User blog comment:Ryan Stoppable/The Numbers Game - A Friday Night Smackdown/@comment-853014-20100320155558

The overall quality of a show is generally not displayed through it's ratings. Many people have noted that both The Simpsons and Spongebob are declining in quality, but each are still ratings gods. Why? Because people still want to watch it. Strict fans looking for improvement and new ones who fine the quality is better than ever alike watch them for those sole reasons.

Sometimes, great television can have terrible ratings; I'm reminded of Home Movies, a show in 1999 that ranked somewhere around the 140 mark in the ratings, which is godawful. But it was still a great show. And when it was moved to Adult Swim it improved greatly in ratings (by Adult Swim standards, at least, as it still didn't make it anywhere near the Toph 25).

So, remember, don't always base the quality of a show on it's ratings. And great work with all this, Ryan, it's very useful. :D