Ever wonder whose in control of tracking the view counts on your television? Have you questioned who or what exactly determines the fate of your favorite television shows? Well, I’m gonna tell you all about it! The fate of all your guilty pleasures is inevitably sealed by Nielson. Nielson, the world’s leading audience measurement company, was established in 1936 by Arthur C. Nielson. Nielson is responsible for tracking more than 40% of the world’s viewing behavior, from your home Television sets and computers, to your handheld PDA’s. Through their technology, Nielson is able to pinpoint and track who you are, what your watching, and when your watching it. Does anyone else find that the least bit creepy? (**Big Brother **) But anyway, the company rates the view count of television shows and other programs, through tracking Local People Meters. Judging by all of the great shows I’ve watched that have been cancelled, I don’t think these people are the best to go by. Like what happened to Flash Forward, V, Heroes, or even 90’s cult classics like My So-Called Life and Freaks and Geeks? These “Local People” must not be watching the right shows! Based on these Local People Meters, reality television shows sadly continue to strive, while excellently written and politically relevant shows continue to plunge. I honestly think that the Nielson’s viewing data is inaccurate, seeing as how they fail to track DVR recordings. Hardly anyone I know watches television shows at the exact time they air, people either record them and watch them later, or watch them on a program sharing site like Hulu. I don’t know about you all but I’m just tired of the good television shows being cancelled due to defective and out of date consumer tracking company’s like Nielson.
How do you guys feel about Nielson’s tracking method? Does it accurately depict the “top” shows on television?
What are some of your favorite television shows that have been cancelled?
OpenDialoguewithLaineyB 
I sooo agree!! I LOVED “Flashforward”. It was a brilliant series!! I don’t understand how some really crappy series can continue on for season after season while incredible serious like these get cancelled after just one season! I loved “Heroes” as well, even though I thought it didn’t hold the same class in the end (but they probably would have managed to turn it around if they got the chance!).
Someone should do something about this!
Flash forward was amazing! I hate that it ended on a cliff hanger, it definitely deserved another season or two! And I know what your saying about heroes, I stopped watching it after the plot starting getting ridiculous!
You know… it would be so cool if the second season of “Flashforward” started now… Because you know in the end, the flashforward they had was several years from now… So they could start directly in the future (maybe a few months or weeks before the day they saw). It would make sense :P.
Yeah that would be perfect! It ended with such a cliff-hanger! The main character literally through himself out the window! I was sooo excited to find out what happened to him
Yeah!
Pardon me for sounding like an ignoramus but how does Nielson really track? How do they know what channel is being watched specially in case of DTH technology? I remain intrigued.
And yes, your point about DVR recording seems to be spot on.
Cheers
Shakti
That’s exactly why I wrote this article, their methods are ambiguous and out dated, they need to judge viewing data in a different way