HDTV impact on Nielsen ratings

I'm a list guy; what can I say, I just love 'em! TV Squad posted a great list today of the top twenty shows, per last week's Nielsen ratings. As I was looking through the list, I started counting how many of these shows were available in high-def. See, that's the funny thing about lists; they tend to generate more lists! So what did my list show? It showed that over 60% of the top-watched shows were available in HDTV.

You sort of expect this, don't you? After all, most of these shows are during the prime time hours, which are, well, "prime time" for most HDTV programming. I have to wonder though: do you think anyone watched these shows because they're in HD? Sure, most of them are great shows based on fantastic content, but many of us have tuned into a show simply because it was in HD, and that's how we got hooked.

Check the list out and let us know if you watched any of these because of their high-def availability. I can tell you that I probably would have missed out completely on CSI if it wasn't in HD, and I'm glad I tuned in to see the 1080i feed: I'm hooked!