Married to the Media: February Sweeps: Good Ratings in the "House"

February sweeps are much revered in my house. They’re an excuse to cocoon and ignore the harsh Chicago winter that I’m always sick of by this point in the year. They’re a Valentine delight and a birthday present for my hubby and me. They’re also a honorary nod to my long-gone dad, the king of TV fans, born smack in the middle of sweeps (Feb. 15). 

 

As we headed into sweeps this year, I expected to be more disappointed than delighted. The WGA strike was still raging and it seemed like there would be little on TV to get excited about. I even started to consider, even look forward to, spending my time on other recreational pursuits. But as we sit today, with a bit more than a week of sweeps to go, I have to say that these sweeps are all right. The nets, both cable and broadcast, patched together a fun month of programming that captured and held audiences and kept us tuning in.

 

Fox scored the one-two punch that I’m sure will win them this sweeps by carrying the Super Bowl on Feb. 3, followed directly by one of three remaining House episodes that they had been saving for the sweeps kick-off. The best House episode so far this season aired Feb. 5. House battled both the weekly mysterious disease and a devotion to religion, which he considers a “symptom of irrational belief and groundless hope.” We learn much about House, Wilson and his new team in this episode, and the case and patients were compelling. Catch it, if you didn’t, the next time it reruns (or online). 

 

I’m not a big fan of American Idol, but that returned for February sweeps too, and it has managed each week to land at No. 1 and 2 in the prime time ratings with its Tuesday and Wednesday night shows. With House airing after the Tuesday Idol, and The Moment of Truth airing in Idol’s Wednesday lead-out spot, Fox had four of the top five shows in the week of Feb. 4.

 

Lost came back during sweeps and each week, we find our heads getting more spun around by this twisty story. We’re now flashing forward in time, learning that several of our long-stranded “Lost-ees” have become the “Oceanic Six,” a splinter group that managed to get off the island. How did they do it? Why do their lives seem even more messed up once off the island than they ever were on it? And, how the (bleep) did that polar bear skeleton wearing the Dharma collar end up in the desert?

 

Those are just some of the questions as we slide further into the rabbit hole each week with Lost. How smart was ABC to move Lost to Thursdays into the primo spot vacated by the out-of-fresh-episodes hit, Grey’s Anatomy? Lostlanded in the No. 7 slot in the prime time weekly ratings the week of Feb. 4, with an 8.8 household rating, a 14 share and 15,292,000 total viewers (according to Nielsen). 

 

Numb3rs, a CBS show I used to watch on Fridays if I couldn’t find anything else, took up residence in my heart this sweeps, largely because they had new episodes when no one else did. I could look forward to a few brand new episodes and because I was discovering in more depth a show I watched only sporadically before, even the occasional re-run felt “new” to me.

 

Some of my other favorite shows, like Law and Order: SVU and Grey’s Anatomy, ran out of episodes before sweeps began. Having watched those shows faithfully, I’d seen even the reruns more than once, so their spots in the schedule were the time I used for other pursuits.

 

I found I played on the computer more. I’m already a fan of YouTube, and yes, I went there more often. But I was still watching what I watched before, which is primarily regurgitated professional content from the nets (montages of scenes of my fave shows set to music are my guilty pleasure); goofy user-generated content like “Ruby the X-Rated Parrot” (hilarious, trust me!); and footage of Springsteen concerts.

 

There may come a day when viewing on my computer surpasses my viewing on TV, but that day isn’t here yet. I’ve yet to find a user-generated “series” that rivals what the nets offer in terms of writing, casting, content or production quality. I also prefer sitting on my couch in front of my 50” HD widescreen with my fire nearby, to sitting in my freezing cold home computer room watching stuff on a 12” grainy desktop screen.

 

It’s true I’m not part of the demo that supposedly is migrating to the computer screen in droves, but even among that age group, I don’t see programs like “lonelygirl15” and “Chad Vader” reaching the popularity of a Grey’s or a House anytime soon.

 

Spurred on by a digital class I took at work, I also opened an account on FaceBook. Not yet a popular place for boomers like myself to connect, I expect I’ll use it mostly to keep in touch with my 20-something nieces. I have yet to figure out why I should care each time a “friend” goes to a movie, buys a new shirt, runs a half-mile or takes a movie quiz, but I am looking forward to learning more about this new form of keeping up with those we do care about.

 

I also found myself reading more. Having access to the ever-present media agency “buckets of magazines,” my coffee table had been buckling under the weight of the scores of periodicals. Cold weather plus the strike netted chunks of reading time, allowing me to sort through them all. I’ve perfected Cooking Light, made my life Real Simple and my look In-Style, and bettered my Life Oprah-style. I’ve even had time to get through all the great Vanity Fair articles, so good… yet so long. It’s always a challenge to find time to read them in just one sitting. I’ve even begun and finished a book or two. 

 

The strike is now over and our shows will soon be back, many by mid-April and most in time for May sweeps. But this strike-altered February sweeps brought us many good things. It brought good TV in the form of repeats of old favorites and a smattering of fresh shows. It also freed up time to explore new entertainment choices and to devote to long-neglected old ones. I’ve struck a balance between the two that I hope I can maintain, even when good weather and new episodes return in the spring.