How to interpret Nielsen ratings?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Allycat
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Allycat

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I just saw this article at whedon.info about the ratings but I was kinda bothered by that fact that I still don't really have a clue as to how to read and interpret them. I was hoping maybe someone from the boards could explain!? (Below the article...)

"Willow" Vs. "Xander" - Round One - Nielsen Ratings
From Thefutoncritic.com - 2005-09-21

CBS (households: 9.5/14, #2; adults 18-49: 4.9, #2) then took second place with the premieres of "The King of Queens" (households: 6.9/11, #10; adults 18-49: 3.4, #11), "How I Met Your Mother" (households: 7.2/11, #8; adults 18-49: 3.6, #10), "Two and a Half Men" (households: 9.9/14, #4; adults 18-49: 5.2, #4), "Out of Practice" (households: 8.7/13, #5; adults 18-49: 4.4, #7) and "CSI: Miami" (households: 12.1/19, #1; adults 18-49: 6.5, #1).

Among adults 18-49, "Queens" and "Mother" were up 9.68% and 2.86% respectively from the premieres of "Still Standing" and "Listen Up" last season (see below for the specific numbers) while "Men" and "Practice" were down from 11.86% and 20.00% respectively from "Raymond" and "Men’s" premieres a year ago. As for "Miami," the "C.S.I." spin-off was down 18.75% among adults 18-49 from its opener last season.

Snagging the bronze then NBC (households: 7.8/12, #3; adults 18-49: 4.2, #3) with its premieres of "Surface" (households: 7.1/11, #9; adults 18-49: 3.8, #T8), "Las Vegas" (households: 8.0/12, #7; adults 18-49: 4.6, #5) and "Medium" (households: 8.4/13, #6; adults 18-49: 4.5, #6).

Compared with its Monday premieres last season (all on 9/13/04) - "Fear Factor" (households: 6.4/10; adults 18-49: 4.5), "Las Vegas" (households: 7.7/12; adults 18-49: 4.7) and "LAX" (households: 8.6/14; adults 18-49: 5.1) - NBC was down across the board among the key adults 18-49 demographic.

Next up was FOX (households: 4.0/6, #4; adults 18-49: 2.9, #4) with the lackluster bows of "Arrested Development" (households: 3.0/5, #13; adults 18-49: 2.0, [HASHTAG]#T12[/HASHTAG]) and "Kitchen Confidential" (households: 2.8/4, [HASHTAG]#T14[/HASHTAG]; adults 18-49: 2.0, [HASHTAG]#T12[/HASHTAG]) as well as a new "Prison Break" (households: 5.0/8, #11; adults 18-49: 3.8, #T8). Said numbers for "Arrested" and "Kitchen" were on par with the fall premiere of "North Shore" (households: 2.9/5; adults 18-49: 1.8 on 9/6/04) - last year’s Monday, 8:00/7:00c time period holder. Overall, "Arrested’s" numbers were literally half of its premiere from last season (households: 4.6/7; adults 18-49: 4.0 on 11/7/04) when it followed "The Simpsons" on Sunday nights.
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The first number is the ratings points, the second number is the share.

So ratings points is the percentage of households watching, and the share is the percentage of televisions that are actually turned on that are watching that particular show.

🙂
 
How come those are different numbers then :s And what's the adult 18-44 do!? Also, what's a good rating.... I'm afraid I still don't quite understand 🙁
 
The first number is people watching in all television households, whether or not that household has a tv turned on at the time or not. The second number is the percentage of actual turned on sets.

They break them down into age groups (like adults age 18-44) for demographic purposes.

"Good" ratings are relative - depends on whether it's a network or cable show etc.
 
Buffy Summers said:
The first number is people watching in all television households, whether or not that household has a tv turned on at the time or not. The second number is the percentage of actual turned on sets.
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Ok, now I'm confused! How can people be watching if the TV isn't on? Does the first number mean that out of ALL the households that have a TV set taken as a whole number, this is the number who are actually watching a particular show?
 
Those kinds of numbers always confuse me. I usually double the household rating, though those are rough numbers. Best to wait till we get actual numbers.
 
slayerpower said:
Those kinds of numbers always confuse me. I usually double the household rating, though those are rough numbers. Best to wait till we get actual numbers.
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You're right. I think I'll wait till someone with bigger brains than mine has interpreted these numbers, cuz I am totally corn-foosed.
 
I think I get it.

Household is the percentage of households in total who are watching the show.
Share is the percentage of people who are at that time watching tv who watching the show.

What are good ratings for a prime-time tv-show on a network. (That's like FOX, UPN, WB, CBS, etc. right?)
 
For those who want to know--

WB, UPN: require 4 million for their shows
ABC, FOX: 10 million
CBS, NBC: 12 million
 
I mean the cutoff numbers by which the networks wants all their shows to have. You don't generally see many WB shows with less than 4 million, do you?
 
I wouldn't know... never have been able to read the figures, so I had no clue.
 
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