Nov 30 2008
Top Rated Nielsen TV Shows…That I Don’t Watch
According to the Associated Press, sweeps week brought us the following top ten from the Nielsen ratings:
1. “Dancing With The Stars,” ABC, 19.63 million viewers.
2. “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” CBS, 18.45 million viewers.
3. “NCIS,” CBS, 18 million viewers.
4. “Dancing With the Stars Results,” ABC, 17.59 million viewers.
5. “Criminal Minds,” CBS, 16.33 million viewers.
6. “Grey’s Anatomy,” ABC, 15.91 million viewers.
7. “The Mentalist,” CBS, 15.84 million viewers.
8. “CSI: Miami,” CBS, 15.46 million viewers.
9. “Two And a Half Men,” CBS, 15.18 million viewers.
10. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 14.89 million viewers.
Of these wildly popular shows, I watch freshman hit The Mentalist. I used to watch Two and a Half Men, but after awhile I realized I was feeling insulted more than entertained, so I stopped. I have watched Dancing With the Stars in the past, but it now conflicts with other things I enjoy watching.
Apparently I am just not with the In Crowd. There’s only me and 5 million of my geek friends that watch Life, for instance. And Life on Mars. (Note our apparent interest in life.) And I am obviously in the minority when I say that I find it disturbing that five of the ten top Nielsen rated shows involve some sort of macabre storyline, cutting people up, emphasis on the sensational, gore, and/or gratuitous sex. Wait, maybe I can add 60 Minutes to that list.
I have nothing against crime shows or procedurals, even if they have some gory bits. I enjoy Bones, and even that trashy Crossing Jordan–sure there’s some geeky glorified gore, but at least I don’t have to avert my eyes for 90% of the show. I wonder about these top ten show watchers. Do they avert their eyes in disgust at the intimate views of dead people’s intestines? Or are they like the members of the audience who laugh when the guy gets his head cut off? Or are they like a librarian I once knew who avidly read the most dark and brutal crime novels she could get her hands on–when asked how she could stomach the gory parts, she just said, “Oh, I just skim over that and don’t pay any attention to it.” Or are they doing the laundry, playing with the kids, or texting to friends during the show?
I’ve always been a lover of TV and film, and when I watch something, I watch it. The whole point of storytelling, in my opinion, is to draw us in–make us believe something, feel something, think about what the story is trying to tell us. The best shows completely suck you in and make you forget the outside world. You spend that half hour or hour in another world, another reality, and like the saying goes: “I laughed, I cried, it changed my life.” A part of me thinks that the people that truly absorb TV do not watch these shows. The majority of TV watchers are casual viewers, who laugh at the special effects, find glee in the fake blood, or use the shows as occasionally amusing screen savers to their lives as they walk in and out of the room.
It’s just a theory. But it’s one that gives me comfort.
