Nielsen Family

I am a Nielsen Family!! I was called by the Nielsen people a couple of weeks ago and did a brief survey. They then asked me if I would agree to be a Nielsen Family and fill out a diary of what I watch on TV. I did this a year or so ago and said I would be happy to do it again. My diary came in the mail this past Tuesday and I started keeping track on Thursday.

The first part of the diary asks for general information: how many TVs do I have, do I have cable, do I get extra channels that cost more, what kind of devices are attached to my TV, etc. They also needed to know my race, age and gender. In addition, they needed to know whether or not anyone in my household works for a TV station or network, radio station or network, cable system or network or satellite provider. Unless my cats have a job that I’m not aware of, then no one here is a principle owner or employee of any of those places.

They have changed the diary in that they now tell you how to list when what is being watched is from the DVR. This is good because I record a lot of things and end up watching them days, weeks or months later. I also tend to pause live TV and so something that might be on for a half hour will take me an hour or so to watch. When that happens, I just list DVR on the diary so, for instance, they know why watching NBC Nightly News took until 7:30.

I have noticed that since I am writing things down, I am being more selective in my TV viewing. Even now, as I am writing this, I normally would have the TV on with the sound muted. But there is a column for that in the diary. So instead of having the TV on while I am writing, I am listening to a CD (Michael Bublé). I just don’t want to appear to have my TV on the whole time I am home. Not sure why that bothers me but it does.

I also am being selective in what I watch from my DVR. Do I really want the Nielsen people to know how many cooking shows I record or do I want to just show that I record CBS Sunday morning and TV shows like The Good Wife and Cougar Town? And, more important, why do I care what a bunch of people I don’t know feel about my TV viewing? Maybe because I know they probably comment on what people put in the diaries.

I know that when I worked for Gallup (Gallup Surveys) in college, we would comment on what people would say once we were off the phones. One of the surveys that I worked on a number of times was the People Choice Awards. I will probably write more about this in a future posting but I want to mention one guy in particular right now. I called him to ask if he would like to answer some questions on TV and movies. He said he wouldn’t be any good at it since he only watched PBS and A&E (back when A&E was Arts and Entertainment television). I tried to convince him that I still would like his opinions but he refused to do the survey and hung up. That really stuck with me throughout the years because I have a sneaking suspicion that he really watched M*A*S*H* re-runs and The Simpsons. PBS and A&E….my oh my, don’t we sound all intellectual??? See, that is the kind of comment we would make once we were off the phones. So I know that the Nielsen people look at the diaries and say “Hey guys, this woman watches TONS of cooking shows!! What is up with that???” Then again, why do I care if they say that? I don’t know but I do.

Anyway, I am doing this for one week. I’m done next Thursday. Then I can send it back and go back to watching all the cooking shows I have on my DVR. I know, I know, I should be completely honest and I am for the most part….its just that I watch enough cooking shows in regular time, they don’t need to know all the ones I record to watch later. Besides, as my brother pointed out to me, they are probably more interested in what news shows I watch so they can do the ratings.

If you ever have a chance to be a Nielsen Family, you ought to do it. It’s fun to see what I view on TV and how much TV viewing I do on a regular basis. It’s really not as much as I thought it was or as much as I used to watch. It really has occurred to me that the only network shows I do watch are The Good Wife and Cougar Town. That certainly has changed over the years. Let’s just hope it doesn’t change so much that I will have to say, if they call me in the future, “I wouldn’t be any good for you since I only watch PBS!” Let’s hope I don’t change THAT much!