On Mon, Nov 23, 2015 at 11:52 PM, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > I am going to agree with Melissa here, the sample size (the size of the > Nielsen sample) has probably not changed, and is unlikely to be the > problem. There may well be other kinds of problems with the Nielsen sample > in terms of how representative it is of the true population of people > watching television programs, and some of those may work against Colbert in > particular, but that is something different. > > I guess you could say that the sample of Colbert shows, not television > viewers is still small, which goes to Melissa and Tom's point that it is > too early to draw conclusions about where Colbert will fall in the late > night ratings and rankings. My early guess though is to agree with those > who would identify his high brow, rather than his liberalism, as his > biggest challenge for getting a consistent high number. As a big fan of the > man and the show, this is one reason why I harp so much on Batiste - it > seems like the right band leader and band could help make him more friendly > to a mass audience; indeed, it seems like he thinks Batiste is that right > guy, and he just isn't. > > > On Mon, Nov 23, 2015 at 6:16 PM, Melissa P <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> Sample size isn’t a problem. >> >> >> >> However, I agree that we should wait for long term trends before reaching >> any conclusions. >> > I took my time writing my first response so that I would not get the statistics ideas screwed up and yet I still did. I made the remark about sample size which is generally part of a tirade against Nielsen not polling enough people to get an accurate number and I did not mean that.
I will give a hypothetical to illustrate what I meant. I think Carson used to have a steady 30 million viewers. And post-1995 they broke up to 17 million for Leno and 13 million for Letterman. If 500,000 viewers decided to switch to Letterman the numbers would not move enough to justify a column about how things are changing in late night. The latest numbers for late night from TV by the Numbers shows Fallon 3.79, Colbert 3.17, and Kimmel 2.54 (season to date). If 500,000 viewers change the channel now it becomes a significant change and the columns are written about how it must somehow be political. -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
