Posts with tag Nielsen
Posted Jun 17th 2008 12:41PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Ugly Betty, Casting, Reality-Free
One sign of a show's success is the ability to attract stars in guesting roles.
Army Wives, which has been
setting new records in ratings for Lifetime, has been a blockbuster hit and now they're starting to book flashy guest stars.
Ana Ortiz, Hilda Suarez on ABC's Ugly Betty, is going to be turning up on Army Wives this summer prior to her return as Betty's big sister on
Betty in the fall. Ms. Ortiz will go to Charleston, where
AW is filmed, before clocking in to the
new New York studios for Ugly Betty.
Ana is going to be playing Sandi, a waitress who becomes involved with Roxy and Trevor in a legal way, something about a lawsuit. While it's hard to project, there are clues in that description that can start the wheels turning. First off, if she has a connection to Trevor and Roxy and we know Trevor is currently in Iraq, will Sandi's story take place after he's home? Or maybe Sandi is a girl from Trevor's past who turns up at Fort Marshall looking for him and finds that he's overseas but has left behind a wife -- Roxy -- and her boys, whom he adopted.
Continue reading Ugly Betty's Ana Ortiz to guest on Army Wives
Posted Jun 9th 2008 2:04PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Reality-Free
According to a study done by Nielsen, the average home in the United State
gets 119 channels from their cable provider. The study seems to hint that this is a major factor contributing to the decrease in overall ratings for broadcast television. As a result of this, the networks face a greater amount of competition.
Other interesting finds from the study include:
- In 2007, the average household increased the number of channels it watched (up to 16 channels an average of 10 minutes per week each).
- Scripted television still is the majority of the English-language product (40% of primetime programming) despite all talk of a reality television boom. Variety programs comprise 23%.
Continue reading Average U.S. home gets over 100 channels
Posted May 28th 2008 10:20AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Industry, Ratings
Your scary thought of the day comes from this Reuters article. When talking about how many reality shows are now
facing pressure to cut budgets and shoot shows faster they drop this bomb in, "The rapid pace can affect a show's quality..." Great! Because what the TV world really needs right now is some lower quality reality programming. I get Fox Reality. Based on some of what I've seen while flipping by there, I really thought the bottom of that barrel had been discovered.
As part of the discussion they cite the rise in studio based reality, highlighting Fox's Moment Of Truth. They also throw out that crappy stat that it was the highest-rated new program of the season. Is there anyone, anywhere, including the producers of Moment Of Truth, that doesn't think that was entirely to do with American Idol? I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that when the Tuesday ratings are in they bring with them a karmic Nielsen slap that puts that show in its proper place.
Posted May 18th 2008 12:01PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Programming, Survivor, Ratings
Now that the
upfronts have been presented, it's time to start handicapping the ratings (although
Jeff Zucker doesn't think Nielsens matter that much anymore). Nevertheless, some are looking at next fall's schedule and predicting a big-time battle royale on Thursday night at 8 o'clock. Which reality show will emerge at the Nielsen number one -- CBS's
Survivor or Fox's
The Moment of Truth? According to
Hollywood Reporter,
Fox is taking aim at CBS. When asked at the upfront about positioning
The Moment of Truth -- and
Hell's Kitchen right behind it -- on that night was a strategic move, the executive was diplomatic at first. He said Fox isn't looking for a battle; they're doing their own thing. But then said of
Survivor, "Look, it's eroding. It's an older show. Its eventually going to give up and were trying to accelerate that."
Hmm, sounds like fighting words to me.
The Moment of Truth and
Hell's Kitchen are two of Fox's three premiere reality shows, behind only
American Idol in the ratings. Anyway you slice it, Thursday night is going to be a night to drive TV fans crazy. While Fox and CBS are leading with reality shows to start the night, ABC will offer Emmy winner and critic's darling,
Ugly Betty, NBC will serve up its Emmy winner(s) and critic's faves,
My Name Is Earl and
30 Rock, and the CW will bring back the venerable fan fave,
Smallville. And that's not even considering what the rest of the networks have planned.
Continue reading Will Survivor survive The Moment of Truth?
Posted May 11th 2008 1:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Ratings, Reality-Free
What do you do when you're losing a race, coming in last in a field of four, and have to justify your dismal performance? You change the scoring. What am I talking about? When asked about why his network is doing so poorly in the ratings, president and chief executive officer of NBC Universal,
Jeff Zucker told Television Week, "It's not just about the ratings anymore." What? (Imagine that as said by the Aflac duck). Do you think he really meant it, or is Jeff just hoping that the advertisers won't mind that his primetime lineup is getting its collective butt kicked by CBS, ABC and Fox most every night on the week?
Just to be fair, Zucker explains that the ratings don't matter because the network is fulfilling the expectations of the advertisers. "We're in an era where - we've made a commitment to our advertisers to a schedule. Advertisers have an expectation. It's not just about the ratings anymore. It's about our relationship with our advertisers and what their expectations are."
Continue reading NBC's Zucker says ratings don't matter anymore
Posted May 6th 2008 9:22PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: How I Met Your Mother, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Attention
How I Met Your Mother fans! There's a 99% chance that the show is returning for a fourth season. CBS still hasn't given the Monday night laugher an official pick up -- which they did for the freshman sitcom
The Big Bang Theory way back on February 15th -- ticking off many a comedy fan (including yours truly). Nothing against
Big Bang; I love the show. But was it more deserving of an early pick up than
Mother? Not to me.
Anyway, I had the chance to interview
How I Met Your Mother's Josh Radnor yesterday and the actor told me that the cast is definitely working on the assumption that they will be back next fall. When I asked him directly if the show will be renewed by CBS, he laughed and said, "I'm not worried, but who knows. It's television and stranger things have happened. We're doing better than we've ever done, although I kind of go to sleep when I read those Nielsen reports. I would think we are coming back. Yes, we are."
That was enough for Josh, but I needed more assurances. Call me needy. I pressed for evidence that Lily, Marshall, Robin, Barney and Ted are all going to be hanging out at McLaren's with me next fall, like usual. "I'll just say this, we are filming a cliffhanger. It's not like we wrap up the series."
Continue reading Josh Radnor on Mother's future: I'm not worried
Posted Apr 23rd 2008 12:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Daytime, Ratings, Reality-Free
You might be surprised to learn that the results of a new poll by AOL.com found that the
number one soap opera among web searchers is Day of Our Lives. According to the
Nielsen ratings for the soaps,
The Young and the Restless is the top daytime drama -- and has been for over a thousand weeks. But I'm not surprised to read these AOL results, which shows
Days, General Hospital and
All My Children at the top of the list.
Y&R is number eight. Also getting a lot of search engine hits is a Spanish telenovela,
Fuego en la Sangre, from Mexico.
Continue reading Days of Our Lives tops poll as most searched soap
Posted Apr 3rd 2008 3:24PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Web, Reality-Free
You think you know pop culture? Do you watch
Jeopardy and think, "I'd clean up on that show!" What about
The World Series of Pop Culture on VH-1 -- are you a wiz at that one? Well, you don't have to wait for new episodes. Check out this new web site,
Hey, Nielsen, and get going on the quizzes. It's killer.
Experts from all kinds of pop culture web sites -- including our own
King of TV Paul Goebel right here on TV Squad -- have contributed to the quizzes. And you can actually win some cool stuff -- iPod nano, one-year subscription to Netflix, $1,000 -- if you're smart enough. I, sadly, am not. I was severely slapped down by the quiz I took. I dare you to try and do better! I'm going back to the books before my next shot!
Continue reading Hey, Nielsen web site - try it, you'll like it
Posted Feb 17th 2008 5:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty
Uh-o, somebody just blew the whistle. You know how you were spending your lunch hour (or however many minutes you can get away with while eating your tuna fish sandwich) in your office cubicle catching up on that episode of
Ugly Betty or
Grey's Anatomy you missed? Well, you're not alone. Nielsen Online has measured Internet traffic and just released data that indicates that peak viewing time is weekdays between noon and 2:00 p.m. Moreover, the number of people watching TV episodes online during these lunchtime hours is 50% higher than the average of all other times.
Continue reading Watching TV on the job
Posted Feb 15th 2008 3:59PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: PVR Wire
According to new research from Nielsen, people with personal video recorders watch more television. And while they PVR users generally like to plop down in front of the evening, they extend prime time a bit by sitting in front of the tube from 8 til midnight. That's because folks with a PVR can record one show at 8:00 while watching another, and then watch the first show at 11pm when their non-PVR owning friends are stuck watching Seinfeld reruns.
The rest of Nielsen's new data looks pretty much like all the reports we've been seeing over the last few years. A growing number of TV viewers have PVRs in their homes. People are most likely to watch sports, news and movies live, while they record scripted dramas, comedy, and other TV shows for watching later.
[via Advertising Age]
Posted Sep 27th 2007 11:01AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Ratings
Nielsen Media is apparently looking to almost triple the number of homes over the next 4 years that report Nielsen ratings, according to an MSNBC article. Currently the company has 12,000 households with 35,000 people and it is looking to increase it to 37,000 homes with 100,000 people.
Frankly, I think the entire ratings system should be overhauled. Since there are now so many different methods of watching a television show, from iTunes to DVRs to DVDs, it has become impossible to track exactly how many people and of what type are watching a show. From the article, it does sound like Nielsen is trying to move in this direction with more sophisticated tracking. The networks now even want Nielsen to break down the viewership by age, race and whether they understand Linux for more target marketing. Isn't that a form of discrimination?
Continue reading Nielsen announces big increase in number of Nielsen families
Posted Jun 10th 2007 3:24PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: PVR Wire, Jericho, Pickups and Renewals, Ratings
After hearing the pleas of
millions of wasted nuts, CBS is
bringing Jericho back for at least 7 episodes. But CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler has a request for fans: if you really want the show to get picked up for more episodes,
don't time-shift it.
Right now, the networks are still trying to get a handle on how many people record their shows to watch later, watch online, or download episodes from iTunes and other services. And they're still trying to figure out how to bill advertisers for the eyeballs of people who don't watch in prime time.
Continue reading CBS exec: Watch Jericho live if you want it to live
Posted Jun 4th 2007 8:52AM by Brad Linder
Filed under: PVR Wire
Nielsen isn't the only company releasing
findings on PVR users' ad-viewing habits. NBC has examined Nielsen's data and determined that customers who viewed "triangulated" ads were 20 percent
more likely to buy the products advertised.
Triangulation basically means that NBC runs a commercial campaign on television and on its website. The two campaigns are meant to reinforce one another.
And while the Nielsen data showed that PVR owners were less likely to watch commercials, NBC says ads are actually more effective in households with personal video recorders. The NBC study suggests that viewers are more likely to tune out commercials by hitting mute or flipping channels, and that new technology should just be an excuse to create more compelling content.
Of course, this is also an internal study designed by a company that has a vested interest in showing that viewers are not skipping past the commercials in droves, so the findings are hardly surprising.
[via
lost remote]
Posted Apr 17th 2007 6:49AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Drive
(S01E03) For those of you playing along at home, the ratings for the big two hour premiere of
Drive are in. Unfortunately, they weren't very good. That isn't the end of the world though. To really get an idea of where the series stands, we'll have to wait until the numbers come in for the regular Monday night showing. Things should be fine. Nobody watches
Dancing With The Stars or
Deal Or No Deal anyway, right?
Moving on, thinking happy thoughts about Nielsen boxes tuned to
Drive, episode three was another solid installment. That's solid, but not great. It didn't quite match the level of the first two. Not that there weren't high points. It just seemed that some of the stories lacked the intensity that we saw in the premiere. There was still some good information coming to us, but not in as gripping a fashion. That's fine, but not exactly what I wanted to see in the time slot premiere.
Continue reading Drive: Let The Games Begin
Posted Apr 11th 2007 7:05PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: 24, Lost, PVR Wire, The Office, Ratings
Sure, it might look like
Lost is taking a major hit in the ratings department when you look at... you know,
the ratings. But it turns out that might just be true for Nielsen's weekly ratings.
It turns out that a large number of
Lost fans are
recording the episode to watch later in the week. In fact,
Lost picks up more than 2-million viewers when you when you look at ratings over a 7-day period, rather than just the overnight ratings. That's a bigger boost than almost any other show gets from time-shifted viewers.
Heroes,
The Office,
24, and
One Tree Hill also get significant ratings boosts when you look at the live plus 7 day ratings.
Of course, if roughly half of the people watching those shows on a PVR are skipping the commercials, it's not exactly clear what good those ratings bumps are.
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