Nielsen rating
noun
an estimate of the total number of viewers for a particular television program, expressed as a percentage of the total number of viewers whose television sets are on at the time and based on a monitoring of the sets of a preselected sample of viewers.
Origin of Nielsen rating
First recorded in 1960–65; after the A.C. Nielsen Co., its originator
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019