Comments on: AMC’s Mad Men Nielsen Ratings for Sunday August 17, 2008

By: Lynn

Lynn — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:28:33 +0000

Not much of a tv person, other than cable news, a recent hallway conversation overheard regarding “Mad Men” intrigued me as I grew up in the 1950-60’s and with vivid childhood recall of the Camelot years.. So I rented Season One & got hooked.
I’ll be caught up tonite, but I can’t any find Season 2 reruns to record on my DVR. With only one episode left, perhaps there will be a DVD of Season 2 for Christmas?
Now I’m worried there won’t be a Season 3 as I am surprised to learn of the low ratings that I stumbled upon while trying to google reruns of Season 2.

The last time I got hooked like this was with Sex and the City this past spring. I’m glad I had the opportunity to do a marathon just in time for the movie to come out! I watched all seasons over the course of one week. (nite owl)

I hope Mad Men finds a way to continue….cable shows must be more difficult with all the competition. I KNOW that everyone raised during the 50’s & 60’s that I know would love this series, but do they know about the show. If one isn’t tv savvy, it can easily be missed IMHO. Also glad I was standing in that hallway last Thurs to find out about it!

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 03:39:15 +0000

Tallylo, Nielsen does measure DVR viewing, but we have such limited access to the cable show data that all we can tell you is that Mad Men doesn’t wind up being one of the top 40 shows even with seven days of DVR viewership lumped in.

Nielsen doesn’t measure iTunes and I can’t imagine it ever would unless iTunes went with an advertising supported model. I don’t believe iTunes winds up being very significant in terms of total numbers.

By: Tallylo

Tallylo — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 03:27:43 +0000

I’ve watched every episode made so far of Mad Men, but never live; always on TIVO or itunes. I buy it on itunes even if I’ve Tivo’d it, just to keep it. I don’t think they know how to account for this kind of viewership, and I don’t think TV is looking hard enough at changing their approach to advertising to adjust to the new viewership.

My children, ranging in age from 7 to 12, watch less TV than the national norm; but the TV they do watch–they arrange to TIVO all by themselves. That’s who is coming up!

By: MNPundit

MNPundit — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 04:50:44 +0000

Ah, but for Stargate: Atlantis mentioned earlier, live+DVR account for about a quarter to a third of total viewership. I know I can’t always watch it live myself.

By: A

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:18:52 +0000

I wonder if one of the issues is that the new viewers don't know who's who and the backstories. When a question arises, we don't know if it is something that hasn't been revealed yet or if it aired last season. AMC should air more reruns of Season 1 and Season 2 or re-release Season 1 on VOD..

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:58:14 +0000

Laura,

That's true for every show though.

For what it's worth, the DVR data *is* measured, although in order for us to see it, it would essentially need to have over 2 million DVRing it per week and my guess for a variety of factors is that it's much closer to around 300,000. Even at a million+, AMC would likely issue press releases along the lines of "As many watch on DVR as live" if that were the case.

VOD isn't data that's widely available. While I watched all of season one on VOD, and rewatched a couple of eps from season two that way, the data I have seen on VOD viewing is that it is generally a very insignificant % compared to live and DVR viewing.

Personally, I use it quite a bit, but there's no data at all to support I'm in the mainstream. Even DVRs are still not mainstream being in roughly one out of four homes in the U.S.

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:50:57 +0000

They really need to include the DVR and VOD numbers. I have never missed an epidsode of Mad Men, however I always record it to my DVR and watch it during the week. I know many other people who also do this. This is especially important for shows that air in the later time slots.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:19:12 +0000

Em, I am still of the opinion there will definitely be a third season. But it's just an opinion and if it goes down under 850K, I reserve the right to change my mind. And worry not, although I am enjoying it, cancelled TV series don't devastate me. I'm a tiny bit sad, for example, that SciFi is cancelling Stargate Atlantis after this season, but only a tiny bit.

By: Em

Em — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 02:44:58 +0000

Oh Oh. Are you still of the opinion that it will go another season? I hope so for you, I know you are enjoying it immensely.