22 May Fiction vs. Reality
Posted at 15:35h
in Versus
Twenty years ago, not only were we watching a different set of TV shows—we were watching TV very differently. Back in 1992, we were paying attention to the fictional career travails of Murphy Brown and the travails-in-general of Roseanne. By 2012, both shows were long gone—as was the notion that you have to watch a particular program at a particular time.
Today, Nielsen tracks two sets of ratings: the top prime-time shows and the top time-shifted ones. In prime time, we’re most likely to tune in to football and reality-based fare like American Idol and Dancing with the Stars. The shows we record to watch later tend to be edgy dramas like Mad Men,
Breaking Bad, and Justified.
| 1992Top ten shows | Top ten prime-time shows | 2012Top ten time-shifted shows* |
| 60 MInutes | NBC Sunday Night Football | Breaking Bad |
| Roseanne | American Idol—Wednesday | Mad Men |
| Murphy Brown | American Idol—Thursday | Warehouse 13 |
| Cheers | Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick | Covert Affairs |
| Home Improvement | Dancing with the Stars | Suits |
| Designing Women | Dancing with the Stars Results | Justified |
| Coach | NCIS | White Collar |
| FullHouse | The Voice | Fringe |
| Murder, She Wrote | NFL Regular Season | Sons of Anarchy |
| Unsolved Mysteries | Vegas | American Horror Story |
* Recorded and watched later
