I recently completed a week as a Nielsen family, an experience that only multiplied my doubts about ratings science.

But as a reward, Nielsen families get to pick a prize from a catalogue or receive a $25 a month stipend.

- is now trying to wow a much tougher house, the one made up by America's Nielsen families.

Mike, you raise the question of how someone gets selected to be a Nielsen family.

Soon, those Nielsen families are going to provide ratings for the advertising itself.

Most of television's interactivity, so far, has been summed up in the Nielsen families' diligently taking notes on what they watch.

As the cast and crew know, the show's fate now rests with the legions of real television veterans, the Nielsen families.

Yet the Nielsen family is hardly a perfect sample.

But if the people meters are to work, the Nielsen family has to remember to use them, properly.

So what do the Nielsen families think?