“An Arresting Development”

For those of us who exclusively blame Fox for dropping from its lineup one of the most brilliant television comedies ever to make the airwaves, an article by Jason Mitell in Flow, an academic TV crit journal, will set us straight. Or at least give us the full picture. From Mitell’s perspective, Fox had perfectly good reasons, notably its connection to Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment, to keep Arrested Development on the air. And they tried to artificially boost the ratings by moving its slot and even pulling it during sweeps week. The problem, with which I agree whole-heartedly, is with the system itself, and the stranglehold of the Nielsen Ratings System. I’ll let Mitell explain:

So is it just a case of the majority of viewers lacking taste or intelligence to appreciate this program, as many disgruntled fans and critics suggest? I think AD’s lack of ratings stems less from viewer practices, but more from issues involved in the ratings system itself. Ratings are seen by many in the industry as the site of viewer democracy, as people vote with their eyeballs what shows they want to watch and what they avoid. But Nielsen ratings are less like voting than like exit polling (and if exit polls were the measure of democracy, hello President Kerry!) — people cannot choose to participate in Nielsen ratings, and Nielsen only measures a miniscule fragment of the television viewing population.

Read the full article here.

Filed under: Arrested Development  FOX  Jason Mittell  TV