I was sworn to secrecy, but now it’s over… I was a Nielsen Household for the last two years! As in the Nielsen TV ratings. It was fun. To answer some questions you may have (based on my own personal experience, anyway): your location is selected at random… even the Nielsen people themselves don’t even know who they will find there until they show up. Every household is limited to a two-year run. Basically, they install/hook up their equipment into your own, as well as some kind of counter box which looks similar to a small cable box. A remote comes with it which has a button for each person in the household. Whoever is watching TV at that moment hits their button on the remote. That’s basically it! They have to do occasional check ups now and again, but it was really that simple.
It was fun, but I do have to say that the programs I was watching didn’t really align with the ratings as they ended up. So don’t blame me. 😉
