OMG I'M A NIELSEN FAMILY

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I SHALL REMOLD TELEVISION ACCORDING TO MY DESIRES

― j blount (papa la bas), Sunday, 8 May 2005 03:09 (twenty-one years ago)

so i got this postcard awhile back saying 'your household has been chosen to be a nielsen family doodah doodah stay tuned' and i thought 'cool' and then now i get this letter saying 'your household has been chosen to be a nielsen family and i'll be getting a diary and to fill it out at the end of the week and it don't matter how much or how little i watch tv just fill out the diary and send it back and o yeah (the best part) here's $5 for your troubles'. so i am hyped. has anyone done this before?

― j blount (papa la bas), Sunday, 8 May 2005 03:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought you got some sort of free cable / special cable box?

― broken down (noisemeltdown), Sunday, 8 May 2005 03:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Well thank God they hooked up an Arrested Development fan.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Sunday, 8 May 2005 03:17 (twenty-one years ago)

cruel fate has given me this power when arrested development is on hiatus. it's like when superman accidentally gave his parents pirate flu and they died and he was powerless to do anything about it.

― j blount (papa la bas), Sunday, 8 May 2005 03:17 (twenty-one years ago)

OMG please watch Veronica Mars.

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Sunday, 8 May 2005 03:19 (twenty-one years ago)

o man nip/tuck reruns end this week too i think. i don't know - maybe you gotta prove you're "up to the task" before they give the fullblown treatment with a box/ankle bracelet/gps implant. I WILL PROVE MYSELF. anyhow they say i should get a diary. if 'match game pm' reruns' numbers get a bump this week you know who to praise.

― j blount (papa la bas), Sunday, 8 May 2005 03:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Say you only turned on the TV when there was a skinny guy being pulled from under a couch on Cops reruns.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 8 May 2005 03:24 (twenty-one years ago)

melissa i totally thought of that - i don't know if it really matters what you watch, i think it just matters what you say you watch. i don't know. i'll totally report veronica mars!

― j blount (papa la bas), Sunday, 8 May 2005 03:27 (twenty-one years ago)

http://ccoffset.com/gfx/books/amgirls_diary.jpg

http://mirrorimageorigin.collegepublisher.com/media/paper264/stills/9g280bw5.gif

=

http://www.mmmbed.com/cam/laughing.jpg

― broken down (noisemeltdown), Sunday, 8 May 2005 03:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Thank you!

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Sunday, 8 May 2005 03:29 (twenty-one years ago)

wtf, Neilsens dont use the set top boxes in the US? How do they prevent fraud?

I was a Neilsen labrat some years back - I would not recommend anyone bother with it, its a pain in the arse, and the set top units have to be hardwired into your TV and VCR, you cant circumvent it, and it fucked up and broke both my tv and my (still under warranty, which got voided because of this) vcr. Which they didnt warn me about!

Gave up on the program after about 6 months. I thought it be fun to manipulate ratings but after a while it was just a pain. Plus it uses yr phone line at night to upload its crap. Messy all round.

― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 8 May 2005 03:44 (twenty-one years ago)

set it to "The Golf Channel" at night

― kingfish, Sunday, 8 May 2005 04:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Unlock the Power of media!

Diary measurement is used to collect viewing information from sample homes in every one of the 210 television markets in the United States in November, February, May and July of each year. These measurement periods are known in the industry as "The Sweeps". This local viewing information provides a basis for advertising decisions and program scheduling.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Sunday, 8 May 2005 04:29 (twenty-one years ago)

My god, they just take peoples word for it what they watched?

― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 8 May 2005 04:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Unlock the power!

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Sunday, 8 May 2005 04:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Record 24 hours of Wiggles watching.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 8 May 2005 04:34 (twenty-one years ago)

make up imaginary shows, with plot synopses and special guest stars

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Sunday, 8 May 2005 04:38 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.patmagee.com/equipment/images/nielsen-lg.jpg

― broken down (noisemeltdown), Sunday, 8 May 2005 04:40 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm sensing a sudden spike in popularity for chico and the man reruns.

― cindy margolis holocaust (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 8 May 2005 05:01 (twenty-one years ago)

it IS weird that they just take your weird for it--what's the point of the box then?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 8 May 2005 06:03 (twenty-one years ago)

do you have to include really personal stuff in the diary in addition to the tv shows you watched?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 8 May 2005 06:03 (twenty-one years ago)

"Yes, but how did that Home Improvement rerun make you feel???"

― broken down (noisemeltdown), Sunday, 8 May 2005 06:09 (twenty-one years ago)

i used to be a nielsen family and I had a box that wired into my cable and recorded which channels it was tuned to, and then dialed through my phone line every night and transmitted the data. it also fucked up my reception. I watched nothing but Quantum Leap reruns, college hoops, and the OJ trial that year, I think.

― kyle (akmonday), Sunday, 8 May 2005 06:09 (twenty-one years ago)

well OJ got off so i guess you must have made an impact!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 8 May 2005 06:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah the box fucked my reception up too - so much so, the TV set actually BLEW UP about a week after they removed it. The VCR then stopped being able to pick up any channels about a month after that.

They voided my warranty. I had to really fight hard to get them to pay some of the repair costs. Never doing it again (not that tv here uses neilsens anymore anyway, they now use some other ratings agency).

― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 8 May 2005 06:20 (twenty-one years ago)

That's so weird and random that for something that so much money depends on is based on a diary.

― Nellie (nellskies), Sunday, 8 May 2005 09:29 (twenty-one years ago)

we should hook it up to livejournal, then buffy would never be off TV on any channel

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 8 May 2005 10:11 (twenty-one years ago)

the box are for long term folks, the diary for sweeps one-offers. we got one of those back when I was in middle school. I dunno if I can take credit for the endurance of the Simpsons or anything but I did my part.

― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 8 May 2005 13:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I used to work for Nielsen!

Their interweb bit not their TV bit.

― Tom (Groke), Sunday, 8 May 2005 13:08 (twenty-one years ago)

trayce i don't understand how a box like that could cause your tv to blow up! (or how specifically bad reception could cause a tv to blow up--unless it exploded in frustration)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 8 May 2005 15:34 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/jury/bailey/images/nielsen.jpg

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 8 May 2005 15:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Slock: I dont either, though what they did to hook it up was actually remove the back of the whole TV, and hard wire these wires to each receptor on the circuit board (or however it knows each channel), with solder, to detect what chan the TV is tuned to. Why they had to do it that way I have no idea (to prevent fraud maybe?). So when I say "blew up", what happened was one day a PFFTT of smoke came out of the back, and the reception died. We found the board they'd messed with had kind of fused. TV was old and shit anyway but I'm inclined to think it was helped along, as it were...

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 9 May 2005 01:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha I used to work for Nielsen too very briefly earlier this year, at their HEADQUARTERS a few blocks away. Doing the research sucks, but I hope you have fun in your part, contributing. And not to piss on your parade, but being a Nielsen family isn't too special.

― Vichitravirya XI, Monday, 9 May 2005 01:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Hahha... Me and Kyle. When I was 11 my family was a Nielsen family and I recall taking credit for Quantum Leap not getting cancelled because my entire family plus 4 friends came over to "watch" and the ratings got a decent spike that sweeps week.

― Aaron W (Aaron W), Monday, 9 May 2005 02:26 (twenty-one years ago)

blount can you ask them to not preempt law and order reruns with nascar this summer?

― strng hlkngtn, Monday, 9 May 2005 03:00 (twenty-one years ago)

or tennis or golf or curling or whatever the fuck

― strng hlkngtn, Monday, 9 May 2005 03:00 (twenty-one years ago)

sorry strongo - my dad's got first dibs, nascar's preempting everything.

― j blount (papa la bas), Monday, 9 May 2005 03:57 (twenty-one years ago)

i did this. filling out the diary was a pain. didn't even get a thank you card. fuckos.

― ()ops (()()ps), Monday, 9 May 2005 04:02 (twenty-one years ago)

FIVE ONE DOLLAR BILLS CASH - THE RECKONING BEGINS THURSDAY.

― j blount (papa la bas), Monday, 9 May 2005 20:06 (twenty-one years ago)

for radio they give you more if you're black or hispanic, I imagine it's the same for TV.

― teeny (teeny), Monday, 9 May 2005 20:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I was a Nilesen family back in the early 90's. They only gave me dollar! They also sent a dollar halfway throught the week to remind me.

Shows that perished despite my awesome powers:

Get a Life
Ben Stiller Show

― laurence kansas (lawrence kansas), Monday, 9 May 2005 20:15 (twenty-one years ago)

my god the grammar and spelling in that last post

― laurence kansas (lawrence kansas), Monday, 9 May 2005 20:17 (twenty-one years ago)

We did a Nielsen diary the week a certain blockbuster miniseries came on. I hate to think I'm partly responsible for "Lonesome Dove: The Series."

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Monday, 9 May 2005 20:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember my family was selected to be a Nielsen family but my mom didn't want to do it because she thought it was too much of a hassle and that me and my sister were too television obsessed to begin with. I was so angry.

― Leon Federline (Ex Leon), Monday, 9 May 2005 20:20 (twenty-one years ago)

everyone has already been like "diaries wtf!!" but i really did think they scrapped the written portion years ago. the stories of their unreliability are pretty well known. "uh yeah, all i really watch is macneil lehrer"

― g e o f f (gcannon), Monday, 9 May 2005 20:22 (twenty-one years ago)

You know that they just do this as a word-of-mouth front to make people think that the Nielsen ratings aren't based on politics and payola, right?

― broken down (noisemeltdown), Monday, 9 May 2005 20:23 (twenty-one years ago)

hate the game not the playa bd!

― j blount (papa la bas), Monday, 9 May 2005 20:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm just jealous that I'm not in on the payola, is all.

― broken down (noisemeltdown), Monday, 9 May 2005 20:26 (twenty-one years ago)

FIVE ONE DOLLAR BILLS CASH

― j blount (papa la bas), Monday, 9 May 2005 20:27 (twenty-one years ago)

That's a great sum, assuming you spend two minutes total on this diary. But yeah, enjoy the ice cream cone, man.

― broken down (noisemeltdown), Monday, 9 May 2005 20:36 (twenty-one years ago)

the numbers don't lie, broken down, America loves Becker.

― g e o f f (gcannon), Monday, 9 May 2005 20:37 (twenty-one years ago)

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