Now, if that haven't bored you, let me tell you something. This is something that is the truth and it should be told.

The A.C. Nielsen Ratings, a set of ratings that can make or break a network, are a JOKE!

Trust me on this! First of all, why would they only consider taking ratings for those ages ONLY?!? I mean, sure, I know that it may be hard for teens and adults to get up on Saturday mornings, but believe it or not, a lot more are looking at Saturday morning programming. I'm 22 years old, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I watch Saturday morning cartoons. So my thing is this. Why do they only count people ages 2 to 12 in the Saturday morning ratings in the first place?

Wait a minute. Did I say TWO to 12?!? How in the name of all things decent can two, three, four, five, even six-year olds say what shows they are watching? I mean, what are the people at Nielsens thinking? Little kids don't have the kind of comprehension to determine what shows they are watching each Saturday morning. Heck, a lot of them don't even know what the heck I just said in the previous sentence (a lot of adults don't either, but that's another conversation). But then again they're all watching Nickelodeon, right?

I'm not shooting down Nickelodeon nor it's programming. I'm just saying that when a network has such a saturation on kids (and their parents) and on cable systems, other networks don't have a chance. Think about it. Fox Family Channel is found in every cable system Nick is in. Disney is also in every cable system Nick is in, but is on premium cable in a lot of places. Fox Kids and ABC are on regular television and could easily be found in a lot of homes. And then there's Cartoon Network. Cartoon Network is only found in 45-65% of homes with cable. Major metropolitan areas, including some parts of California, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Virginia, and Texas don't even carry the network on their lineup. Compare that with the 85-95% of cable homes Nickelodeon has and CN does a lot with so little.

Another thing affecting the ratings is the lack of homes Kids WB is found in. You see, a lot of areas don't carry The WB in their houses. Either they're not availiable as a local affiliate, the WB affiliate don't air the Kids' WB block, or it's not on cable. And in some areas, Kids' WB programming is seen on Sundays, including in some major areas like Chicago (which airs Kids WB programming on a separate network from the WB programming). With the removal of WGN's nationwide WB programming, the network has lost a vast number of it's viewers. And this should be considered when taking the ratings.

The way the Nielsen folks take the ratings are controversial as well. How could a small group of people (in my hometown, Hampton Roads, VA, there are around 40 Nielsen families), most of them in suburban, affluent areas, determine which shows are watching? And how many of them are willing to let their youngsters determine what they're going to watch? In most cases, parents just turn on the television to whatever they want their children to see and just plop their kids in front of it. Guess not many parents want to watch Cartoon Network or are just dazzled by the puppets and bright colors of Rugrats, talking sponges, dog/cat hybrids, and the other oddities of Nick.

The fact of the matter is, the Nielsen ratings represent only one viewer, not 100,000 viewers. People have different tastes, and only a few households represent millions of households. Because of that major inconsistancy, the Nielsens is a flawed system. You won't hear any network brass say anything like that out loud, but they feel that the current ratings system in place is severely lacking in any credibility and real juice. 1/100,000 is not a true representation of what America's watching. I believe that a real ratings system would benefit from a 1/100. A bigger saturation of metered broadcasting will bring about a more reliable and more accurate measurement of who's watching what, spread in more urban and rural (OT, how do you pronounce that word, rool or roo-rill?).areas than the more suburban-oriented Nielsens. Yeah, it's a little Big Brotherish, but with a fair representation of television viewers measurement, Hollywood entertainment execs and New York broadcasters could see exactly what the REAL American television audiences are watching. Shows that currently dominate the Nielsens would be near the basement.

Call it sour grapes. Call it frustration, I'm just saying that there needs to be some kind of change in the way Nielsen ratings are counted. There is well over 200 million people in this counter and only 2 million are having their viewership counted. It makes no sense, but that's the way it has been for nearly 50 years. Sad, really, but that's the way it is, unfortunately.