We all enjoyed the delightful surprise that was a snow day Wednesday. My determined mind initially planned to complete all my homework, finish the laundry and clean. After all, when do you have the opportunity to have so much time off?

I watched TV instead.

That’s right. All plans of mice and men were ruined with the push of the power button on my silver remote. At 2 p.m., I woke from my hypnotic state and realized that most of the day had already drifted by. I know I was not the only one.

New York Times writer Benjamin Toff did a compare-and-contrast of Nielsen TV ratings on Super Tuesday. He reached a rather sad conclusion.

On an important day for determining the candidates for the next resident of the White House, “American Idol” had the most viewers. Now, that’s not to say people didn’t vote; they just didn’t seem to care what those votes counted for.

Based on this result, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson should replace Clinton and Obama in the race. They could run on the same ticket. They could have one of those cool combo names such as “The Paulson Ticket” or “Abduly in ‘08”! The slogans just roll off the tongue.

If the 27.8 million viewers “Idol” raked in weren’t insult enough, the 5.3 million viewers Super Tuesday coverage drew lost to the 9 million viewers of “American Gladiators.” Hulk Hogan is more viewable than John McCain ... brother.

There’s a simple solution to this. To encourage public interest in the democratic process, the Hulkster should anchor all political programming. It makes sense. You take a loud former pro-wrestler, put him in an environment that he’s not familiar with and see what happens. I would watch just to see if the Undertaker made an appearance and challenged Mitt Romney to a cage match. You can’t write material like this, and that’s what an audience wants.

However, reality TV didn’t rule the entire night. At 10 p.m., NBC won the ratings race with election coverage, but that was attributed to the fact that “The Biggest Loser” was the show which preceded Super Tuesday coverage. Election coverage won a time slot because a show about people struggling to lose weight made viewers so lazy that they refused to change the channel. For the first time I can remember, apathy made people pay attention to the news.

So here’s the final idea: In a country with more than 800 channels on cable, there are currently four candidates for president. In a system of government that only votes once every four years for a leader, Nielsen ratings determine viewer taste every day of the week.

So which one matters more? With the click of a button, every person casts a vote for what gets put on screen. I could watch some C-SPAN tonight, but I just found out that “Evita” is now free On Demand.

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