Ratings...

Oh man, it could have been ugly.

Getting the ratings for the first episode of this new TV series I'm producing.  The moment when reality hits--do you suck or don't you?  Is anybody watching or not?  Are you going to be successful or a failure?

But it wasn't.

Ugly.

It was great.

We got the ratings for the first episode and right around 60,000 people were watching.  That's how many people there are in the photo up there.  Sixty thousand...

Pretty neat.

And our highest rated demographic group was men, 18-34 (which is me) and that's something nobody was expecting.  Talk shows typically skew heavier to the female side of things.  But there you go.  Our first show actually showed up on the chart (and they didn't think we would for a couple months at best...) and there is an audience out there for the show.

Our entire team gets the 'props' on this one.  Word up team.

Also, I'm very mindful of the importance of real feedback.  No matter what you do--preach, write movies, direct films, build Churches, or any version of those in whatever field you live/work in...it's so very important to get real, actual, objective feedback on the work you do.

I know that it's hard to do.  We get defensive, we react, we don't really want to know if the work we're doing is finding a way through to people.  

But we've got to know.  Are there people being impacted by what we do?  Who are they?  What impact is the work I'm doing having on them?  How could it be better?  What's great?  What's bad?  How would they change things if they were us?

Of course, they're not, and probably could never do the same thing as us...

(math teaching anyone?)

But they are the reason we do what we do.  There is no point to creative expression without an audience, I mean unless you're painting or writing poetry for yourself.  But for the 'popular arts'--which for me would include TV, film, publishing, preaching--you've got to know if anyone's listening.

'Cause if they're not, you're out of business.

T