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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Whodat" data-source="post: 584127" data-attributes="member: 7386">My first reaction after reading this interview was outrage. I have a Nielsen box – and I watched Farscape… every week. Bonnie Hammer thinks that perhaps the people who are signing these online petitions are newcomers who haven’t watched the show when it mattered.She is wrong.But it doesn’t matter.I started thinking about what she said. The more I though about it, the more I could see her point of view. As I said, I watched Farscape. Every week. But so too did a lot of my co- workers. So too did friends that I hang out with. The problem isn’t that these people aren’t watching. The problem is that Bonnie Hammer can’t prove that they are watching. She can’t wave a sheet of paper at her advertisers saying, “Look! Millions of Farscape fans! Fork over the dough!” Consider this: Nielsen Media Research is in business to sample a portion of our population, and find out what programs they watch. They compile this information, which is then given to the networks, who now know how much to charge advertisers for their ads. The higher the viewership, the more money networks can charge for ads.The system sounds good on paper. One problem is that it hinges on a company who polls a miniscule portion of the population. Another problem is that there doesn’t seem to be another accepted rating system which anyone could counter her arguments. If Bonnie Hammer’s only source of information is inaccurate, her decisions are going to be woefully wrong.Instead of wasting our time and money in massive online campaigns to save Farscape and Firefly, what we need is a massive online campaign to change the rating system itself. Something which is accessible. Something which samples a larger portion of the viewing audience. Something that can get the networks’ attention if it has to.Think about it. How many times did Joss Whedon have to pitch Buffy the Vampire Slayer before it was finally picked up? The reason? Network executives said to themselves “There’s nothing like this on TV… therefore no one wants to see it.”Networks and advertisers don’t really know how to respond to fan-based petitions. They have been trained to gauge a show’s success by its ratings. So, it doesn’t matter if Bonnie Hammer is wrong. As long as Nielsen is the accepted ratings system real fans cannot be heard.</blockquote>

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