Why International Ratings Do Not Matter

Some people might wonder about how international ratings work and how important they are in the grand scheme of things regarding TV ratings. Well, as you can tell from the title, international ratings do not matter at all. Some people probably feel that they do or should have an effect as to whether or not the show they like lasts. But it doesn’t.

You see, while there has been a case of shows being renewed international after being cancelled here, the only show that might have done this was Sliders. There could have been other instances of this, but I do not know of any recent ones that might have qualified for it. Plus, this is too rare of an instance with little to no hope of viewers in the US being able to see the show in question anymore.

The main reason that international ratings don’t matter is because it is US executives who decide if their show is staying for good ratings or other reasons. But only the US ratings matter because that’s the only thing Neilson keeps track of regarding US shows.

You might wonder if the same ratings rule is true of other countries. Would a British show be affected by those who watch it in the US? I am pretty sure that it does not. Only the country of origin will affect the ratings regarding whether or not a show sticks around for later seasons.

In case it isn’t clear, the reason that international ratings don’t matter is simply because that’s not how ratings work in this country or any other one as far as I know. It isn’t racism as far as I know. Some may think that it should and there are some rare cases when it does, at least for a moment. But more often than not, international ratings don’t matter because that’s simply not how it works.

That is all for this post. I will be starting Tuesday updates for a while and getting rid of Monday ones at some point. I should let you know when or then when it is. Depending on how things go, I might get rid of Tuesday updates, but that won’t happen any time soon for now. I’ll see you on Monday or maybe even sooner, but probably not. Don’t expect Monday posts to end for a while unless there is an update on the last Monday of the month. I wish I knew for sure what would happen with the updates, but I will have to play things by ear. Hopefully, nothing too weird will happen but it will result in more posts on a regular basis, less posts until they are phased out, or just another post in addition to what you normally see.