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nielsen ratings
(about the data posted here)

As you've no doubt come to notice, the days of charts, graphs and so forth of Nielsen Media Research's television ratings are over on The Futon Critic.

Nevertheless, we realize there's a devoted segment of our readership that craves this information. Many of you have taken the time to write us saying that "how come site (fill in the blank) gets to post ratings information and you don't?" Well after much discussion, it's come to our understanding that there are two main elements that Nielsen has issue with when it comes to reporting television ratings:

1. Historical data (a.k.a. archived information) is strictly forbidden.

2. Presenting "overnight data" (fast national and metered-market ratings) in chart form is not allowed.

To combat said issues, the newly re-opened Ratings section of The Futon Critic will report the "overnight data" in story form, with additional notations for those of you interested in rankings and so forth. Plus, to combat the historical aspect, Monday's report will be replaced by the following Monday's report. In other words, there will NOT be archives of said stories, only the current week's stories.

While I'm sure many of you will be disappointed with the new format, please understand we're trying our best to walk a very thin line here and hope with the above provisions, we'll be able to continue offering television ratings information. (Obviously if Nielsen isn't happy with our new format we'll hear from them once again.)

Finally we'd ask that please do not "paste" said reports to other web sites, forums, newsgroups, etc. Again, we're trying to walk a very thin line here and don't want archives of this information appearing elsewhere.

Thanks for your understanding and we hope you continue to enjoy the site!

- The Futon Critic Staff




So what does all this crap mean? Here's a quick guide to understanding these numbers:
"Grey's Anatomy" (15.36 million viewers, #2; adults 18-49: 6.0, #1)
15.36 = "Grey's" total viewers, which indicates 15.36 million viewers in the U.S. watched this broadcast
#2 = "Grey's" total viewers ranking for that night (T denotes a tie)
6.0 = "Grey's" adults 18-49 rating, which indicates 6.0% of all adults 18-49 in the U.S. watched this broadcast
#1 = "Grey's" adults 18-49 ranking for that night (T denotes a tie)
Some other stuff to keep in mind:
· For the 2009-10 season, there are an estimated 292,000,000 people (age 2 and above) in the U.S.
· For the 2009-10 season, there are an estimated 132,000,000 adults between the ages of 18 and 49 in the U.S. so 1% of that equals 1,320,000 people.
· Nielsen Media Research forbids us from displaying ratings in chart form or maintaining regular archives beyond the current week. It sucks, we know.