Watching Television 101

The Nielsens have finally realized what everyone else has always known - college students watch a lot of TV. Variety reports that Nielsen is now going to include college campuses in its ratings, and, speaking as someone who watched a lot of TV with friends in college, I can tell you that this is a great idea. College students are probably the most loyal TV watchers there are, because they usually have the time to watch, they know what they like, and for them "appointment TV" means an appointment with friends too, so they're less likely to miss an episode. If you can get them watching your show, you're in good shape. Among other shows, this is good news for Scrubs, which has always had a strong college following. And if only they had been rating colleges when we were there, maybe NBC wouldn't have treated Scrubs like the annoying neighbor kid and would have given it the prominent place on the schedule that it deserves.