The Glade 4.0

On February 7, the fourth season of Community kicked off on NBC. It was something of a shock that the show had survived for so long. It ranked 193rd among broadcast shows. In May 2012, series creator and showrunner Dan Harmon had been unceremoniously canned. And on the night it aired, the season premiere pulled in just 4 million viewers. That’s a mere quarter of the audience enjoyed by ratings juggernauts like Two and a Half Men or The Big Bang Theory. It even underperformed a rerun of the ABC reality show Shark Tank on the Nielsen charts.

Until recently, those 4 million viewers would have been the end of the story. Just a few years ago, similar niche favorites like Jericho and Firefly were summarily executed for such numbers. In fact, cult legend Freaks and Geeks averaged nearly 7 million viewers in its single, 1999-2000 season before getting canceled. But that night in February, Community accomplished something that none of those shows ever had the chance to do—it spawned two worldwide trending topics on Twitter.

All of your favorite shows are ratings dogs. Breaking Bad, Girls, Mad Men—each struggles to get a Nielsen score higher than 3, representing about 8.7 million viewers. And it’s not just cable. NBC’s 30 Rock struggled to top a score of 2.5, and Parks and Recreation rarely cracks Nielsen’s top 25. There are two possible conclusions to draw from these facts: (1) All these shows should be canceled, or (2) maybe the ratings are measuring the wrong thing. Since the 1970s, television has been ruled by the Nielsen Family—25,000 households whose TV habits collectively provide a statistical snapshot of a nation’s viewing behavior. Over the years, the Nielsen rating has been tweaked, but it still serves one fundamental purpose: to gauge how many people are watching a given show on a conventional television set. But that’s not how we watch any more. Hulu, Netflix, Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Roku, iTunes, smartphone, tablet—none of these platforms or devices are reflected in the Nielsen rating. (In February Nielsen announced that this fall it would finally begin including Internet streaming to TV sets in its ratings.)

The other thing is, our current viewing habits inherently provide feedback to content providers about what we're watching. When you stream something from Hulu, Netflix, or any of those services, there's a record that the video was streamed. So, Nielsen are too **** late with including internet streaming in their ratings.

Of course they are. They're dinosaurs. But at least it will be taken into consideration, instead of entirely ignored. I can't remember the last time I watched a show that wasn't time-shifted. We don't need the 65-100 year old demographic deciding the fate of every single show.

In comic strips the person on the left always speaks first. - George Carlin

This could explain how CBS and all the awful garbage they put on TV somehow rates as the "Most Watched <insert genre>". Perhaps all those old people died watching 60 minutes and their TVs have just been logging them as CBS viewers.

That doesn't explain their terrible, terrible comedies' successes.

Are you kidding? There's a simple reason CBS is the most successful traditional Network these days -- Forensics procedurals sell like hotcakes. NCIS and CSI? That **** is gold painted ****.

There isn't a single show on CBS that I watch. Not a single one.

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

To be honest, I find very few television shows more insulting, denigrating, and stupid than Big Bang Theory.

In comic strips the person on the left always speaks first. - George Carlin

To be honest, I find very few television shows more insulting, denigrating, and stupid than Big Bang Theory.

BBT is *much* funnier without the laugh track. But that isn't saying much.

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

Far be it for me to go all bleeding heart on your guys, but ...

The show is about laughing at people with cognitive disabilities.

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

Far be it for me to go all bleeding heart on your guys, but ...

The show is about laughing at people with cognitive disabilities.