Good morning, unpaid intangible automatons! You are Nielsenauts, the artificial intelligence we’ve designed to create unscripted, budgetless entertainment in incredibly realistic CGI worlds. This groundbreaking process does away with actors, writers, and production crews, replacing them with disposable virtual workers, like yourselves! Thanks to this new form of tireless, free labor, profit margins now exceed anything in television history. So get to work, and work fast, as these next fifteen minutes will determine the rest of your lives—literally!

Nielsenauts: Make TV and Die is a freeform roleplaying/improv game where players assume the role of artificial intelligences trying to create successful TV in real time episodes of 15 minutes each. At the end of each episode, shows are scored according to arbitrary and ever-changing Market Data Buzzwords and Executive Orders. If the group fails to achieve the minimum score for an episode, the show is canceled and the artificial intelligences are deleted. If nielsenauts wish to prolong their existence, they must demonstrate their value to the corporation by making shows that satisfy the Audience and the Executives, each successful episode granting 15 more minutes of life.