Next Question
RSS
Here are a couple of theories:
1. He was fudging the truth, and by saying "held their breath" instead of "watched" he was covering his tracks.
2. He was averaging out the number of viewers that Nielson showed (27 million) by the number of votes (97 millions), although that would come out to around 62 million.
3. Maybe he is counting people who Tivo'd the finale - I remember hearing that a lot of people last year didn't hear the final winner because the show went over the time scheduled and Tivo cut off the end.
Permalink | Report
phil h
Source(s):
http://www.thefutoncritic.com/ratings.aspx?id=faq
http://www.bnsnews.com/PResource/WhatTVRatingsReallyMean-Nielson-010107.pdf
Permalink | Report
Answered Question
January 14, 2009 01:13 AM
Where does Ryan Seacrest get that 55 million Americans watched last year's American Idol finale?
In the opening of American Idol tonight, Ryan Seacrest stated that "55 million Americans held their breath" right before last years' American Idol was announced.
Checking the Nielson ratings, the show had a 10.1 rating/28 share in adults 18-49, 27.06 million viewers overall from 8 to 9:03 p.m.
While this cannot be an exact science, I doubt that they are THAT far off. So why does Seacrest say 55 million?
The only think I can come up with is he says later 97 million votes were cast. According to Wikipedia, "Ryan Seacrest revealed the highest number of votes ever in the Idol history at 97.5 million. The previous record was 74 million when Jordin Sparks beat Blake Lewis in 2007. He also noted the percentage breakdown of the vote was 56% for the winner and 44% for the runner up."
So, I thought maybe only people who voted for the winner were holding their breath...but 56% of 97 million is less than 55 million (and does he really think that each person only voted once?)
So where does this number come from? Is it an effort to make AI look more popular than it is?
Checking the Nielson ratings, the show had a 10.1 rating/28 share in adults 18-49, 27.06 million viewers overall from 8 to 9:03 p.m.
While this cannot be an exact science, I doubt that they are THAT far off. So why does Seacrest say 55 million?
The only think I can come up with is he says later 97 million votes were cast. According to Wikipedia, "Ryan Seacrest revealed the highest number of votes ever in the Idol history at 97.5 million. The previous record was 74 million when Jordin Sparks beat Blake Lewis in 2007. He also noted the percentage breakdown of the vote was 56% for the winner and 44% for the runner up."
So, I thought maybe only people who voted for the winner were holding their breath...but 56% of 97 million is less than 55 million (and does he really think that each person only voted once?)
So where does this number come from? Is it an effort to make AI look more popular than it is?
Interesting Question?
Yes (0)
No (0)
- In American Idol |
- |
- Report |
-
Share
RSS
Best Answer Chosen by Asker
| January 14, 2009 02:01 AM |
1. He was fudging the truth, and by saying "held their breath" instead of "watched" he was covering his tracks.
2. He was averaging out the number of viewers that Nielson showed (27 million) by the number of votes (97 millions), although that would come out to around 62 million.
3. Maybe he is counting people who Tivo'd the finale - I remember hearing that a lot of people last year didn't hear the final winner because the show went over the time scheduled and Tivo cut off the end.
| Asker's Rating: |
• Best theories so far!
Permalink | Report
Reply
phil h
January 14, 2009 02:21 AM
Ughhh. I hope it wasn't that many.
Tip phil h for this comment
Report
Other Answers (2)
January 14, 2009 03:48 AM
It's important to remember that the Nielsen ratings track approximitely how many households were watching American Idol. If that number were about 27 million, it wouldn't be that much of a stretch to say that each television that's tuned to American Idol has at least two viewers (27 x 2 = 54). In fact, it might even be undercutting it, as many viewers get together in groups to watch the show. Two people per household seems pretty modest to me.
Source(s):
http://www.thefutoncritic.com/ratings.aspx?id=faq
http://www.bnsnews.com/PResource/WhatTVRatingsReallyMean-Nielson-010107.pdf
Permalink | Report
Reply
Answer this Question
Related Questions
No questions found.
Ask a Question
Buy Mahalo Dollars with Credit Card or PayPal
Top Members
Most Popular Tags
Categories
- Anonymous
-
Arts & Design
-
Beauty & Style
-
Books & Authors
-
Business
-
Cars & Transportation
-
Consumer Electronics
- Coupons Deals
-
Education
-
Entertainment
-
Environment
-
Fitness
-
Food & Drink
- From Email
- From Iphone
- From Twitter
-
Health
-
History
-
Hobbies
-
Home & Garden
-
How Tos
-
Humor
-
Jobs
-
Legal
-
Local
-
Love & Relationships
-
Mahalo Answers Community
-
Money
-
Music
-
News
-
NSFW
-
Parenting
-
Pets
-
Science & Mathematics
-
Services
-
Shopping
-
Social Science
-
Society & Culture
-
Sports
-
Technology & Internet
-
Travel
-
Video Games
Welcome New Members
- joe_1981, November 27, 2009 06:45 AM
- fredrick26, November 27, 2009 06:24 AM
- alexsheehan, November 27, 2009 06:20 AM
- farmvillefacebo..., November 27, 2009 06:03 AM
- anb, November 27, 2009 06:01 AM
Mahalo Dollars are the currency of Mahalo Answers.
Each Mahalo Dollar costs $1.
Once you earn more than 40 Mahalo Dollars, you can request to be paid via PayPal. Each Mahalo Dollar is currently worth $0.75 when paid out via PayPal. Learn More
