Recommending media programs based on media program popularity

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, at a computer system, information that indicates interest by a user in one or more media programs;

obtaining information that indicates popularity for a plurality of media programs that are responsive to the received information, and identifying a host series to which at least one of the plurality of media programs corresponds, the host series representing a group of multiple media program episodes that cover a common topic;

identifying one or more other media programs that are not episodes of the host series based at least in part on the identification of the host series, a level of relevance of the one or more other media programs to the host series, and the information that indicates interest, by the user, in particular ones of the media programs; and

generating and providing, for presentation to the user, a recommendation of the identified one or more other media programs.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the received information comprises an explicit query provided by the user.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identified host series is a host series of a media program other than the media program in which the user indicated an interest.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the received information includes information that identifies media programs that the user has viewed.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein one or more recommendations are generated based at least in part on a series identifier for the host series.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating, and providing with the recommendation, data for displaying an electronic program guide grid that includes the one or more recommendations.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software comprising instructions executable by one or more computers which, upon such execution, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

receiving, at a computer system, information that indicates interest by a user in one or more media programs;

obtaining information that indicates popularity for a plurality of media programs that are responsive to the received information, and identifying a host series to which at least one of the plurality of media programs corresponds, the host series representing a group of multiple media program episodes that cover a common topic;

identifying one or more other media programs that are not episodes of the host series based at least in part on the identification of the host series, a level of relevance of the one or more other media programs to the host series, and the information that indicates interest, by the user, in particular ones of the media programs; and

generating and providing, for presentation to the user, a recommendation of the identified one or more other media programs.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the received information comprises an explicit query provided by the user.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the identified host series is a host series of a media program other than the media program in which the user indicated an interest.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the received information includes information that identifies media programs that the user has viewed.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein one or more recommendations are generated based at least in part on a series identifier for the host series.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7 , further comprising generating, and providing with the recommendation, data for displaying an electronic program guide grid that includes the one or more recommendations.

13. A computer-implemented system, comprising:

memory storing data relating to popularity of one or more media programs;

an interface configured to receive media-related requests and obtain information that indicates user interest in a plurality of media programs that are responsive to the received information, identify a host series to which at least one of the plurality of media programs corresponds, the host series representing a group of multiple media program episodes that cover a common topic, and to identify one or more other media programs that are not episodes of the host series based at least in part on the identification of the host series, a level of relevance of the one or more other media programs to the host series, and the information that indicates user interest in particular ones of the media programs; and

a programming guide builder to generate code for constructing a programming guide grid, and providing, for presentation to a user, a recommendation of the identified one or more other media programs in the guide.

14. The computer-implemented system of claim 13 , wherein the recommendations are generated from audience participation data associated with the media programs.

15. The computer-implemented system of claim 13 , further comprising a collaborative filter for determining co-dependency relationships between users and media programs.

16. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, at a computer system, information that indicates interest by a user in one or more media programs;

identifying one or more second media programs that are determined to have a genre that is the same as the genre for one of the plurality of media programs, and that have been assigned a status of newly available for viewing;

in response to determining that search and click data related to the interest of the user in the one or more media programs is unavailable, retrieving rating information for the one or more media programs and applying the rating information to the one or more second media programs; and

generating and providing, for presentation to the user, a recommendation for one or more of the second media programs based at least in part on the rating information and the status.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16 , further comprising:

obtaining information that indicates user interest, for users other than the user, in the one or more second media programs in response to determining that the ratings information and the status do not satisfy a predetermined measure; and

determining a weighting for the one or more second media programs, the weighting based at least in part on (i) the information that indicates user interest, (ii) the ratings information, and (iii) the status metric.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 16 , wherein identifying one or more second media programs comprises:

applying one or more collaborative filtering techniques to retrieved audience measurement data; and

generating and providing, for presentation to the user, a recommendation of media programs based at least in part on applying a predetermined weighting factor for each technique.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software comprising instructions executable by one or more computers which, upon such execution, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

receiving, at a computer system, information that indicates interest by a user in one or more media programs;

identifying one or more second media programs that are determined to have a genre that is the same as the genre for one of the plurality of media programs, and that have been assigned a status of newly available for viewing;

in response to determining that search and click data related to the interest of the user in the one or more media programs is unavailable, retrieving rating information for the one or more media programs and applying the rating information to the one or more second media programs; and

generating and providing, for presentation to the user, a recommendation for one or more of the second media programs based at least in part on the rating information and the status.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19 , further comprising:

obtaining information that indicates user interest, for users other than the user, in the one or more second media programs in response to determining that the ratings information and the status do not satisfy a predetermined measure; and

determining a weighting for the one or more second media programs, the weighting based at least in part on (i) the information that indicates user interest, (ii) the ratings information, and (iii) the status metric.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19 , wherein identifying one or more second media programs comprises:

applying one or more collaborative filtering techniques to retrieved audience measurement data; and

generating and providing, for presentation to the user, a recommendation of media programs based at least in part on applying a predetermined weighting factor for each technique.

22. A computer-implemented system comprising:

one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

receiving, at a computer system, information that indicates interest by a user in one or more media programs;

identifying one or more second media programs that are determined to have a genre that is the same as the genre for one of the plurality of media programs, and that have been assigned a status of newly available for viewing;

in response to determining that search and click data related to the interest of the user in the one or more media programs is unavailable, retrieving rating information for the one or more media programs and applying the rating information to the one or more second media programs; and

generating and providing, for presentation to the user, a recommendation for one or more of the second media programs based at least in part on the rating information and the status.

23. The computer-implemented system of claim 22 , further comprising:

obtaining information that indicates user interest, for users other than the user, in the one or more second media programs in response to determining that the ratings information and the status do not satisfy a predetermined measure; and

determining a weighting for the one or more second media programs, the weighting based at least in part on (i) the information that indicates user interest, (ii) the ratings information, and (iii) the status metric.

24. The computer-implemented system of claim 22 , wherein identifying one or more second media programs comprises:

applying one or more collaborative filtering techniques to retrieved audience measurement data; and

generating and providing, for presentation to the user, a recommendation of media programs based at least in part on applying a predetermined weighting factor for each technique.