One public methodology. Two credentialed reviewers. 2,204 titles scored on a published rubric. This is the canonical explainer. Read it in five minutes, share it with anyone who needs to understand the project, link to it from anywhere we are cited.
TV Intelligentsia scores television and film on a single public rubric across three weighted dimensions: Cognitive Stimulation (40%), Educational Value (35%), and Craft & Quality (25%). The output is an IQ Score from 0 to 200 across five tiers.
Every score is reproducible from the rubric. The rubric is public at tvintelligentsia.com/methodology/. The signatories are named on every title page.
The kids vertical adds a separate SEL Score (0–50) measured against the CASEL social-emotional learning framework, reviewed by a licensed school psychologist. The SEL Score is displayed alongside the IQ Score; it does not affect the IQ Score itself.
Existing entertainment ratings collapse along one or two failure modes. Rotten Tomatoes aggregates binary critic opinion on a single dimension. IMDb gets gamed before a film opens. Metacritic averages other publications without telling you what was measured. Common Sense Media optimizes for parental-control flags, not cognitive value.
None of those systems answer the question viewers actually have: what is this work doing to my brain, and is that the thing I want my brain doing right now? The credibility gap is not a content gap. It is a measurement gap.
TVI fills that gap with a public methodology, named credentialed reviewers, and a 0-to-200 score on a rubric anyone can reproduce.
Three weighted dimensions. Two credentialed reviewers. One published rubric. Every score citable. The methodology is the product.
Founder and editor-in-chief. Plastic surgery fellow at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Navy Lieutenant Commander. Public-health training with substantial coursework in research methodology. Scores the adult database against the public rubric.
Head of children's content. Licensed school psychologist (Education Specialist, Nationally Certified School Psychologist). Specialises in early childhood and elementary development. Reviews every kids title against both the IQ rubric and the CASEL SEL framework. Public-facing at @cordelias.garden.
The methodology is grounded in cognitive science, developmental psychology, and media-effects research, with credentialed review for children's content. The rubric is public. The signatories are named. The kids vertical is reviewed by a licensed school psychologist.
The rubric has not yet been peer-reviewed. Phase 3 of the credibility model adds peer-reviewed validation; until that ships, "peer-reviewed methodology" is not a claim we make. The adult database is reviewed by a single credentialed reviewer against a public rubric, not by a multi-person panel. "Credentialed expert panel" is reserved for descriptions of the kids vertical, where Cordelia carries the credential, and for future phases.
IQ Score is a content rating, not a measurement of viewer intelligence. A title scoring 178/200 means the work itself places high cognitive demand and high craft on its audience. It does not mean a viewer needs a 178 IQ to appreciate it.
The credibility model is built in three phases. Phase 1 is scoring at scale on a public rubric with credentialed review, which is where we are today. Phase 2 adds inter-rater reliability testing and publication of the testing data. Phase 3 adds university partnerships and peer-reviewed validation of the rubric itself.
The roadmap is deliberately staged. We do not claim Phase 2 or Phase 3 work that hasn't shipped. The honest claim at any moment is the proof that exists at that moment.
Different audiences use different surfaces. Pick the one that matches your reason for being here.
Direct contact: jordan@tvintelligentsia.com. We answer.