Ratings Grabber

Warren Cowan’s company, Rogers and Cowan, represents “more TV programming than any other PR firm in the business,” as he calculates it. So how did he get to be a real-life Nielsen family, contributing to TV ratings research?

“When they called me from Florida and asked if I would be interested in becoming a member of the Nielsen family for one week, I first thought it was a gag,” Cowan told us, laughing.

But it was no joke: Cowan was selected at random to be one of the 3,600 L.A. households to receive a “Personal Nielsen TV Viewing Diary.” Did the research company know what he did for a living? “They never asked.”

Nielsen spokesman Larry Frerk pooh-poohed the idea that Cowan should have been disqualified--or that his diary could be used to favor his clients’ shows.

“Nielsen families reflect people from all walks of life,” Frerk said. “Obviously, he is on a fringe area. But in Hollywood it’s difficult to screen everybody because so many people have some type of connection with TV.”

Unlike People Meters, which determine national ratings, diary households are merely for “local market measurement,” Frerk added.

Cowan said his household--which that week included ex-wife Barbara Rush and daughter, Claudia--watched their usual movies, sports and interviews.

Now he has to figure out how to spend the dollar Nielsen paid him for his trouble.