So, Americans, what are you doing on Inauguration Day tomorrow?
As it happens, the day that we're inaugurating that weird old felon from Florida also falls on the day that we're remembering Martin Luther King Jr., and it's a federal holiday, which means a lot of us have the day off.
What are we doing to commemorate the changing of the guard on this day, or this week?
The weird guy is obsessed with numbers and crowd sizes. He's already losing on this as his ceremony is being moved into the Capitol Rotunda as temperatures in Washington are far too cold for an outdoor swearing. And I've heard that hotel bookings, rather than their normal near 100%, are down to about 50-60%, which amuses me to no end.
But there's another number that matters: TV ratings. And what matters is both what you watch, and what you don't watch.
It's one thing if you don't watch the ceremony. That's fine. BUT... if your TV is showing something else instead all day long, you're skewing the numbers away from the ceremony! Not only are you denying viewership numbers to the ceremony, you're showing that you were home, and watching TV, and chose not to watch it!
For me, my TV is going to alternate between watching the movie The Apprentice, which apparently the weird felon hates, and the Tarantino movie Inglourious Basterds. I don't like the latter, and haven't seen the former, but I feel it's a bit of a statement on my part. My stereo will be turned off, basically I'll set a timer on my watch to change the movie after it's done.
There's no doubt that this is almost entirely a symbolic gesture, but it makes me feel slightly warm and fuzzy. So I'll do it.
We are not a Neilson-ratings household, but streaming reports their own numbers independently. I don't think that really matters much.
What are we doing to commemorate the changing of the guard on this day, or this week?
The weird guy is obsessed with numbers and crowd sizes. He's already losing on this as his ceremony is being moved into the Capitol Rotunda as temperatures in Washington are far too cold for an outdoor swearing. And I've heard that hotel bookings, rather than their normal near 100%, are down to about 50-60%, which amuses me to no end.
But there's another number that matters: TV ratings. And what matters is both what you watch, and what you don't watch.
It's one thing if you don't watch the ceremony. That's fine. BUT... if your TV is showing something else instead all day long, you're skewing the numbers away from the ceremony! Not only are you denying viewership numbers to the ceremony, you're showing that you were home, and watching TV, and chose not to watch it!
For me, my TV is going to alternate between watching the movie The Apprentice, which apparently the weird felon hates, and the Tarantino movie Inglourious Basterds. I don't like the latter, and haven't seen the former, but I feel it's a bit of a statement on my part. My stereo will be turned off, basically I'll set a timer on my watch to change the movie after it's done.
There's no doubt that this is almost entirely a symbolic gesture, but it makes me feel slightly warm and fuzzy. So I'll do it.
We are not a Neilson-ratings household, but streaming reports their own numbers independently. I don't think that really matters much.