an English question

@dufresne (137)
China
May 6, 2009 5:26am CST
In the sentence" We also convinced them to schedule the pageant for a night outside of the all-important ratings sweeps." What's the "rating sweeps"?
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1 response
scarlet_woman
@scarlet_woman (23465)
• United States
7 May 09
the shows on tv in america are all judged in a market position by ratings,or percentage of audience watching it.to "sweep the ratings" is to have a hit show. if they want to schedule outside the sweeps,they do not want to be in competition with the hit shows,and if nothing good is on,they might get a better audience.
scarlet_woman
@scarlet_woman (23465)
• United States
7 May 09
welcome:) american english sometimes has weird little variables that confuse people trying to figure out how it's meant.it doesn't help the media's always making up it's own new words.