Television "Ratings" are a Joke

Just today I was reading this article at GateWorld about the ratings for the season premiere of Stargate Atlantis. Some things in that article just don't sit right with me, most notably how they count their "ratings". According to the article, the season four premiere "Adrift" earned a 1.2 household rating (meaning approximately 1,700,000 people tuned in when the show aired live last Friday). Then they mentioned how that was down from a 1.5 rating for the season three premiere (which, for the record, didn't air in the fall, which could skew their ratings a bit).

As the article goes on, it talks about how sci-fi's latest hit, Eureka, just clobbered the ratings when it premiered on July 10 with 2.0 household rating. I'm guessing that's somewhere in the realm of 2.5-3 million viewers.

Here's my first issue - as much as I love the show and don't wish to discredit it in any way, Eureka aired during the summer months. These are the months where most of the mainstream TV shows are on hiatus - either airing reruns from the previous season or just not on the air at all. How is it even remotely fair or relevant to compare Eureka's ratings in the middle of summer with the Atlantis ratings the first major week of the standard television season?

The article continues:

"Delayed viewership (up to one week following the original broadcast) is accounted for by Nielsen Media Research, and a show like Atlantis can get a significant boost thanks to its tech-savvy demographic. But advertisers and networks regard these delayed viewer numbers as less significant, since viewers are more apt to skip past commercial breaks."

I also have an issue with this. In the Internet-savvy age we live in, there's more than enough ways to advertise, it does not have to be and should not be limited solely to television commercials (half of which is Sci-Fi Channel advertising itself anyway).

This leads into the last paragraph of the article:

"SCI FI is one of the most DVR'ed networks on television, and Friday is the most DVR'ed night of the week -- and Stargate Atlantis is one of the most DVR'ed shows on TV, according to executive producer Joseph Mallozzi."

Again...if its common knowledge that a night, network and specific show are obviously recorded for later viewing, why is it such a big deal what the actual Friday night air time ratings are? Not to mention, if Friday night as a whole is one of the most recorded nights of the week, wouldn't other networks and shows have this same issue (even if its to a lesser extent)?

Its retarded reasoning like this that gets good shows cancelled.