Template talk:Television episode ratings

Sorting dates
Natural date formats such as "29 January 2016" or "January 29, 2016" are already sorted correctly in tables (Start date is not, indeed), and the documentation of dts says "Please check that you do actually need this template before using it", so perhaps consider either entering dates directly in a natural format, or better yet, use Date in this template to parse YYYY-MM-DD formats, and add a df parameter to set the format to dmy. nyuszika7h (talk) 12:30, 29 January 2016 (UTC)
 * So, you suggest that we simply set the dates to "29 January 2016" / "January 29, 2016", but does this sort correctly on all platforms? And the second suggestion would be 2015-1-29? Editors, including anonymous editors, may not be familiar with this format of date. Alex&#124;The&#124;Whovian ? 00:30, 31 January 2016 (UTC)

Hiding columns
I'm not sure if this is possible with wikitext, but it may be better do it like Episode list, which uses a Lua module to differentiate between empty and unspecified arguments to hide columns. Or you could just require empty fields to be manually filled in with a value like "n/a". nyuszika7h (talk) 12:34, 29 January 2016 (UTC)
 * There are series that do not have the information for an entire column, so there's no use to have an entire column willed with N/A values. And a Lua module should only be used for complicated templates; this is not complicated, and can (and has been) easily done with wikicode. Alex&#124;The&#124;Whovian ? 00:22, 31 January 2016 (UTC)
 * You're right, it's not really too much. Never mind. nyuszika7h (talk) 11:02, 7 February 2016 (UTC)

Width
Is there a reason to set width to 99 rather than 100? –Dark Cocoa Frosting (talk) 17:31, 31 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I think that's a workaround to an issue in some browsers which show a horizontal scrollbar at 100% width. nyuszika7h (talk) 10:58, 7 February 2016 (UTC)

DVR means Delayed viewing rating
Nielsen states consideration delayed viewing (DVR) data and Zap2It states first three days of delayed viewing. helmboy 22:08, 9 March 2018 (UTC)
 * You've previously said that Zap2It is unreliable - why are you using it now? --  Alex TW 03:15, 10 March 2018 (UTC)


 * That's only their bullshit rounding of broadcast finals and their limited top 25 cable ratings. And if you need more: TV Guide, Variety, Yahoo, USA Today.  helmboy 04:26, 10 March 2018 (UTC)
 * The problem is the most common delayed viewing was digital recorders which unfortunately are also called DVR/PVR. The most common delayed viewing now is streaming, so the field name should be Delayed to also prevent confusion over the acronyms. helmboy 04:31, 10 March 2018 (UTC)
 * First off, the only thing that would change is unliking Digital video recorder from DVR, not changing it to "Delayed". It's still correctly DVR. In fact, the correct term would be "Live+7". (Nevermind, that would be for the total figures). Of your sources, Zap2It puts its articles in the "DVR ratings" category and TV Guide calls it "seventh day of DVR viewing". - Brojam (talk) 05:06, 10 March 2018 (UTC)
 * The link should definitely go. And all the sources call it Delayed Viewing which it is. I would not use L+7 as some figures could be L+3.  And DVR still confuses things because of the more common acronym for recorders. helmboy 05:59, 10 March 2018 (UTC)
 * I'm going to go ahead and remove the link, but I'm not sold on the "Delayed" since many sources use both "Delayed" and "DVR". - Brojam (talk) 23:11, 10 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Think of it this way, the demo live column is Rating/Share so the demo delayed should be Delayed Rating as DVR Rating would sound stupid. Also the Share part should be able to be removed as it's not used on non-broadcast network shows. Also the 18-49 should have and override so other demos or simulcast channel ratings can be used. helmboy 01:34, 12 March 2018 (UTC)
 * But it's not "DVR Rating", it's simply "DVR" and then the metric which is 18–49. - Brojam (talk) 04:20, 12 March 2018 (UTC)
 * The live demo column is "Rating(/Share)," so the L+ demo column should reflect that column by being "Delayed rating" or "DV rating," not DVR which seems like it doesn't relate to the live demo and the L+ columns should allow for other types and not just Delayed such as simulcasts. helmboy 10:30, 12 March 2018 (UTC)

, DVR = delayed viewing rating? I've never understood that to be the case. I was looking for some stuff here about why DVR is not linked. Should it not be linked to digital video recorder for people unfamiliar with what "DVR" means? Yes, the Variety source (and only it) mentions "Delayed Viewing Ratings", but how is that proof of it being the definition of DVR? It's "Delayed Viewing" though DVR (Digital video recorder). I'm shocked this hasn't been brought up since 2018. This didn't read like a very convincing argument. We should at least provide an undefined for DVR, I think. Heartfox (talk) 03:20, 29 July 2020 (UTC)
 * In one of their edit summaries, wrote "DVR means delayed viewing rating not a recorder as it includes streaming viewing". No it doesn't!! This table only includes DVR measured by Nielsen on television sets, not streaming devices... the DVR sources we use (TV by the Numbers, Programming Insider) do not include "multiplatform views" like some networks refer to in press releases. Helmboy did not provide proof it includes streaming, and no sources used have ever said that. This "consensus" was based on flawed sources and does a disservice to readers. For example, this article says "In advertising circles, the Live-plus-7-day (L7) rating period is becoming increasingly irrelevant as viewers watch content on a variety of devices at different times." This very clearly states that Live+7 is based on television DVR, not viewers who watched on VOD (video on demand) at a later date. Can we please add the link to digital video recorder back? Heartfox (talk) 18:26, 11 August 2020 (UTC)

Time slot (ET) and nightly/weekly rank
Television programs such as American Idol, The Voice, America's Got Talent and Big Brother are still utilizing their own episode rating tables to compensate for additional information in their rating tables such as the air date time slot (in Eastern time) and Nielsen nightly rank/weekly rank information. Should these parameters be added to the template as optional parameters in order to standardize the use of this template to more articles? Template:Australian television episode ratings seems to utilize time slot and ranking parameters on its template to get an idea. --JC (talk) 23:00, 20 March 2018 (UTC)
 * I think adding a timeslot column would be a good idea. Since the information is rarely available on articles that use this template (apart from if they are on the main series article) and this stat can have a big effect of the ratings, especially if it changes a lot. Not to mention, that it would be great if reality shows could also use this template. However, I'm not sold on adding the ranks parameters. Maybe the weekly ranks (definitely not the nighly), but even then I've seen many series that add the nightly/weekly ranks just to end with a bunch of N/As when the show falls of them top 25 of the week since the information is not available for ranks outside the top 25. Also there are many different ranks: Timeslot rank, Night rank, Weekly ranks such: 18–49 rank, Viewership rank, Drama rank, Comedy rank. It seems like too much for me personally. - Brojam (talk) 21:30, 3 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Has there been a consensus to add a time slot column? Would love to switch Big Brother over to this template but time slot is important due to the number of episodes this show airs per week.   Alucard 16  ❯❯❯ chat?    05:29, 25 February 2019 (UTC)
 * I think we can go ahead and add it as an optional field with a note that it should only be used when there are multiple changes in the timeslot (ie. for most reality shows). However, shows that have a couple special timeslot changes (like for two hour episodes) during a season should not be using this field. - Brojam (talk) 19:56, 3 March 2019 (UTC)

Total column
I was trying to read one of these things. After you look at it for a bit, it's apparent that the Total column is Total Rating not viewers. But is it worth adding Rating to the column title. I guess the same is true of the DVR column. Nfitz (talk) 18:05, 18 October 2018 (UTC)

Template broken
your edit broke the template for tables with auto TBD in rs parameters. Can you explain what the purpose of rsds is, too? I'm confused by what "123" means. Heartfox (talk) 02:07, 1 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Could you link to an article where this broke? I have reverted for now and will get back to you on what the change was for along with attempting to fix it. Terasail &#91;✉&#93; 02:11, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
 * The Masked Singer (American season 5). Heartfox (talk) 02:13, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
 * The change is so that the Ratings can be ordered properly when there are shares. Because if you use the standard sorting it will only look at the rating and not sort by the share. Meaning in some tables that you could have orders of 1.7/7, 1.7/6, 1.7/7, 1.7/7. This parameter allows to force the order to 1.7/6, 1.7/7, 1.7/7, 1.7/7... It should be fixed now anyway. Terasail &#91;✉&#93; 02:54, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the fix, but the changes you made to The Good Doctor appear to make the ratings not sort properly from highest to lowest or lowest to highest anymore. Also, why are the data sort values so high? Heartfox (talk) 03:09, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
 * I basically got confused and then forgot to fix it, I can’t fix it now.. 4am things. So I will deal with it later. Terasail II &#91;✉&#93; 03:16, 1 April 2021 (UTC)

New parameter
Is there a possibility this template can show "(households)" instead of "(18–49)" if needed? This way, it can be used on TV shows that aired before the widespread availability of 18–49 ratings, which is pre-1996. Thanks, Heartfox (talk) 22:14, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

L+3 ratings
Is there any way that a parameter can be added to note that one episode's statistics are Live +3 ratings and not Live +7? Sometimes shows do not get enough viewers to have notable +7 ratings and they are not reported or even mentioned after a week has passed. I was wondering if a parameter could be added to specify instead of what Wikipedia is currently doing, which is adding a note in the notes column (example). These notes are sometimes missed by readers and can lead to them getting the wrong information. So, is there a simpler way to highlight episodes that are showing +3 ratings? Some Dude From North Carolina (talk) 03:23, 2 October 2021 (UTC)