‘I Dream of Jeannie’ and Nielsen Ratings
When Jeannie’s ratings were ‘safe’
A boomer favorite classic TV series made television history when its reruns beat out its primetime competition on network TV. With the 60th anniversary of the show this year, Fred Grandinetti explores “I Dream of Jeannie” and Nielsen ratings.
“I Dream of Jeannie” has never been off the air since its television debut on Sept. 18, 1965. The series starred Barbara Eden as Jeannie and Larry Hagman as Major Anthony Nelson. Others in the cast were Bill Daily, Hayden Rorke, Emmaline Henry, Barton MacLane, and Vinton Hayworth. The show revolved around Nelson finding a genie in a bottle and his life becoming forever changed.
The program finished its five-year run in 1970 on NBC. However, that same year it left the network, other countries aired episodes for the first time. In January of 1971, the series was launched into international syndication, quickly earning high ratings on the various independent stations it played. The series made television history when, airing in reruns, it beat out its primetime competition on CBS, ABC, and NBC. “Variety” noted on Oct. 6, 1971, “The big switch no doubt representing the first time in ratings history that indies [local stations] have knocked over the network stations in a primetime slot was promoted by WPIX’s premiere of the off-web “Jeannie” reruns back to back from 7 to 8 pm.”[16]
The series, like “The Brady Bunch,” “The Odd Couple,” “The Munsters,” and “Gilligan’s Island,” did not have consistently high ratings during its network run. However, like these other programs it became widely successful when airing five (sometimes seven) days a week. This is where “I Dream of Jeannie” found its loyal following.
Whether the series’ network ratings were accurate became the subject of an article published in “The Valley Times” (North Hollywood California) on Jan. 30, 1968, by Allen Rich. Sidney Sheldon, who created the program, had Jeannie locked in a NASA safe where she spent the next four weeks. A contest was held where viewers sent in the combination which would release her.
Rich said in his article,
NBC is pondering the matter of renewal or otherwise perhaps because it is not too ecstatic concerning the Nielsen ratings of the show which when last released were a marginal 18.2. Marginal, in most instances, means a series could go either way. On or off, that is. It is interesting to note that while the rating is being pondered mail men are getting lopsided toting bags of mail to Screen Gems, producers of the series. These mail bags each contain 3,000 letters in the I Dream of Jeannie contest. They are in answer to a single eight-second announcement during the show. Hardly time to blink. It seems poor Jeannie is locked in a safe and the first viewer to get her out with the correct combination wins a trip around the world. The mail has reached epidemic proportions. Nine thousand letters a day. Multiply that by the seven days in a week, that adds up to 63,000 letters and cards. The 63,000 letters a week in the I Dream of Jeannie contest are a figure about 53 times greater than the 1,200 Nielsen homes on which ‘marginal’ Jeannie ratings is based. Also, they (the letters) are something you can see, feel and hold in your hand, which is more than you can say for the ‘indications’ contained in the ratings put out by Mr. Nielsen.
This has led to wide spread speculation among fans of the series that the show’s network ratings were far from accurate.
It was reported in Feb. 18, 1968, edition of “Florida Today,” Michael H. McKann, a student at Texas Tech in Lubbock submitted the correct answer of 4-9-7 (the safe’s combination). He won a round-the-world jet trip for two and $1,000 in expense money.
The safe contest, along with a problem NBC had acquiring the broadcast rights to another series, led the network to renew Jeannie for another season.
Jeannie’s time in the safe has enabled audiences to wonder, can Nielsen ratings truly be trusted? It would take a genie to answer this question.
Barbara Eden is still dreaming of Jeannie – a 2023 interview with the actress
Entertainment historian Fred Grandinetti has been writing about Popeye since 1983 in numerous magazines, newspapers, and websites. Grandinetti also produces the award-winning cable access series, Drawing with Fred, for Massachusetts cable-access television, and published Popeye The Sailor, The 1960s TV Cartoons.
Read more from Grandinetti such as Popeye’s birthday, Bewitched, Bothered, and Recycled, and the watering down of Batgirl.
