Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4775130-20150922222850/@comment-24674051-20150924172916

Esk, if there was a simple explanation, this wouldn't be much of a thread. XD

Ratings, aside from the obvious "how many people watched this show", are an integral part of how networks analyze which shows to keep and which ones to jettison. And the ratings are probably one of the few factors that is objectivly measured. Many of the other aspects are subjective. You need at least a little understanding of what the rating numbers are used for in order to understand why some people think they are important. And that is going to include tangential discussions on Analysis and comparisons. The rating, by itself, is (imo) a relatively meaningless number.