About a week and a Half ago I wrote about my participation in the Nielsen ratings poll this fall. I have to say, at the risk of coming off as lazy or forgetful, that I found it somewhat difficult to keep up, particularly when it came to my son’s viewing. As a single parent I often to rely on Nick Jr. to entertain the boy while grade papers, do homework, clean the house or write, (which by the way is exactly what’s happening right now). Now before all you perfect parents out there tisk, tisk me for using TV as a baby sitter, understand that I’m not hiding in my study somewhere. I’m at least in the same room. I just can’t always name the all the half hour shows he’s watched in the last two hours. And this is really the problem I’ve had with the ratings method. It requires me to keep a log of what I / we’ve watched on one particular TV. The poll actually ended a few days ago and I have yet to fill in a couple of days. Will I be able to remember everything we watched? Absolutely not! I’ll do my best but the Nielsen group will just have to make do with partial information.

I still think it’s a good idea for good people with discriminating standards to participate in the polls as much as possible. And as I’ve stated in my previous article, I’ve never been asked to take part in this poll before so I feel a bit like I’ve missed an opportunity to express an opinion. Hopefully there are others in the Tyler community who will do a better job than I did of expressing and reflecting what it is East Texans want to see on television. To read my original piece on the ratings system, look for the title Participating in the Nielsen Ratings, located elsewhere on this site. For more information on the Nielsen Company visit the following website: http://en-us.nielsen.com/content/nielsen/en_us/industries/media.html.