Irrational

Wednesday, 16 February 2011

Man people cannot get enough of My Kitchen Rules! The top rating show of the night, followed closely by Today Tonight at 6.30.



Let's have a look at the 6.30 timeslot. It has been shaken up this year by the arrival of channel 11 which has installed Neighbours at 6.30 making it the biggest draw on all the digital spectrum. The replacement Ten Evening News has hovered under 400,000 viewers since commencement, indeed its lead in - 6pm with George Negus attracted 421,000 viewers, its biggest audience in weeks, no doubt bolstered by a rerun of 6pm at 10.30pm weeknights.

But Ten's predicament is a long term change so don't expect things to take off too quickly there, over on channel Nine though a trend is forming with ACA, they seem to be hovering around the 900,000 mark, unable to climb over 1 million. Meanwhile the nearly identical Today Tonight has a clear margin over Nine's tabloid.

Having watched both Nine and Seven's shows in recent weeks I'm struggling to figure what Seven is doing that Nine is not. Its almost as if Seven has the same irrational lead in news that Nine used to enjoy back in their 90s heyday

I wonder if 887,000 is the kind of audience Nine was expecting for Farmer Wants a Wife - the incessant promotion would suggest otherwise, perhaps the concept (a rural rip-off of The Bachelor) may finally be put to rest.