Nielsen Surprise: Network Ratings May Be Higher Than They Appear

The season debut of "Heroes" (with Masi Oka and David Anders) will be rerun Saturday, which will result in a higher Nielsen rating. (By Paul Drinkwater -- Nbc)

In the Nielsen New Processing Option 2.0, the series episode's first broadcast and its second have to have aired in a single calendar week.

This is easy to accomplish if the series airs, oh, say, Monday.

It is likewise not possible to accomplish with a show that airs, oh, say, Sunday, the end of the Nielsen week.

Here's probably a good place to mention that NBC has no Sunday series for the first part of the TV season -- it has football.

ABC, on the other hand, airs three of its more important series on Sunday: "Desperate Housewives," "Brothers & Sisters" and "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." Sadly, none of them can take advantage of the Nielsen New Processing Option 2.0.

Neither can CBS's new "Viva Laughlin" or returning "Cold Case" or "Shark" -- all on Sunday.

It would seem that Nielsen New Processing Option 2.0 puts shows that air on Sunday night at a disadvantage.

This is, of course, of no concern to NBC, which is playing strictly by Nielsen's rules.

NBC research chief Alan Wurtzel notes, as did execs at other broadcast networks, that getting a bunch of advertisers to all agree to buy the exact same ad time in two broadcasts of one episode in a week is very hard to accomplish and unlikely -- at least this season -- to become a regular occurrence.

(CBS plans to rerun its "Cane" premiere on Saturday and ABC will re-air next Wednesday's "Pushing Daisies" unveiling on Oct. 5, but in both cases the advertisers for the second airing will be different.)

"This was a very special arrangement," Wurtzel told The TV Column of the "Heroes" debut. "The idea that you are able to financially do this on a regular basis seems very impractical."

On the other hand, Wurtzel said, the new option better reflects the way people watch television in "the contemporary media environment."