One way or the other though, it is still a free market, no matter how worked up you get about it. All the shows have to put up with the same flawed number gathering system, everybody involved is satisfied with the results of the numbers, and complaining about them is an exercise in pointless oxygen destruction.
You do realize that a majority of the adult and teenage population of the USA use TV as touchstone on how to live and act? Right? (Even if it is mostly not a conscience effort to do so.)
Much of our political system is manipulated by issues that are presented on TV. (Though more and more the Internet is taking away the power of the Lamestream media to control the information much to their chagrin)
The power of TV to control the masses is still considerable even though daily the Internet peels away that power. And the people who control what is shown on TV should be scrutinized closely because of the power of the medium. And when there is clear evidence the system is manipulated to achieve a result (Nielsen has admitted they oversample certain demographics to avoid criticism) then that system should be subject to investigation by the public as well as any legal entities. (We are talking considerable sums of cash awarded based on ONE agencies control of viewing numbers.)
If viewing numbers are fudged to appease certain elements of our society then it gives bias to certain types of programs and people involved in them, if so then by definition the market is NOT Free. And being that Nielsen has admitted to such (even going as far as releasing their demogrpahic breakdowns) that particular argument is settled.
You do realize that the days of the big networks being the monolithic source of televised American culture ended 2 full decades ago? Right? That’s one of the reasons the networks are struggling so hard for ratings right now, they now share the American population with over 100 cable channels, PCs and 3 major game systems. I doubt highly a given TV show ever was the touchstone for the people on how to live and act, but assuming for the sake of the discussion that it ever was true those days are gone forever. We no longer live in a world where America stops breathing to watch the last MASH episode.
The viewing numbers aren’t fudged to appease anybody, at least not anybody that isn’t capable of forking over 9 digits of cold hard cash to get it done. You seem to be laboring under the 100% false illusion that Nielson works in a vacuum. The networks do quite a bit of their own monitoring through various means, if their numbers ever differ dramatically from Nielson’s in a way that costs them money they take it up with Nielson. That’s why Nielson is constantly tweaking their methods. Anything Nielson does to avoid criticism isn’t done to avoid criticism from you and me, it’s done to avoid criticism from the people that pay them a lot of money to do what they do, the TV networks and the advertisers. You and I might wind up part of the ratings but outside of that we just don’t rate, they don’t give a crap what you and I or Jess Jackson think of their system; they care what The Mouse, Viacom, Universal and Madison Ave think of their system. Those are the ones that rate.
The market is free, that’s a simple fact, you might not like how that freedom works but it IS a free market that freely decides some shows are not getting the eyeballs and therefore they get canceled. You need to grasp that basic simple fact.