Johnny-Come-Latelys

First of all, Wimbledon announced this week that it will finally start paying male and female champions equal prize money. HELLOOOO? Wimbledon hasn't been paying equal prize money?! You've got to be kidding me. Welcome to the 21st century, England. Supposedly the other tennis tournaments dispensed with the discrimintation years ago. Surprise, surprise... Wimbledon's just coming around. As my sister says, leave it to a bunch of old, white, elitists to be the last in line. ::sigh:: Oh well, at least they fixed it now.

Secondly, Nielsen Media Ratings announced this week that it will start putting ratings boxes in college dorms, college apartments, and frat and sorority houses. Thank you, Nielsen!!! I've said for years that it's completely absurd that college students aren't factored into TV ratings at all. I realize that college kids watch the least TV out of any age group, but knowing what TV they DO watch is really important!!! Not only do they make up the majority of the ever-sought-after 18-24 demographic... there are plenty of shows targeted specifically to college kids, including almost all the programming on the CW. After running a pilot group, Nielsen discovered that including college kids in the ratings increased Grey's Anatomy's numbers by 53% and America's Next Top Model's numbers by a substantial percentage I can't remember right now... not to mention its severe impact on televised sporting events! This is the stuff advertisers should want to know... and that's the reason Nielsen ratings exist in the first place! To set advertising rates. (And especially to capture the 18-24 market.) I don't understand why they haven't done this before, but I'm really glad they're finally doing it now.

So this blog entry is a shout-out to two Johnny-Come-Latelys. It's pretty disappointing you weren't on board sooner... but welcome, Wimbledon and Nielsen