Two years of “Please don’t cancel [show name] it’s the only show I watch on [network name], if you cancel [show name], I’ll never watch [network name] again.
Two years of “The average person isn’t smart enough to handle the subtle brilliance of [lowly-rated show name].”
Two years of will it be renewed or will it be canceled?
Two years of all that, and so much more.
It has been a blast.
We don’t have an official anniversary really. We had the site up and running by the end of August 2007, and we had a more formal launch in the middle of September, but Bill and I have been at it for over two years now, and today is just as good of a day as any to celebrate it.
An idea that came up over lunch has turned into being a lot of fun for both of us. For the first year really, things didn’t look so great from the perspective of traffic. I would tell Bill I was obsessed with getting to a million page views and he’d look at me like I was nuts. In our best 30 day period last season we had over 3 million page views. Bill still looks at me like I’m nuts, but at least now it's for different reasons.
I’ve had the tremendous good fortune to take an endeavor like this on with someone like Bill Gorman. We both can be stubborn as mules, and both have the occasional short fuse. Especially during some of our web hosting crises last season (all cleared up now!) there were times we wanted to strangle each other. But we never stay mad at each other or wind up taking anything personally. And we always seem to be able to come to agreement or compromise.
Some shout outs of thanks:
- First and foremost: our readers and commenters. Thank you!
- Julia, who helps out with fixing apostrophe abuse sometimes, and will do an occasional post herself
- “Holly” who is a long-time reader and participator in the comments. She’s very helpful at answering questions and usually is faster than Bill and I at it!
- Pretty much anyone and everyone involved with making the TV shows that we track, whether they perform well in the ratings or not.
- All of the networks, especially the people at the various networks who have been very helpful to us
- The TV journalist/blogging community, there are way too many to name, but many of them are in our blogroll on the lower right hand side of our site.
- To Matt Drudge for the “TV Ratings” link on Drudge Report
- Rackspace Cloud web hosting: they don’t sponsor us and I’m not being paid to say this, and I hope this doesn’t put the jinx on, but switching to them was a great move. They helped us solve some problems when we first switched and the service was great. We’ve had a few high traffic events since then and the site has run flawlessly.
- And of course Nielsen. Despite some issues, they have been helpful. Plus there’s no doubt, the impetus that led to the lunchtime discussion that birthed this site was Nielsen data.
- Update: need to add Bravo -- through a relationship we had with Bravo/Television Without Pity for the game it used to run on the Web (TV Bigshot) we found a lot of our readers (including Julia mentioned above!)
I’m sure I missed many shout outs, please don’t take it personally, and thank you too for two great years!
Congratulations! Thanks for doing such a great job. I’m addicted to this web site.
So say we all!
Congratulations! Last year I used to not even look up ratings, and now the first website I stop by in the morning is TVbytheNumbers. It’s such a great and informative site and even though people watch TV now less than ever before, I still love television and this website gives me the good news and the bad news everyday. Thank you so much.
i second what junior said
Thank you two for having such a great website! I’ve loved seeing TV ratings for years, and when I discovered this site in late-2007, I fell in love with it! Now, I don’t check ANYWHERE else for TV ratings info! Just here!
thanks everyone (who is up very early!). And Junior G., people are watching MORE TV than ever before, just not on the broadcast networks in prime time…
Congrats!!! u run a really good website here!
Congrats!
Well, it’s 2PM here,Robert
Congratulations! I found this site while trying to explain ratings and demo’s effect on decisions to cancel a show and that it wasn’t all about the networks being evil. It rapidly became an addiction and now its in my daily favorites list and I visit everyday (sometimes more than once).
You forgot that giant Drudge for that great big link he gives you.
BTW:Happy B-day. I enjoy the info you guys do so well!!!
Congrats guys…you do a great job in supporting a crazy niche group like us!
I haven’t been around here as long as some others, but happy birthday! May the site run forever! May you get many million more viewers! And may Joss’s Biggest Fan continue to entertain you (and us all) for many more years to come! And all that other good stuff.
Andy, I did not forget Drudge, he is in the shout outs!
Shelly: JBF has been absent for a couple of weeks now. I hope just resting up for the big season premiere event in a few weeks!
Congrats! Definitely one of my favorite sites, as you and Bill bring commentary and your own analysis on shows and networks in addition to the numbers.
Keep up the good work!
Congrats, guys. I love the cable ratings (True Blood True Blood), the renew/cancel index (ooh, that show’s a goner), and the DVD sales (TB Wow).
Here’s to a long long run for this site. Perhaps we’ll even outlast American Idol.
Best Website Ever.
’nuff said.
I visit every day. Great Web Site! Thanks for all your work.
I, too, visit the site at least once a day. It is the best resource fo the SOAP OPERA ratings and break downs anywhere. You material is presented in a format that is so easy to understand, and like the many others, I appreciate the time and devotion you put into making this information available. Are there ways (like some sites allow PAYPAL) that we can send you some small thank you’s – especially in celebration of the second anniversary? I believe the second anniversary is cash contributions if I remember correctly!
congatulations!!!!!!!!!!your site is great!!!!!!
i just hope that you will bring back the rating tables!!!i really miss them!!!!!!!
Thanks again, everyone.
Billy, the Soap Opera Ratings are actually from the Soap Opera Network forums, we link back to them, but they do are the ones doing the nice formatting!
As for Paypal, we really appreciate the offer, thank you, but don’t want to go with a “tip jar” approach, at least for now. But again, it is appreciated!
George: We miss them too.