff, only to turn over to something less insipid if someone else comes into the room? I mean, SOMEBODY has to be watching Jerry Springer, but how many people will admit it to strangers?
I seem to have wandered way the heck off the original topic. You were looking for programming recommendations. Titus is about as black as a sitcom gets. And West Wing, I suppose, if only for Aaron Sorkin’s dialogue. Even though they should have scrapped it, and kept Sports Night last year. Maybe that’s what you should do… Write “Bring back Sports Night” in the margins of every page of your journal. Alternated with “the horror…”
I just read my reply. Not a lot of focus, was there? I have GOT to get out more.
Sorry for babbling. Carry on.
I was pondering the same thing when I made my post. With the journals, I would be so tempted to say “Yeah, I was watching Masterpiece Theatre, not that cheezy pay per view porno”.