TV Ratings


Today, television has become an every-day part of people's lives. Television streams thousands of shows to homes, but how do producers know what shows their audiences want to watch? Well, that's where television ratings come into play.

One of the most popular rating systems is the Nielsen Rating System, which uses a box that is connected to the television to record data of what shows families are watching. This example of statistical sampling, which is also used during elections to determine candidate popularity, has become the most popular example of how to measure TV ratings.


The Nielsen technique used roughly 5,000 households as a representative sample to measure what shows are being watched, who in the family is watching them, and how frequently they watch the show or series.

One reason for the rating system is to determine what shows the general public are interested in. In order to increase ratings and views on the show, the producers of the show need to understand what the population wants to see and what kind of shows they are watching. If the majority of the population is enjoying reality television, it wouldn't make sense for a producer to create a soap opera because their target audience is not looking to watch that particular kind of show.


One complaint about the ratings system is that it infringes on the privacy of the representative families. Even though they agree to the monitoring and installation of the Nielsen devices, every show the family watches is monitored and recored for data. Family members are distinguished based on them flipping a switch before and after viewing the show, so there is little anonymity. Furthermore, many Nielsen families have reported becoming drunk with power. Knowing that they hold the power to these shows receiving a good rating or not is a lot of pressure for a household to bear. Therefore, it's hard for the Nielsen system to be fully unbiased due to there being no blinding in the sampling.

Even though there are many issues with the Nielsen system, it is still one of the most popular ways to determine popularity of shows. Furthermore, despite the privacy concerns, there is no shortage of Nielsen families willing to participate.

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