Sweepy Time Magic

Yay! May Sweeps started yesterday!

Sweeps is when Nielsen conducts research to see what local TV stations you watch — and when Nielsen is measuring, your favorite station may do things to make you tune in more. Like run special stories.

It used to be that TV stations would run scary stuff about child predators and killer dogs during sweeps, but these days there is a trend toward tales of government waste and saving money at home. This does not mean they’re being more responsible, it just means that research told them to do it. Business is business.

Anyway, when I worked in TV sweeps meant that it was time to tap into that bottomless pool of free talent: my children. I’ve written before about exploiting my kids for ratings; here’s one where I cast my son, as an aspiring pyromaniac. My pitch to him went like this:

Me: How would you like to come to work with me?
Son: Do I have to be in a shoot?
Me: Yes, but…
Son: I don’t want to!
Me: I’ll let you light matches.
Son: Really!? OK!

Untitled from Rob M on Vimeo.

2 thoughts on “Sweepy Time Magic

  1. I almost burned down the 50+ year old gym at Mitchel Field when me and buddy tried to explore a steam tunnel underneath it using matches for light, which we accidentally dropped into a pile of old leaves that had blown into the tunnel, and then beat a hasty retreat/hide maneuver as the firetrucks roared in to deal with the damage. If only my parents had paid better attention during sweeps week!!!!!

  2. Me and my friend got caught playing with matches… saving that chestnut for a blog post. Suffice to say, today my dad could have been arrested for the lesson he taught me about fire safety.

    I used to love writing that stuff. I eventually got bored with the shooting and editing, but it was fun to write.

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