Seven's turn

Yep Seven's turn to win Sundays as the 6.30 and 7.30 slots continue their round robin between the networks.

Sunday Night got a timeslot win on the weekend that Nine confirmed the Sunday ACA as a permanent fixture. For all their trouble ACA didn't do to well on Sunday night (despite yet ANOTHER TV reunion - this time for The Sullivans). In principle it makes more sense to have A Current Affair on a Sunday than it does on a Friday! But shows like this are habitual so it's hard to break into existing prime time slot with a stripped show.

A rerun of NCIS at 9.30 for Ten didn't do much better than its spin off, reinforcing the notion that save for a handful of shows, (Big Bang Theory and Top Gear cheif among them) viewers are becoming weary of reruns. As I've read over on Media Spy some episodes of Modern Family (a sophomore show) have been rerun by ten 4 times already! Maybe ten should think about throwing in some Bondi Rescue reruns instead, save for cable I don't think that show has ever been rebroadcasted.

Big Winners and Big Losers

Expect Tuesday nights to follow this pattern for a while - Masterchef dominated - it's audience rose by about 60,000, Australia's Got Talent stayed level at 1.4 million and is one of Seven's strongest performers at the moment.

Top Gear took a hit down about 150,000 viewers week on week - Nine shouldn't lose heart so much - viewers know Masterchef and Talent are limited runs while Top Gear will be on year round (given that there are other episodes playing on GO! thoughout the week - 1.2 million is quite impressive!

The big losers were the 9.30 shows with the huge family audiences fleeing in droves after 9pm. The turnout for the 9.30 episodes of The Big Bang Theory was abysmal - I'd admire Nine for trying out sitcoms at 9.30 but is it worth using Big Bang as filler material just as the show has started to catch on - might be better wheeling out one of their other starters like Community (currently on GO!) and seeing what happens.

The big winner on the night was Bondi Rescue on 1.3 million viewers up from 1.1 the week before - a stellar improvement.

Good News, Bad News - Thursday 2 April 2009

A Week on Week comparison for channel Ten obviously sees ten down without the aid of AFL footy but away from that schedule upheaval Ten has some good news and some bad news...

The Good News
Law & Order SVU got the better of Nine's 20 to 01 with probably its biggest audience of the season, helped along by (of all things) Bondi Vet!

Dr Chris Brown is finally over the million mark and no doubt a second season confirmation is only a formality.

For a show which is not a typical Ten format (and has therefore struggled for attention) it has grown consistently each week. Last year it seemed like the whole "Bondi" franchise would be dead on the tarmac with the abject failure of Bondi Rescue Bali, but the success here must surely be encouraging someone to hunt for the next Bondi reality skein, Crime & Investigation channel looked like they were getting in on the act last Thursday with The Bondi Gay Murders, but that was just a one-off CIA ep!

The Bad News
Oh Yeah - the disruption (two pre-emptions for AFL matches so far this season) has not been a good thing for Life on Mars which this week finished its run in the US, not sure if this show will see the other side of easter at 9.30 - we may be looking at a 10.30 move.

Some are even suggesting a Friday night swap with Medium (Personally I would swap out the male-skewing Law & Order to take it away from male-skewing sports), other have reasonably pointed out that Ten has not been so quick on the trigger this year - and that is true - but remember they still moved Dexter out of prime time and in a few weeks Guerilla Gardeners (which has been treading water at 700k) is moving to 6pm Sundays (replacing a low-rating Simpsons rerun) so even though Ten is more patient this year, I still think Life on Mars may see out its run in a different slot.

Show's Over, everyone spread out - Tuesday 31 March 2009

First Tuesday without Packed to the Rafters provides an opportunity for channel Ten to grow at Seven’s expense.

NCIS grew 159,000 viewers to a massive 1.55 million, Bondi Rescue followed it right up the charts growing by a whopping 345,000 viewers week on week. 132,000 of those came from Wipeout whilst 204,000 of them came from Find My Family which suffered slightly from the loss of its lead-out, confirming that at least some of the people were hanging around for the following show.

Two and a Half Men also gained week on week with an extra 134,000 viewers at 8.30 whilst All Saints saw a modest increase from its 9.30 numbers – all in all 426,000 metropolitan viewers deserted FTA at 8.30 with the conclusion of Packed to the Rafters.

Tuesday 24 March 2009

Some big movements last night but very little change in the rankings as Seven brought the season of Packed to the Rafters to a close, the show gained 147,000 viewers on last week to close out over 2 million, a sign that the show is an entrenched hit.

Similarly Find My Family found another 132,000 viewers this week, while it’s main competition Bondi Rescue lost 176,000 viewers week on week.

Wipeout improved on last week dismal number to keep itself in the game, while another finale, this time Ladette to Lady saw an extra 66,000 people tuning in (for what exactly I’m not sure – it was a reunion special)

Bondi to the Rescue – Tuesday 17 March 2009

Sometimes you wonder why ten, a network focussed on youth demographics and differentiating itself from its opposition would continue to bother churning out factual programs and then you see a result like last night where Bondi Rescue put on a healthy 279,000 viewers week on week

Non fiction programming also fared well elsewhere with Find My Family adding 15,000 viewers, RSPCA adding 87,000 strays and The Biggest Loser putting on 93 kilos week on week

Perhaps the family pitched Wipeout will soon have to front up to Find My Family as a further 42,000 people quit the obstacle course, it’s a pity because the show is getting a lot slicker several weeks in than on its stilted debut.

For Fictional Programming it was more of a mixed bag, NCIS, Lie to Me, All Saints and Two and a Half Men all lost viewers week on week while Today Tonight actually gained an extra 107,000!

Nine’s new 10.30 entrant Bridezilla’s (an old cable staple from Arena) turned out a disappointing 379,000 while Ten’s News and Eli Stone both had marginal increases.

The Biggest Losers - Tuesday 10 March 2009

Viewing was down across the board last night with all networks losing audience week on week, the biggest losers were (in order):

Bondi Rescue down 183k
Two and a Half Men 7pm rerun down 171k
Seven News down 155k
Home & Away down 132k
Lie to Me down 130k on last week’s NCIS rerun
Neighbours down 124k
Wipeout Australia down 110k

Phew – and that’s just the big losses! The only show to gain viewers in any meaningful way were the 8.30 episode of Two and a Half Men which 41,000 folks from last week, and Ladette to Lady which also had an extra 40,000 watching.

Special Mention to All Saints which stayed relatively steady week on week to eek out a timeslot win.

Fortified to the Rafters – Tuesday 17 February 2009

This is the first day we’ve gotten a look at a regular Tuesday sked for all three nets and Nine is learning the price of coming late to the party.

Seven’s Tuesday was according to the script – they are virtually unassailable from 6pm to 9.30pm with their gooey family line up but then look at 9.30 – what is happening there? All Saints has lost its punch.

Now given that All Saints probably runs on the smell of an oily rag and is still pulling over 1 million I doubt that it will be given the chop, but Seven must be seriously considering a timeslot change to have something else take advantage of Packed to the Rafter’s massive lead-in.

Over on Ten all of their shows bar Neighbours suffered audience drops as younger viewers leaked over to Nine, but not enough of them to cause an upset, although Bondi Rescue dropped by 292,000 viewers week on week as people decided splashing around in a big pool was preferable to a day at the beach!

Wipeout was Nine’s only bright spot, their decision to blow new eps of Two and a Half Men at 8.30 Tuesdays is turning out to be a costly decision, these eps on a different night could attract a much larger number but instead Nine is both limiting their reach and contracting their run of new eps (already shortened due to last year’s unnecessary fast-tracking)

At 9.30 Nine’s game of ‘follow that show’ has backfired with Aussie Ladette to Lady recording a 519,000 viewer night on night drop. Thanks Ladette’s – its been real.

Lies, Damn Lies and Ratings - Tuesday 10 February 2009

Nine’s Cricket telecast and continuing coverage of the Victorian Bushfire crisis led to an off-pattern Tuesday night.

Overall viewers stuck with their favourites – NCIS and Lie to Me had impressive week on week retention whilst Packed to the Rafters seemed to take the biggest hit from Nine’s cricket coverage.

The only series to demonstrate week on week growth was Bondi Rescue, incredible given the series it is up against but it’s audience grew by 140,000 viewers. My only guess on its resurgence could be viewers looking for some good news stories among the wall to wall despair.

Packed to the Rafters had one of it’s lowest weeks yet (even though it’s still miles ahead of the pack) signalling that some of its viewers are casual and are able to be lured away, given the right alternative.

Tuesday Stimulus Package - 3 February 2009

Now here’s what happens to Ten when they clean up their early evenings – after fumbling around for the better part of last year in the wake of a disastrous Big Brother season, Ten have finally righted their sked – and it turns out the problem was 7pm after all!

It may be that unless Ten takes a gamble and moves in on 6pm news then they’ll never break a mill in that hour but with the return of The Biggest Loser, a show with broad demographic appeal, they’re resuscitating their evenings quite nicely.

After a slight dip on Monday, TBL recovered somewhat to post some healthy figures against some stiff competition in that hour.

The opening ep for the Australian Wipeout did OK but Seven still owns the hour with their feel good factuals, however the ratings for Wipeout, Bondi Rescue and Find My Family show that all three can co-exist in the slot, between then they kept almost 4 million viewers entertained, which is a good result for everyone.

An extra 443,000 people tuned in at 8.30, with Packed to the Rafters gaining 220,000 on it’s lead-in to become the night’s top show (like any of you were surprised!) and NCIS gaining 318,000, Two and a Half Men lost 93,000 viewers from Wipeout.

The Adults Only ep in question was the subject of a PTC (Parents Television Council – US) campaign for a bizarre lap dance scene but wasting fresh episodes of one of your top shows against gargantuan competition is not the way to go. Hopefully Nine finds an alternative (other than TBA) in two weeks time when they have to front up again.

On to 9.30 and something expected and something unexpected happened.

The expected was the dismal performance of The Allan Border Medal, honestly who even watches sports awards? I get the Brownlow Medal to an extent, AFL devotees are nuts about their sport and devour anything and everything about it, but Cricket has a more general audience not made up of fanboys and furthermore, football awards like the Brownlow are covering a whole competition with many teams and hundreds of players so there is a degree of suspense and chance but with this, there is exactly one team, it’s like a club presentation and probably not worth broadcast time, cable would love it though!

The unexpected was Lie to Me, here I am thinking nothing will work after NCIS unless it’s NCIS, well I stand corrected, Tim Roth hit one out of the park for Ten last night with almost 1.5 million viewers, a timeslot win and the night’s 5th most watched show, well done!

Also In the category of amazingly unexpected – check out the ratings for Eli Stone and Ten’s Late News – hope none one was hoping for Out of the Blue back at 10.30 because Ten news just proved why it’s lasted so long at 10.30 (the big 42 billion stimulus package from Mr Rudd didn’t hurt them either!)

And Eli Stone must’ve have made a lot of friends over the summertime, kudos indeed, big 10.30 ratings are back!

Primetime Preview: Tuesdays

7.30 – 8.30
RSPCA Animal Rescue/Find My Family vs Wipeout vs The Biggest Loser/Bondi Rescue

OK, now we’re talking competition. Seven is wasting no time and is bringing back their mega-Tuesday without delay. Both the pet show and Find My Family were big drawcards late last year and Seven is looking to keep the buzz going. Both Nine and Ten are reviving their Tuesday success stories from last year to compete with an Australian version of Wipeout and ten’s Bondi Rescue returning for a fourth season.

The hot tip…

Seven will win, but they will be strongly challenged by Wipeout which has a suitable hosting team (James Brayshaw and Josh Lawson) and is one of the few fun family shows on TV (sorry seven watching sick pets or families in despair is not fun). Bondi Rescue is likely to falter with the factual aud disappearing up seven’s fundament.


8.30 – 9.30
Packed to the Rafters vs TBA vs NCIS

Do I even need to analyse this? Nine is competing at first with an Adults Only Two and a Half Men but no word on whether that will continue beyond one week.

The hot tip…

Rafters first, NCIS second, Nine third.


9.30 – 10.30
All Saints vs TBA vs Lie to Me

Again no idea what Nine is screening in this slot - but I'll hazard a guess and say that a retooled All Saints will romp home the winner, Lie to Me may be good or whatever - but we seem to be chock-a-block full of quirky weird dude procedurals right now, plus Tim Roth - he may be in movies but he ain't no star.

The hot tip...
All Saints, until Ten put NCIS reruns back in the slot, then they are frakked!