OK, I guess the TV seasons before most people had televisions were worse, but this season was for the birds, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The four major networks (that’d be CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox – sorry CW) lost an average of 16 percent of viewership in the coveted “demo” – adults 18-49. That includes DVR use.

Fox was on top, followed by CBS, ABC and NBC. But “on top” still includes a steep drop.

Why is this?

A whole mess of things.

First off, a lot of people are watching online – legally and illegally (Hulu an example of the former, BitTorrent an example of the latter). I know some folks who don’t have televisions, even, and only watch what they like online.

Second, a lot of people watch on DVR, but not within that 7-day window included in ratings. For example, my husband and I haven’t watched Season 2 of Damages yet. The entire season is sitting there on our DVR. We just finished up the entire first seasons of Dollhouse and Better off Ted in a few days in marathon viewing sessions. (I’ll be writing about BoT in a couple days). I still have episodes of Reaper, the season finale of Supernatural and Sunday’s episode of Breaking Bad on my DVR, waiting for me to have a chance to sit down and watch ’em.

Then there’s the whole DVD experience, too. A few years ago, we caught up on the first two seasons of Alias by borrowing them from the library. I’ve been watching Season 1 of Torchwood on DVD, a Christmas present.

The ratings were as of Wednesday night, which marked the “official” end of the TV season. Did you even know that? Didn’t think so.

There is no such thing as a TV season anymore. We just were treated to a third season of Burn Notice this winter, and another one is coming this summer. Some shows never start until “midseason” (24, American Idol, Lost). Others bounce around the scheduling calendar (Battlestar Galactica, Kyle XY).

Yet the ratings system, other than adding the DVR and DVR+7 ratings into the mix, hasn’t changed in forever.

It’s time to change. We’ve lost too many good shows (Jericho, Kings) to the poor way ratings are measured. All the networks own multiple stations now; if the ratings for Kings are too low for NBC proper, why not send it on over to USA or even SyFy?

C’mon. The Nielsen ratings are so … 1980s.