A friend of mine was recently asked to participate in the television-audience measurement system, The Nielsen Ratings. Naturally, I'm awash in jealousy because I've only dreamed of having that much power over our national pop culture. Never mind that I'd probably claim to watch only the loftiest of PBS programming while secretly binge-viewing Real Housewives of Miami and anything on TLC. Anyway, as a new Nielsen Family, my friend began to fill out the requested information. When she reached the box that required her to admit to her actual age, she found she was left with the final option, the dreaded 50+. Not 50-60, mind you. Not even 50-75. No. In the world of Nielsen, everyone over 50 is tossed into the same bin as people old enough to be their great-grandparents (who are mostly dead, BTW.) In other words, The Nielsen Ratings, which is used to determine the advertising rates for each television program on air, places the same value on a 50-year-old watching Breaking Bad as they do on his/her 95 year old Nana napping through a turtle-mating documentary on Animal Planet. Oh, this got our granny-panties in a wad!
