In which I demonstrate why I had to get out of marketing before homicide or brain tumor ensued

I joke about killing off decent formats and television shows. And it IS a joke and I don't actually believe...although I have been known to choose to just wait until it comes out on DVD so that I don't kill it prematurely. I've been trying to watch Pushing Daisies out of the corner of my eye...maybe if I don't look directly at the screen.

But it's really because there's effectively only ONE method of judging the viewership of a program/station and that's Abitron for radio and Nielsen for television. And they both suck. Sorry, guys, but your methods are flawed. They're slowly creeping into the modern century, but until fairly recently, they tracked viewer/listenership by paying (or not even that) people to write down what they watched/listened.

Everyone who thinks that people can be relied on to remember to fill something out on a daily basis, be accurate about it and not lie in order to skew the results in favor of their favorite shows, raise your hand.

( Bueller? )