Jaynestown: Nielsen Ghost Town by NewsAdmin

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Jaynestown: Nielsen Ghost Town

POSTED BY: NEWSADMIN
UPDATED: Monday, October 28, 2002 11:25
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Tuesday, October 22, 2002 2:27 PM

According to The Futon Critic, Firefly received a low 3.4/6 for Friday's episode, "Jaynestown". More troubling is the 1.9 average rating it received in the 18-49 age demographic, which the series specifically targets. Here are the ratings for all the Firefly episodes aired thus far.

The Train Job - 4.9/8
Bushwhacked - 4.3/7
Our Mrs. Reynolds - 4.2/7
Jaynestown - 3.4/6

The trend is clearly a downward one. Hopefully, this week's awesome episode, 'Out of Gas' is a turning point. Irony unintended, of course.

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Tuesday, October 22, 2002 5:41 PM

JERRY

Does the demo reflect the fact that almost no 18-to-49-year-olds are watching TV at that time, or is FF's audience improbably outside that demographic ?

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Tuesday, October 22, 2002 7:18 PM

LOONYTOON

Whats a nielsen family?

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Tuesday, October 22, 2002 7:36 PM

FRANKIGAL

Thats a pretty big drop between Our Mrs.Reynolds and Jaynestown. Crossing fingers the numbers will be better this week.

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Wednesday, October 23, 2002 4:14 AM

YEAHITSME

I'm pretty sure that 4.2/7 for Our Mrs. Reynolds is the number WITH baseball so the real firefly rating is lower wich make the drop smaller

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Wednesday, October 23, 2002 5:21 AM

HJERMSTED

You can, of course, bypass the Nielsons by writing a letter to the Fox honchos. Be sure to give them as many details as you can about your Friday night viewing habits, consistency, how many people are there with you, etc. If you timer record the show, you may want to leave that bit out (no commercial value when commercials can be skipped)... just mention that you never miss the show.

Write to:
Peter Chernin (President and Chief Operating Officer, News Corporation)
Sandy Grushow (Chairman, FOX Television Entertainment Group)
Gail Berman (President, Entertainment)

FOX Broadcasting Co.
P.O. Box 900
Beverly Hills, CA 90213

E-mail:
Where to contact Fox about how much you love Firefly (mail link bottom of page):
http://www.fox.com/community/askfox/index.htm

mattro

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Wednesday, October 23, 2002 7:56 AM

REYVNDARKNIGHT

Personally, I think the whole Nielsen system is otdated for the 21st century.

TIVO is a perfect example of how that system has been rendered useless. How can someone justify that a series that is #2 on the replay list yet recieves such an arbitrary low rating?

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Wednesday, October 23, 2002 8:47 AM

CARDIE

The Nielsens are a statistically valid picture of the entire viewing audience. Unfortunately, sf fans and fans of distinctively different types of programs are a very small proportion of the mass audience for television. Genre fans are more tech savvy and more likely to own Tivo, but that doesn't mean the miniscule number of Tivo owners is a representative sample of the wider audience. It might appeal to advertisers that people with enough disposable income and investment in their TV viewing to purchase Tivo are Firefly fans, but it also tells them that Firefly fans don't sit home glued to whatever comes on the screen, including commercials.

But I'm sure FOX programmers look at all the data before making a decision to keep a show, not just the raw Nielsen numbers. They renewed 24 because its demographics were from educated, high income viewers. Its Nielsens were always very disappointing.

Cardie

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Thursday, October 24, 2002 3:29 PM

REYVNDARKNIGHT

True True about 24. I honestly wasn't a fan of the show until I watched the marathon of 24 on FX.

Heres hoping that there are some execs at Fox that recognize the potential for Firefly.

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Monday, October 28, 2002 10:55 AM

MADDOG

Has anyone compared the ratings for Firefly with the original ratings for Dark Angel during it's initial season??

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Monday, October 28, 2002 11:25 AM

THEFUTONCRITIC

Quote:
Originally posted by MadDog:
Has anyone compared the ratings for Firefly with the original ratings for Dark Angel during it's initial season??

"Dark Angel" last season vs. "Firefly" this season as both aired Fridays at 8:00/7:00c:

"Firefly" - Week 1
Actual no. of viewers: 6.2 million
National rating/share: 4.0/8
Overnight rating/share: 4.9/8

"Dark Angel" - Week 1
Actual no. of viewers: 7.4 million
National rating/share: 4.7/9
Overnight rating/share: 5.9/10

"Dark Angel" wins in all categories.

"Firefly" - Week 2
Actual no. of viewers: 5.5 million
National rating/share: 3.6/7
Overnight rating/share: 4.3/7

"Dark Angel" - Week 2
Actual no. of viewers: 6.6 million
National rating/share: 4.4/8
Overnight rating/share: 5.1/9

"Dark Angel" wins in all categories.

"Firefly" - Week 3
Actual no. of viewers: 4.9 million
National rating/share: 3.3/6
Overnight rating/share: 3.9/7

"Dark Angel" - Week 3
Actual no. of viewers: 7.6 million
National rating/share: 4.4/8
Overnight rating/share: 5.1/9

"Dark Angel" wins in all categories.

"Firefly" - Week 4
Actual no. of viewers: 4.3 million
National rating/share: 2.7/5
Overnight rating/share: 3.4/6

"Dark Angel" - Week 4
Actual no. of viewers: 6.0 million
National rating/share: 3.7/7
Overnight rating/share: 4.6/8

"Dark Angel" wins in all categories.

Also keep in mind that like "Firefly," "Dark Angel" had its run interrupted by baseball.

Again, I'm not some "DA" troll here, just stating the facts.

Brian Ford Sullivan
Editor-In-Chief
The Futon Critic
http://www.thefutoncritic.com

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