Watching Television Audiences offers a comprehensive introduction to the current state of research into TV audiences. Written by a leading scholar in the field, it surveys work done on a variety of genres and programmes, including science fiction from Dr. Who through Star Trek to the X-files, sitcoms, cop shows, cartoons, news, documentary and many others. It explores concepts of audience research from the theory of an implied audience to active audience readings, and examines how scholars are now seeking to synthesis the two areas in a way which will constitute a 'third generation' of audience studies. Above all, it provides students and academics not only with an understanding of the theory but also of the different methodologies used to research different types of audience.