A few years back I caught a New Show on Fox called Firefly. It was a great sci-fi show by the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It got into rating trouble and there was much hoopla and Fan effort to get the ratings up, but it was canceled in its first season.
Then a Movie was made based on Firefly called Serenity. It was one of the best Sci-fi movies to be made in a very long time. On its opening weekend it was the 2nd largest grossing movie beat out only by Flightplan. (according to the-numbers.com ticket sales data.)
Also TIVO was becoming a hot item when Firefly was first aired. TIVO showed Firefly as the most recorded New TV show of the season. Further when the Firefly Boxed set came out it was the number one selling DVD on Amazon for several weeks.
So one has to ask how does a TV show be the most recorded new show of the season on TIVO the Number one selling DVD on Amazon and the 2nd Best grossing movie on its opening weekend but have Nielson ratings so low it convinced FOX to cancel it?
Makes one wonder how accurate Nielson is.
It is especially bad when good shows are canceled!