For all these decades, Nielsen has not included college students who live in dorms in its national ratings data. They have now reversed that, including roughly 2.1 million students. And according to the WSJ, it has had a dramatic impact on some shows. In one case, the animated show 'Drawn Together' increased by 60%! And even some mainstream shows like Grey's anatomy have benefited significantly too.

But here is my favorite quote - and it is so Nielsen ...

But to calculate these estimates, Nielsen is extrapolating from the viewing habits of just 130 students around the country who have agreed to have electronic monitors installed in their dorm rooms. That means the decisions of a handful of those students can lead to a huge swing in ratings -- that 163,000 jump for "Drawn Together" was based on 12 people in Nielsen's survey group who tuned in to the show.

And predictably, Nielsen spokesman Gary Holmes said that "130 is an adequate sample size for a narrowly focused demographic like this."

This is such BS. With almost half of Americans paying for digital television, we have a pretty darn good base of REAL NUMBERS to work with. Then, we can use Nielsen's mumbo-jumbo to interpolate all the rest. Wouldn't that be more accurate?