Comments on: Nielsen Ratings Sunday, August 24: Goodbye Beijing!

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:29:19 +0000

Susie, the cable news ratings for 8/24 are on the site now. The weekly cable top 20 shows for the week ending 8/24 will be up later today.

By: Susie

Susie — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:26:25 +0000

I can't find the Cable Ratings for 8/24/2008. Will they be out today, as I thought? Or am I looking too early?

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:36:13 +0000

ratings-wise even the first few weeks of Idol where they are making the city tours and generally in the process of humiliating the taltent-less is also an “event”, at least based on past history.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:17:59 +0000

My guess is that outside the US, the final World Cup matches are big events, any any World Cup match that includes the televising country is a *massive* event in that country.

James, currently the finals of Live competition events (like American Idol) are big events for broadcast TV too. They may also continue to grow in relative importance (and DVR proofness) as well.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:09:17 +0000

Sports will be a valuable commodity for the reasons you mention plus it's the one thing that is generally largely “DVR-Proof”.

James, while everything you cite is an event, I'd rank the NFL conference championship playoff games ahead of any individual World Series game and in terms of total reach (and not just average viewers), I'd add in NCAA B-Ball March Madness. But Olympics and Super Bowl may be the only events on the true A-List events list.

By: James

James — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:45:07 +0000

So what are the big events?

Summer and Winter Olympics
Oscars
Super Bowl
Post Super Bowl slot (?)
Emmys(?)
World Series (?)
Last Episode of Lost (?)