Update: there will be no conspiracy for sure, now. Mad Men set series high and edged out Kourtney & Khloe Take Miami.
Though I don't believe Nielsen measurement is perfect, I'm far from a Nielsen conspiracy theorist.
But I do understand.
I mean we're past 1pm PDT and nary a world, let alone a press release or anything else touting the ratings for the season three premiere of Mad Men. Meanwhile E! Networks was out with a release before noon PDT on how well the premiere of Kourtney and Khloe' Take Miami did. 2.7 million.
Mad Men would've needed to improve by about 33% from its season two premiere (2.06M) to beat the Kardashian Sisters. And I don't recall anyone predicting Mad Men would improve to 2.7M!
It's just more fodder for why you can't equate critical reception of a show (the critics LOVED Mad Men's season 3 premiere and almost universally slobbered all over it. Don't get me wrong, I liked it too) or B.S. like Twitter trends to how well a show will actually perform in the ratings. Mad Men and #Mad Men were trending high on Twitter last night with Kourtney and Khloe were nowhere to be found.
I'm really not a Nielsen ratings conspiracy theorist. But I understand. I think for many people the explanation that there must be systemic errors that only apply to their favorite shows, or, an outright conspiracy is just easier to digest then...Kourtney and Khloe putting a beat down on Don Draper!
No, there won't be a conspiracy over Mad Men's ratings. Especially when you consider it will probably do twice as well as season two of Damages. But for some, the conspiracy angle will be easier to swallow. There is no ratings conspiracy here. But I understand.
I’m a huge fan of Mad Men, but I do understand why it isn’t a hit among viewers.
It’s brilliantly written, and the details of the times are great. But it’s a very very very slow paced show. I think some viewers don’t have the patience for it. It took me a season and a half to say “Hey, this is actually good!”
So yeah, that’s what I think. Here’s a recap of last night’s premiere, which again, was very slow paced.
http://tvdonewright.com/2009/08/mad-men-recap-out-of-town/
I am a fan of a lot of low-rated shows, so it’s not like my tastes run completely in line with the general public, but I tried to watch Mad Men, and couldn’t find a single reason to keep going after four episodes of season one, so I definitely understand the ratings.