• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, December 2, 2008

Don't make fun of Brooke Shields -- she has a point, even if some of the TV business press thinks otherwise.

Shields says that "Lipstick Jungle" -- the struggling NBC show she stars in -- has strong DVR viewership after seven days from its initial broadcast. Shields notes DVR viewing can lift ratings by 29%. That's pretty good. (To be fair, many other shows get similar DVR viewership numbers.)

Still, a big-time newspaper -- you can get the link here -- says her recent attempt to defend the show using the "live plus seven day" terminology is "arcane."

Arcane? Meaning esoteric? Any TV business reporter worth his or her salt has been writing about added DVR playback data for the last three years. You might not agree with it -- or feel that it may not do anything for viewers (since many of them are fast-forwarding through commercials), but many say it has value. Even TV marketers agree.

I liken this to journalists who still talk about household ratings as if they were the primary -- or, even worse -- the only viewer measurement that mattered. Not only that, but there are still journalists who write prominently about how a particular network wins a sweeps month in total viewers -- virtually dismissing all viewer metrics. Pure popularity has been a fading barometer for some time, and is not how networks are supported by business these days.

Advertisers have been regularly buying programming off of demographics -- specific viewer groups --  for almost 20 years now. Using household ratings can be a measure for a handful of shows -- sports programming, for example, and no doubt the Super Bowl. Using total viewer numbers? Perhaps if you are a cable network, that might be an indication of success.

All this knowledge is more important than ever because of what is coming: addressable advertising, where for a specific TV show -- say "Lipstick Jungle," if somehow NBC decides to keep it around -- a Tylenol ad can be sent to one house, while a neighbor gets a Maybelline commercial. Increasingly there are new metrics to measure success.

Business writers should also forget about overall placiement of shows. That fact that "Lipstick Jungle" sits in 85th place among all network programs means little. It doesn't say how the show is really performing -- just offering a vague comparison to other shows.

Should we worry that "Supernanny" was at 62nd place or "Gossip Girl" at 78th place? Those numbers don't sound great, either. But looking deeper, we find that "Supernanny" is an inexpensive, but a good performing utility player for ABC. "Gossip Girl" does well among the 18-34 crowd, and more specifically, for women 18-34 and women 18-24.

We are all guilty of some bad TV rating reporting. But with smaller and smaller TV viewership numbers, it'll only get worse. Perhaps looking at new digital entertainment is an answer. Here's a test: Right now, tell me the best-performing original Internet shows -- and why they have this rank.

You don't have a clear one-sentence response? That's the future.

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