The strange way TV ratings are really decided. This secret group of people has a lot to answer for.

Have you ever wondered how the TV networks decide what shows we’re going to watch this season?

Or why so many of our favourite shows seem to get cancelled, yet the Big Bang Theory continues to stay on-air?

Sure, there are things like the Neilson ratings. But, spoiler alert – they’re not actually tracking what we watch. They have no clue you’ve been binge-watching Neighbours reruns.

So when we hear The Block had a million viewers last week, where are they getting this number?

How do they really know it's so popular? Do they trawl Facebook and tally the number of positive and negative comments?

Nope. It tuns out the ratings come from just 3500 Australians who have a special ratings box in their home.

That's 0.0001% of the population. And they have so much power.

One such power-hungry individual is The Conversation's Deputy Multimedia Editor Wes Mountain.

He has had a box since 2013 and he joined Rosie Waterland and Laura Brodnik on The Binge this week to talk about how it works.

The people selected to decide the ratings are selected based on which demographic they fit into, are given a 'peoplemeter' and then act as a representative sample for the whole country.

The TV gods assume that if these people are watching The Bachelorette 24/7, then so are the rest of us.

"Did it make you feel like you should watch Q&A when you really feel like watching embarrassing bodies?" Rosie Waterland asked, when questioning Wes about whether or not he felt a responsibility to support quality television.

Wes acknowledged that, yes,  he does have some sort of superhero-like responsibility to the people of Australia

"I know that they weigh it and it's meant to be representative, but if you are that representative, then you have this responsibility of choosing what is going to stay on or not stay on [TV]," he said.

The peoplemeter is a little bit like a set top box, that plugs into the TV, recording and tracking what you're watching.

It greets you every time you switch on and asks you to enter the data for everyone watching, even if you have guests.

Gotta love a tv with a personalized welcome ???? #welcomeme #peoplemeter #specialandimportant

A video posted by Julia Russo (@juliastephanierusso) on Sep 6, 2013 at 6:05pm PDT

"We invited people over to all watch a television event and probably massively skewed the ratings for that night," Wes confesses.

So yes, it can be rigged.

We're just praying Wes has the good sense to watch Russel Coight's All Aussie Adventures when it returns next year...

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Thanks to Wes, there is so much goodness on TV right now. Listen to The Binge for all the shows you should be watching right now, and subscribe in iTunes.