Finally: Nielsen Ratings Come To Our House.

I have heard about Nielsen ratings since forever.  I even heard, when I was a little kid, that if you were chosen to be a Nielsen family, you got free cable for a week.  Having free cable and a chance to tell someone all about what TV shows were my favorite was a lot of what I was looking for as a child.  So imagine my great surprise and delight when I received a postcard informing me that I would receive a phone call and that the outcome of that phone call would determine whether or not I would become part of a Nielsen family.  

After all these years, I would finally get to tell them what I watched on TV and also maybe get free cable.  In reality it was even better than free cable: cash money.  They sent us enough money to buy a pizza delivery with tip, which I thought was awesome.  I guess it doesn't make sense that they would provide me with new viewing options and then ask what my normal viewing patterns are.  Here is the best part of the entire thing though - we don't watch any TV(At least not on the TV and for Nielsen internet TV doesn't count).  

I spoke at length with Nielsen representative on the phone and it turns out that it doesn't matter if you actually watch TV or not.  I made sure to record the several hours of Arrested Development DVDs that I watched, just so they know what's up, but I left the rest of the diary blank.  Maybe they will get the picture, maybe not, but I am glad that some research, somewhere, will show that we are not watching any TV except DVDs like Arrested Development.

P.S. We don't even have a digital converter box so we couldn't even get TV if we wanted, but in reality I think I should get one so that we could use TV as a way to keep informed in case of emergency.  Of course, whatever sort of emergencies are only brodcast on DTV and not on the radio probably aren't emergencies of the type that I would really care about.