Talk:Rotten Tomatoes

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Versus Metacritic[edit]

Wouldn't it be fair to say that Metacritic's way of averaging reviews and giving a total score is a superior system to Rotten Tomatoes, in that Metacritic does not simply categorize things into negative/positive, but rather, a true numerical value? So in other words, Metacritics system seems more accurate and less prone to accidents (also, rotten tomatoes lacks a middle-ground for reviews; there is no "mediocre"), and is thus superior -- would anyone else agree, or am I missing something? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.23.6.222 (talk • contribs) .

It falls in line with the thumbs-up/thumbs-down manner of judgement. Rotten Tomatoes simply determines the percentage of thumbs-up (or, in their case, "fresh tomatoes") reviews amongst all the reviews collected for each movie.

Wouldn't it be fair to say that Metacritics way of averaging reviews and giving a total score is a superior system to Rotten Tomatoes, in that Metacritic does not simply categorize things into negative/positive, but rather, a true numerical value?

Not necessarily. In particular, under Metacritic's system it is possible for a single reviewer to bias the aggregate score by giving the movie a rating more extreme than they believe it actually deserves. For example, say that the Metacritic rating for a given film is a 4, and a new reviewer believes that it deserves a 6. They could either give the film a 6, shifting the average to (say) 4.2, or give it a 10, shifting the average to 4.6, and closer to the value of 6 that they feel it truly deserves.

The same problem applies to user ratings on IMDB, only more so, because they don't have so much of a reputation to protect as a professional reviewer, who would lose credibility if they gave ridiculously extreme ratings. Nonetheless, Rotten Tomatoes bypasses this problem by only permitting the reviewer to give a single positive or negative vote, and I believe that this makes it a superior system. I was mildly surprised that there wasn't a note to this effect in the article, but I suppose that the explanation is a bit on the lengthy side. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.136.185.68 (talk • contribs)

More than 43[edit]

According to the current page, there are only 43 films that have garnered a 0% freshness rating, but this is not true. There are 43 action/adventure films that have garnered a 0% freshness rating. In reality the number is much higher, with more than 120 in comedy alone. Did the person who originally wrote that make a mistake or am I just missing something?

Average rating not appearing for TV shows[edit]

For several days now, the average critics reviews rating (example: 7.00 out of 10) has not been available for TV shows. I've searched but have not found information on whether the score details for TV has been removed permanently or temporarily. I've brought this up at MOS:TV. Pyxis Solitary (yak yak). Ol' homo. 22:40, 2 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It appears the average score is now visible again for TV shows. Οἶδα (talk) 05:17, 19 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Average ratings[edit]

It is worth noting that clicking on the critic score now displays the Tomatometer score and average rating of "Top Critics" by default. You must now also click on "All Critics" to view the average rating for all reviews. I am sure this will cause confusion in future editing. Οἶδα (talk) 05:40, 19 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Critics Consensus / Audience Says[edit]

Hello! Jeff Giles here. I appreciate the longtime shout-out on RT's page; it's given me numerous smiles over the years. Just sticking my head in to say thank you, and also to note that as of 5/16/24, I've been dismissed and my nearly 19-year tenure with Rotten Tomatoes is over. I did write the majority of the film CCs (and all of the ASes) between probably 2010 and 2024, but that won't be the case going forward.

Thanks again!