Wondering how your favorite television shows have been performing in the Nielsen ratings over the last few days? Surprise, so are network-television executives! Apparently there's been some sort of massive system fail over at Nielsen Media Research — they're blaming it on "server issues" — that has prevented the ratings giant from compiling and releasing their proprietary ratings data since Sunday night. The timing of this breakdown has network suits in a tizzy, as this is typically the time of year when they're analyzing ratings data even more closely than usual as they attempt to determine which shows should be renewed and which should go off to that great scrap heap in the sky. Nielsen hasn't given any estimates as to when the data from Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday night will be available, although they did release a statement saying that "We’re working around the clock to get the TV ratings back on schedule." This is bad news for just about everyone except Ben Silverman, who has presumably made it through three peaceful nights without being interrupted by angry phone calls from Jeff Zucker demanding to know why the network came in last place that day.

TV Networks Frustrated by Lengthy Ratings Delay [TV Decoder/NYT]