The latest on Conan, Leno and NBC (2 Viewers)

[Brandon Conway]

But here's the thing - I'm a 30-year-old single male who watched every episode of Conan's Tonight Show. I saw at least half of them when they aired at 11:35pm. My problem is that I don't have a Nielson box, and I wasn't counted. I actually showed up on the times I watched it on Hulu.com via website hit, but those don't count on Nielson yet. I sat through PLENTY of ads both on tv and online, and I can remember 3-4 that reminded me to pick up product or go see that movie (being in LA causes a lot of movie ads to be played at that time slot).

But I don't count, of course.

Nielson households are WAAAY to skewed towards married with kids. We single people don't get counted enough. And colleges (one of Conan's strength) where a group of single 20-something friends may get together and watch Conan on a dorm "family" room tv are neglected as well.

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by Brandon Conway

But here's the thing - I'm a 30-year-old single male who watched every episode of Conan's Tonight Show. I saw at least half of them when they aired at 11:35pm. My problem is that I don't have a Nielson box, and I wasn't counted. I actually showed up on the times I watched it on Hulu.com via website hit, but those don't count on Nielson yet. I sat through PLENTY of ads both on tv and online, and I can remember 3-4 that reminded me to pick up product or go see that movie (being in LA causes a lot of movie ads to be played at that time slot).

But I don't count, of course.

I'm sure the people that are paying to advertise on Hulu are well aware of the number of people watching it there. However, there's one commercial per break online versus five or six (?) per break on TV. That's alot less ads so the number of people viewing online means less to a network.

 

[Patrick_S]

[COLOR= black] [/COLOR]
[COLOR= black]Posted on February 1, 2010[/COLOR]

[COLOR= black]Quote: [/COLOR]
[COLOR= black]Originally Posted by Brandon Conway
But here's the thing - I'm a 30-year-old single male who watched every episode of Conan's Tonight Show. I saw at least[/COLOR][COLOR= black] half [/COLOR][COLOR= black]of them when they aired at 11:35pm.[/COLOR]
[COLOR= black]Posted on January 14, 2010[/COLOR]

[COLOR= black]Quote: [/COLOR]
[COLOR= black]Originally Posted by Brandon Conway
More young viewers, like myself (30) are watching TV shows online on Hulu.com. I've seen EVERY episode of Conan's Tonight Show, but I've watched only, say, [/COLOR][COLOR= black]15%[/COLOR][COLOR= black] when they first aired.[/COLOR]

So which one is it?

 

[Diallo B]

Originally Posted by Patrick_S

So which one is it?

lol. i love a critical thinker.

 

[Diallo B]

Originally Posted by Edwin-S





Is that so hard to believe? A lot of people in the 18 - 35 bracket are highly mobile and travel light. I, personally, worked with a fellow that fell in that demo and most of his viewing was via his laptop. I'm definitely not in the 18 - 35 bracket and even I don't have any satellite or cable connection. I cancelled my TV subscription over a year ago. If something interests me enough to watch it, I'll look it up on the net and watch it online.

not hard to believe at all. i rarely watch any television show network or cable live. there are far too many sources for me to actually see what i watch without having to be held hostage by television advertisers. and contrary to popular opinion high definition material can easily be found in its original resolution with 5.1 audio.

i would also cancel cable but then i wouldn't get my sports and foxnews/msnbc fix. but in all honesty if it were not for the winter olympics i probably would cancel my cable right after the superbowl pick it up for the nba playoffs and then cancel it again until football season. i can even get my cable news fix live online.

i would guess that many of us here on this site have htpc's and are capable of doing the same.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Originally Posted by Patrick_S

So which one is it?

I went back and did the math and realized it was closer to 50/50.

146 episodes. I watched the first 5 weeks (25 episodes) and the last 3 weeks (15 episodes) on tv. I figured 15% was definitely an understatement for that factor alone. I figured about 35% of the remaining shows I watched on tv (plus one live). That was 77 shows, or just over 50%.


Still, my point is that without a Nielson Box every show I watched over my HD antenna meant that I never counted as a viewer. I counted more as an online viewer. Give me a Nielson Box and then it makes a huge difference. Until then, I could watch the wall between 11:35pm-12:35am and it would register to them as the same thing - nothing.

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

The Nielsen point is valid (one fhat I've made myself at times), but keep in mind there are statistical factors at work as well. At the extreme, it's OK to do a poll asking if men like women because even if you don't ask every man specifically, your opinion is likely represented statiscally. Nielsen is far from perfect, but it's not necessarily completely accurate to say if you don't have a Nielsen box, your opinion isn't counted. They try to -- in the aggregate.

I saw an article talking about Jay's appearance on Oprah and somewhere in the article there was a statement made that Oprah invited Conan but hadn't accepted the invitation. It made it sound like Conan had something to hide, or was being bitter. But I remember reading here (or an article linked to from here) that part of the settlement agreement is NBC doesn't want Conan trashing them (apparently Leno is free to do just that). I couldn't help but think surely someone on Oprah's staff realizes Conan isn't supposed to talk about the situation. Don't make the guy out like he's afraid to talk about the situation. Yes, I'm in the camp of people who on the rare occasion that I watch late night TV, is more inclined to enjoy Leno, but come on -- fair is fair.

 

[ThomasC]

n/m

 

[Brandon Conway]

Originally Posted by Mikah Cerucco

I saw an article talking about Jay's appearance on Oprah and somewhere in the article there was a statement made that Oprah invited Conan but hadn't accepted the invitation. It made it sound like Conan had something to hide, or was being bitter. But I remember reading here (or an article linked to from here) that part of the settlement agreement is NBC doesn't want Conan trashing them (apparently Leno is free to do just that). I couldn't help but think surely someone on Oprah's staff realizes Conan isn't supposed to talk about the situation. Don't make the guy out like he's afraid to talk about the situation. Yes, I'm in the camp of people who on the rare occasion that I watch late night TV, is more inclined to enjoy Leno, but come on -- fair is fair.

I'm pretty sure Conan has to keep quiet until May-ish.

 

[mattCR]

Just in case you thought NBC was done doing completely stupid stuff:



Jimmy Fallon's band raised an uproar about how offended they were, and began tweeting about it earlier in the day.. the story continued to run, but no changes by NBC, or anything really.

The network is now apparently run by those who either don't care, or are counting on a bunch of monkeys and a typewriter turning out Shakespeare...

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

I wonder if Germans would complain if they had Sauerkraut in favor of Germans -- or if they'd just realize it was an attempt to offer a traditionally German dish in honor of Germans. Some Germans may like the dish, some not, but I doubt there'd be any uproar. Thank goodness NBC doesn't have watermelon on there. Maybe watermelon flavored aquafina.. Fallon's band needs to go donate time to Haiti or something. There's no need to look for a boogeyman behind every door. These trumped up fake outrage calls for sensitivity ignore real racial issues and do absolutely nothing to improve race relations. A cafeteria offering traditional "Soul Food" in honor of Black History Month. Burn them.

 

[DaveF]

Originally Posted by Brandon Conway I thought TV Networks *only* cared about the 18-49 single male?

That fact that *you* weren't included means nothing. Hey, I'm not in a Nielson family. Just shows that they don't care about married couples and only care about single singletons.

I'd be interested in the documentation that Nielson does bad sampling, poor statistical analysis, and is over / under-representing groups. Otherwise we're just making stuff up regarding the ratings.

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by mattCR

Jimmy Fallon's band raised an uproar about how offended they were...

[SARCASM]Gee, how could anyone fine that offensive?[/SARCASM] I'm surprised that it doesn't say "Just like mammy used to make".

 

[Neil Middlemiss]

Mikah - While I can appreciate where you are coming from, let me tell you that the situation is entirely different. The German people did not experience hundreds of years of slavery, racism, marginlization, and stereotyping which, among many other things, culminates in what NBC did as being offensive and just plain idiotic. There is much more to this carelessness than may appear to some folk, and it is, unfortunately, just another sliver of the issues which still exist in race.

But, back to the purpose of the thread - I miss Conan. And Nielson ratings have long been under fire for allegedly not capturing what is really being watched. I remember when I was surveyed, back when Millennium was still on the air, reading about complaints of their methodology.

Originally Posted by Mikah Cerucco

I wonder if Germans would complain if they had Sauerkraut in favor of Germans -- or if they'd just realize it was an attempt to offer a traditionally German dish in honor of Germans. Some Germans may like the dish, some not, but I doubt there'd be any uproar. Thank goodness NBC doesn't have watermelon on there. Maybe watermelon flavored aquafina.. Fallon's band needs to go donate time to Haiti or something. There's no need to look for a boogeyman behind every door. These trumped up fake outrage calls for sensitivity ignore real racial issues and do absolutely nothing to improve race relations. A cafeteria offering traditional "Soul Food" in honor of Black History Month. Burn them.

 

[Holadem]

Mikah, I get what you're saying, but you fail to distinguish between positive and negative stereotypes. So far as I know, the fried chicken thing (which I believe is the main offender) is definitely not on the positive side. That's the problem. This doesn't of course mean that anyone involved is racist, a slur thrown around far too casually. Mistakes happen, especially when they involve a culture with which one is not very familiar, or poorly understands.

--
H

 

[Patrick_S]

Seriously people, the cafeteria story has nothing to do with this thread's subject and is nothing more then a thread crap. To associate the two stories is completely moronic.

Let's try to focus any posts on the thread's subject and not get side tracked.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

It's called Soul Food and it's delicious and there are plenty of restaurants that serve it and most black people I know seem pretty proud of it (and rightly so). This is one of the stupidest "controversies" I've ever heard.

I note that the Roots performed a song about it on Jimmy Fallon a couple of months ago. Maybe QuestLove was trying to be funny? It's hard to tell with that show. . .

 

[mattCR]

My apologies. Since the whole thread was about how NBC screwed up latenight, I found it fitting that the band of their one non-impacted late show spent an entire day flaming their network. Fallon had largely stayed out of the "down with NBC" camp, but that's not what happened yesterday.

 

[Hanson]

I don't see how the post was off topic or threadcrapping since it does fall under "the latest on NBC" part of the thread title.

Had the menu just used the words, "Soul Food Menu" somewhere (which was their intention), none of this would have happened. It's a tempest in a teapot, but I'd love to know if the person or persons responsible for the menu were African American or not. Because irony like that is priceless.

 

[mattCR]

I think that's the part. It's not that it was the menu, or that it was soul food (and to be honest, most of that is the kind of thing I would LOVE) but I think the "Tribute to Black History Month" came off as pretty hokey from a network that doesn't have a single show with an african american lead.
Much more though that their night-shift hosts now wail into them. Just bad timing.