TV by the Numbers

An Internet and statistical analyst, Robert Seidman had previously worked for IBM and Charles Schwab, and published an online newsletter about the Internet and AOL before founding TV by the Numbers; Bill Gorman had been an AOL executive until 1998, and had read Seidman's column. Friends since the early 1990s when they met near Washington, D.C., In Gorman's words, while there were sites devoted to disseminating certain subjects, "there was no site that did the same thing for the television industry. That is, compile the numbers in a way, and analyze them in a way, that consumers would understand". On November 10, 2010, TV by the Numbers announced that they were partnering with TV news website Zap2it. As a result, the website's URL changed to a subdomain of the zap2it.com domain. In addition, Zap2it features such as TV listings began to appear on the site. In response to The New York Times decision in 2011 to start charging for access to online content, Gorman wrote an article stressing his website will remain free. In January 2012, Gorman and Seidman expressed interest in hiring writers to do the day-to-day writing on their site. On February 12, 2012, they announced that Sara Bibel and Amanda Kondolojy would be joining the website. On April 3, 2014, Zap2It owner Tribune Digital Ventures purchased the site in full. On January 31, 2020, the website's staff released a statement declaring TV by the Numbers to be inactive starting the very next day, February 1, 2020. The staff bid goodbye and thanked readers. This is in part due to TV ratings being less of a factor due to the rise in media streaming. As of August 2020, its URL redirects to Zap2It's TV listings service. ==Impact==

According to one source, much of the information Gorman and Seidman had access to was not readily available to the media, and thus their efforts to analyze the data led to many "savvy readers" becoming interested in the workings of the ratings process. TV by the Numbers was cited by such media outlets as CNN, the Associated Press, National Public Radio, and former sister publication the Chicago Tribune. ''Harry's Law'' TV by the Numbers received criticism from several facets of the television industry for their ratings analyses. ''Harry's Law'' star Kathy Bates publicly bashed the website's ideas about ratings and their symbol "The Cancellation Bear", in an interview for Entertainment Weekly. She stated, "Some of these people are just so stupid. I don't even get it.... All [they] talk about is the blessed [18–49] demo this, demo that, and how the Cancellation Bear is gonna eat us and all that stuff. So we'll see. We'll just see." ''Harry's Law'' executive producer Bill D'Elia agreed with Bates, stating in subsequent Twitter messages, "WTF is TV by the numbers? Who cares what they think? #harryslaw is most viewed scripted drama on NBC and will return....First, tv by the numbers doesn't know anything. They are misinformed at best, ignorant at worst. Second, Kathy is right." After ''Harry's Law'' was cancelled in May 2012 and the site issued a passive-aggressive response to the news, D'Elia again turned to Twitter to express his feelings on the website, stating, "TVBTN Negativism fuels belief to not watch shows. He influences viewers to not watch something, self-fulfilling his prophecy. Just awful" Suburgatory The Cancellation Bear was mentioned in the Suburgatory season 2 episode "Body Talk". Suburgatory showrunner Emily Kapnek subsequently did an interview with TV by the Numbers, explaining: "we just thought it would be really funny to have [the show's] school TV station governed by the same panic and hysteria that everyone feels watching their shows live and die and get discussed online so we thought it was just a really fun shout out because we're all on your site all the time." Galavant In May 2015, TV By the Numbers predicted that the musical-comedy series Galavant would be canceled after its first season. After a surprise renewal, the second season began with an episode titled "A New Season aka Suck It Cancellation Bear" in mockery of the website. ==Features==

TV by the Numbers had many features. Most focused on television ratings and the analysis of those ratings. News categories The site was well known for its coverage of Nielsen ratings. The following is a list of all of the types of ratings covered by the site: The Renew/Cancel Index differed from Gorman's previous attempts in that it compared a series' average ratings to the average ratings for their own network, as opposed to a basic numerical hierarchy or comparing ratings to an overall average from all the networks. Gorman formulated the numbers by dividing a series's season-to-date ratings average by the season-to-date average of all the scripted series on that network (in the latter half of the season, Gorman used only numbers since that January for season-to-date numbers, as that seemed to help renewal predictions). The resulting number (rounded to the nearest hundredth) showed how a series's average related to the network's average (which always came out to 1.00). The toss-up range continued down to 0.75, when the likely to be cancelled level started. On the other hand, he did not take internal issues (contract disputes, scheduling arguments, etc.) into account. The Renew/Cancel index was updated with a new article every Tuesday, from the beginning of the broadcast season in late September to the dates of the network upfront presentations in mid-May. Bubble Watch Seidman created the Bubble Watch which, similarly to the Renew/Cancel Index, aimed to predict based upon ratings data which television series would be canceled and which would be renewed. Many readers were disappointed and expressed their disappointment to Seidman. Seidman recognized that and reinstated the Bubble Watch on November 4, 2012. He stated that readership levels were basically the same for the Bubble Watch and its temporary replacement, but he wanted to "give the vocal minority who really cares about the table format the table format they asked for." The Bubble Watch was updated with a new article every Sunday, during the same period as the Renew/Cancel Index. Seidman wrote every update from the Bubble Watch's inception until May 2013. He then took a break for an unspecified period of time, and longtime reader and occasional contributor Tom Shaw took his place in September 2013. The Bubble Watch did not return for the 2014–15 season, however Tom Shaw contributed to Renew/Cancel Index posts and there was a one-week edition of the Bubble Watch in December. Other features Scripted Cable Series Renew/Cancel Status Readers of the Renew/Cancel Index and the Bubble Watch inquired many times to Seidman and Gorman about why they did not predict the renewal chances of cable series. In response, Gorman and Seidman explained that the cable networks were not limited to the strict structure of the broadcast networks. This results in them being much more erratic in renewals and cancellations, and thus too hard to predict accurately. Seidman decided to make a compromise of sorts and made a simple list of the renewed and the cancelled cable series. Called the Scripted Cable Renew/Cancel Status, its first post was published on November 7, 2012. The Scripted Cable Renew/Cancel Status explicitly did not predict the fates of television series. It only stated their status. If a series had been cancelled or had been renewed for an upcoming season, it would have been stated in the list. If a series's future beyond the season that was currently airing (or, if the series was on hiatus, the season that had just been previously airing) had not been officially declared by the network, there would have been a blank spot in that series's row on the list. == See also ==