Sweeping up and smarting up

We're in February sweeps now, when Nielsen does something or other that's important to the ratings. Okay, what they actually do is unleash a gazillion paper diaries on the nation to get some idea of what we're watching on TV.

Sooner or later, set top box data might replace paper, but we're not they're yet. Or at least Nielsen isn't there yet. Rentrak is boldly going where no man has gone before in STB data, especially in those pesky smaller markets where paper diaries are still used.

Anyway, a poster on Matt Ottinger's board wondered whether game shows save their "smartest" contestants for sweeps periods. Gotta admit, this is one of many, many subjects I never thought about much. Matt typed an interesting reply:

I think it's pretty obvious that Millionaire - which, as others have mentioned, has a lot of flexibility here - saves their best games and highest paydays for sweeps...they tape their games, and when they have one with a smart contestant who wins a lot of money, they set it aside and air it during sweeps. Jeopardy, again as others have mentioned, typically reserves sweeps time for their tournaments.

It's true that Millionaire just had a quarter-million winner in sweeps. And Jeopardy is, of course, running their college and teachers tournaments this month. So Matt looks to be right, or at least he has some recent evidence on his side.