the.com/viewership
The number advertisers worship and networks lie about in the same press release.
means The size and makeup of the audience watching a particular broadcast, channel, or program, usually measured for the benefit of advertisers.
from A straightforward 20th-century formation: 'view' plus the suffix '-ership,' the same pattern that gives us 'readership' and 'membership' — building a noun meaning 'the collective body of those who do X' out of the simple verb. It rose alongside broadcast television itself, growing more prominent as ratings systems turned audiences into countable, sellable numbers.
- counting method
- nielsen samples thousands, extrapolates to millions
- streaming shift
- platforms self-report numbers nobody can verify
- the asterisk
- live plus seven days quietly inflates every hit show
- cancellation irony
- shows get axed despite beating renewed ones