Inside the World of TV Programming Decisions

As viewers, we all know that we don’t like most of what’s on television, but we also know that many people are deeply disappointed when a show they have enjoyed for years gets taken off. Do TV executives actually know what they are doing? TV ratings are the basis for the pricing of advertising, so they also serve as the bottom line for success or failure in programming decisions. Other kinds of research and business tradeoffs enter into the final go/no-go call, as well.

This class will look at case studies in programming decisions—including series programs, news programs, sports and specials. We will also examine how audience research interacts with the instincts, visions and judgment of programming executives. With the unfair advantage of hindsight, we’ll second-guess the professionals.

Barry Cook, Ph.D., was hired by the NBC television network research department to evaluate, improve and implement research methods used for decision support and advertising sales. His work at NBC included research on network and local TV news programming, the TODAY Show, primetime programming predictors, the Olympics and the validity of the Nielsen TV ratings. Following that, he served as VP of research at the USA cable network, and as chief research officer at Nielsen. In his retirement, he still watches a lot of TV. He also put sounds, dialogue and music to picture as a hobbyist video producer.