Wielded The Power To Extend Bad TV Shows
Many years ago (thirteen), I used to go over to my girlfriend's house after we'd come home from college for the weekend or summer and her family had this Nielsen TV. If you've ever wondered where TV shows get their ratings, it's from survey companies like Nielsen that monitor a select few's viewing habits and whatever they watched on one of the specially equipped Nielsen televisions, the show received a rating point or whatever the formula was to indicate a show's popularity.
I remember I used to watch the Ron Reagan Jr. talkshow. You'd think this show would have mostly political themes since the host was the son of a former and very popular President, but apparently that's not what the late night viewing audience wanted (including me at the time). In fact, his show turned out to be very Geraldo-ish - back when Geraldo was getting his nose busted by KKK members of a prostitution ring from outer space where the men were the mothers and the women were the nephews.
So I used to watch The Ron Reagan Show on and off for awhile; then one evening, Ron announced that it had been cancelled and they only had a few episodes left. I remember being disappointed because I really liked seeing pimps wrestling transexual midgets in vats of instant pudding so I was determined to watch the few remaining shows he had left to get all the Ronny Junior I could just before this precious gem went off the air.
A few of those episodes went by and the show was still on. It went on for several more weeks and no mention about the cancellation or how the show was still on the air. Apparently it was extended, somehow. Somehow? Did I save Ron Reagan Jr.'s talk show by watching it from my girlfriend's family's Nielsen TV? I'd like to think I had something to do with that.
The extension was short lived, the talk show only lasted one season. Even the show's lone Nielsen viewer couldn't save it.
