The New Kath & Kim

Fresh meat for Tuesday in the form of a new series of Australia's Got Talent - this time with Red Symonds and Tom Burlinson replaced with Kyle Sandilands and Bryan McFadden - and the result was actually quite impressive with almost 1.5 million tuning in - still that can't compete with the all conquering Top Gear which is the most impressive public to commercial transition since Kath & Kim went to Seven (how's that working out for seven anyway?)

The Danger of The Mainstream

Wednesday 4 June 2009

Biggest Programming Disappointment
Da Kath & Kim Code
Seven 7.30pm Down 37.93% of Thank God You’re Here and Down 37.58% on Criminal Minds

Biggest improvement
Duh!
State of Origin Rugby League
Nine 8pm – 10pm up 106.87% on The Mentalist and up 77.5% on RPA

Biggest Week on Week Improvement
Law & Order SVU
Ten 8.30pm up 43.58% week on week

First of all, no I didn’t see The Chaser last night, haven’t watched it since it’s return, given that these precious comedians didn’t feel obligated to produce any eps in 2008, I don’t feel particularly obligated to watch them this year, but of course you haven’t been able to turn on the radio or visit a news website without being informed of their latest transgression, which brings me to something I did watch last night…

Family Guy

Last night’s Family Guy was something a little different, a 100th episode compilation, the show mixed best of clips with bizarre commentary from Seth McFarlane and interviews with various focus group members of their opinions on the show.

It was a stark reminder that Family Guy, though successful with it’s target audience, is, in a wider sense, not a successful show, it certainly didn’t appeal to the 40-something people they interviewed for the special, most of them were either offended or at best non-plussed.

It’s funny to me that there was once another show that fit neatly into that category of appealing to 20 somethings and people with a childish sense of humour (myself included).

The Chaser

I first discovered the Chaser on the back of Kath & Kim with their news satire program CNNNN, that show was perhaps a little too focussed on politics and in-jokes to have broad appeal, but then ABC gave them another shot with the War on Everything.

At first a Friday Night skein the show got by on word of mouth alone, for a Friday night show it was like a secret treasure among a sea of mediocrity, ABC saw a show buried at 10pm Fridays after an incompatible lead-in trending up and decided to give it the coveted 9pm Wednesday slot in 2007 (an election year of all years!) the combo was pure alchemy and The Chaser morphed from an underground skein to mainstream hit.

But that mainstream success is strangling the show, last night was just the latest in a long string of incidents that seemed to have shocked the mainstream audience that has been on board since ’07, prior to this there was a major brouhaha over a weird musical number taking a swipe at the cult of dead celebrity, remember the storm that caused.

Personally I understand where a lot of the “angry viewers” are coming from on this – I have kids and jokes about kids in peril cut close to the bone in a way they never did before my parenthood, but I also remember that this sort of edginess is what drew people to the show in the first place. I wonder aloud what this means for the Chaser.

It’s audience was down last night, of course, because of the State of Origin, the Chaser experiencing a 24.16% drop week on week, but beyond that will the show start losing the viewers that brought it into the mainstream, or it persist in a love/hate relationship with the Australian public, or will a third outcome arise where the essence of The Chaser is watered down to appease the mainstream.

That would be sad, Australia already has a once-great team of risk-taking comedians who now just phone in stale comedy week to week getting fat and raking in the cheques…

What ever you do Chaser, don’t turn into Working Dog

Consistency Pays

Saturday 30 May 2009

Biggest Disappointment
Saturday Night AFL
Ten down 68,000 week on week

Biggest Improvement
New Tricks
ABC1 7.30pm - up 182,000 week on week


Nothing big happening last night and a whole lot of missing figures making the picture even cloudier. Suffice it to say Nine was the winner on overall percentage with the ABC second for the night.

Nothing else that interesting happened, Nine's movies were both down on last week, but both were still good performers, Seven's southern broadcast of Phenomenon was down on last week's Meet the Fockers, but again not by too much.

Interestingly most regular series were up, aside from New Tricks, Gardening Australia, Foyles War, Vicar of Dibley, Rockwiz, Kath & Kim, The Bill and Funniest Vids were all up from last week. I guess on a night where almost anything goes schedule-wise, consistency pays!

Was it all worth it?

Friday 15 & Saturday 16 May

Well that was the weekend

A little later than usual for your truly and really a pretty standard weekend by the look of it.

You’d think Ten would be reaching for the axe on their lineup with several weeks at below 20% but they look like persisting for the time being.

On Saturday night we had one of those odd occasions where not only were Sydney and Brisbane playing in (separate) night games, but also Adelaide and Perth meaning no Melbourne teams were represented. That meant auds were slightly down in Melbourne, the footy beaten in that city by Kath & Kim, Funniest Vids, Billy Connolly even Before the Game proved more popular. Football auds were up in both Adelaide and Perth (which you’d expect) but Sydney and Brisbane barely registered a blip on the radar.

I wonder when the next rights issue comes up (next year I think) whether Ten will look back at the deal they made to get the sport on their air (unlike Seven or Nine they guaranteed to screen matches in prime time in Sydney & Brisbane) and whether it would have been worth it.

Age Shall Not Weary Them

ANZAC DAY, Saturday 25 April 2009

Certainly not on ANZAC day where the over 55s held sway with entertainment on ABC and Seven, Nine which aimed for the family vote with what looks (on paper) to be an assured line up, found itself coming third with the other glamour option, sport, coming fourth on Ten.

Ironically Ten had one of the biggest audiences Saturday for the annual ANZAC day clash between Collingwood and Essendon but that was over by 5pm so in nightly shares it doesn't matter, one of the continuing bug bears for Seven and Ten execs regarding the AFL's devotion to daylight!

Nine trotted out a first run special tieing-in with the movie Kung Fu Panda (similar to the Shrek Xmas Special from a year ago) all the more weirdly given Seven currently has the Dreamworks output deal, nonetheless it was cleaned up by a 3 year old rerun of Kath & Kim and perrenial timeslot pwner New Tricks.

Special kudos also for Seven's Billy Connolly travel series which debuted last night pumelling the opposition senseless - if only they'd reserve a latenight slot for some of his stand-up specials!

Finally just another awful side effect of living in sport mad melbourne, last night while seven screened the AFL in Melbourne they showed some straight to video shite- The Last Templar - in the north, well last night was Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth's turn to endure the crap while Sydney and Brisbane enjoyed the far superior Independance Day :( (The Sooner Ten get the rights to that film and stick it in that fast rotation wheel - the better!)

Dead beats Old - Saturday 28 February 2009

If you ever needed any indication of how the under 50s have abandoned Saturday night - you need look no further than the 6.30 timeslot where the ancient Malcolm Douglas managed to best an hour of idiotic pratfalls on channel nine.

Funniest Home Videos low ratings could be a reflection of the host (Shelley Craft seems to have copped a lot of flak in the blogosphere since she jumped from Seven) but then again this show has always been hosted by an airhead (well barring the illustrious first season at least)

In fact I've just had an idea - why don't Nine move this to another night where they desperately need it - then slot in reruns of the Graham Kennedy original on Saturdays, Douglas may be old but Kennedy is dead and dead trumps old!

OK, Also interesting - and I have to credit MediaSpy member retter2critical with this observation, that Seven is winning the night with old ABC shows (ie: Kath & Kim and The Vicar of Dibley), I didn't even notice this strategy but its pretty sound, far superior to Ten's weird movie choices based on some tenuous link to dancing.

Update - Monday 1 December 2008

Just a quick update on Monday's Ratings with some new numbers for Neighbours, Home Improvement and Kath & Kim

Torn between greatness and obscurity – Sunday 23 November 2008

In the United States American Idol is the top rating show on Television, a megahit in the truest sense of the word with ratings upwards of 30 million viewers per showing. In the UK, the original Pop Idol was gone after only 2 seasons.

Australian Idol is (much like Australia) torn between the two countries, no longer the megahit it was in the first two years, it still manages to keep its head above water and although it’s finale ratings were not impressive when put in context with previous years – they are good enough to ensure another season next year.

Seven obviously expected Idol to do big things because they wheeled out the movies – scoring with the kids film Over the Hedge.

Nine’s season finale of 60 Minutes did the business at 7.30, as did 6.30 lead in 20 to 01 and CSI Miami was no slouch either with their entire night offering the most obvious counterpoint to Ten’s Idol night.

Finally the reruns: Kath & Kim scored their best rerun ratings since returning as Seven’s fallback from the unwatched US remake, Figures for the NCIS rerun in other reports are inflated thanks to the Idol overrun and Thank God You’re Here cannot exit fast enough.

Across the Pacific - Thursday 30 October 2008

Well here's something different - I've decided to take a look at US Ratings and how shows are doing in their home market, and because it's the most recently available data, we'll start with Thursday night.

It's obviously been more than a year since I looked at US ratings because last time I noticed Grey's Anatomy and CSI were neck and neck, and My Name is Earl was a lot more popular.

Grey's Anatomy seemed to take a big hit in 2007-08, this was the writers strike season but it's numbers dropped from 19 million to 16 million and it doesn't look to have recovered, buy contrast CSI held steady through the strike and still to this day.

Even more disturbing is My Name is Earl - the arse (ass) has well and truly fallen out of that show, it's not like the competition is that intense, but when The CW is chasing you down you know you've got problems.

The show has had a steady slide after a great first year in a 9pm timeslot, moving to 8pm certainly hasn't agreed with the show shedding over 30% of it's audience since the move.

The night's lowest rated show was Supernatural, which does however record good numbers of 18-49 year old viewers, similarly the younger set have ensured a full season pickup for Kath & Kim less than a fortnight after Seven unceremoniously dumped the show here in Australia

It’s your money…

You know, I’m not opposed to the ABC spending taxpayer money on The Chaser, they’re a better outfit that 90% of what Aunty shows but $6 million dollars???

SMH today reports that THE CHASER boys are close to signing a $6million deal with the ABC that will see them return to screens next year.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/tv--radio/chaser-boys-sit-pretty-as-6m-deal-nears/2008/10/25/1224351610142.html

OK that’s alright I guess, Seven paid a license fee of $3 million to Jane Turner and Gina Riley for the rights to Kath & Kim and the Chaser is funnier than Kath & Kim, also for their $3 million Seven have only netted the reruns and 8 new episodes, that’s $375,000 per episode, a pretty reasonable license fee considering the material, especially given that some 24 reruns are thrown in as well bringing the per episode licence fee to $93,000 per half hour – an absolute bargain given reruns still command 1 million viewers per screening.

So I’m thinking alright, in 2007 The Chaser screened 24 episodes, so if this year they’re doing 24 new eps that means a license fee of $250,000 per episode, pretty darn good – but wait, read on (as no doubt you already have) and you see that they’re only committing to 10, that’s right, 10 episodes – that’s 600,000 per half hour which must make it one of the most expensive shows on Australian television, I hope ABC has some US currency stashed away so they can bring down the cost.

So lets review, your ABC has spent dollars which put commercial networks to shame on a program for which they cannot sell advertising time, nor claim the full profits from DVD sales – well done chumps!

Consolidation Prize – Sunday 26 October 2008

All three commercial networks were in tactical retreat last night, rather than launch into something bold or new all three have (in recent weeks) fallen back on safe and predictable.

Channel Nine
Nine has been consolidating for two weeks now, extending their flexible nostalgia series 20 to 01 to a second hour in the 6.30 slot in order to stop the haemorrhaging caused by Battlefronts a widely criticised gardening show which I never personally bothered with on the sole pretence that it was a gardening show and we shouldn’t be (as a nation) encouraging this cheap trash on the airwaves. Nonetheless the show failed to fire even with the ample hordes of people who normally go for this sort of program (look at the millions transfixed to Seven on a Friday night) and Nine swiftly booted it subbing in a more broadly appealing hour.

The move paid off for Nine which now rides in first place in the timeslot

Channel Seven
Seven dropped to disastrous numbers with the US adaptation of Kath & Kim and wasted no time subbing with reruns of the original. They were duly rewarded for their diligence pushing back into second spot ahead of Ten

Channel Ten
Poor Ten, their initial move at consolidation (ie: reruns of Thank God You’re Here at 6.30) looked great until Nine put them in check with 20 to 01 a similar light appeal show which has the advantage of being able to seem fresh even when it’s not. For ten the recalcitrance of producers Working Dog is a thorn in their side with a knock down concept sitting on the shelf while a bunch of overpaid and over-respected producers whine about having to recharge their creative juices – it’s not the Sopranos people – it’s a fucking cheap concept, just make some more already!

To add to Ten’s woes they took a second tactical retreat this week, pulling back their niche comedies (Californication and The Office) to 10.30 and putting up a second hour (repeat) of NCIS, generally reruns of NCIS have done exceptionally well but the bubble may be starting to burst with last night’s instalment pulling similar embarrassing figures to it’s timeslot predecessors.

In other news
The other big thing last night was Nine’s Rugby League world cup which didn’t really set the world on fire, one wonders if it will do any better next week with a match to be staged in Melbourne, the Main Beneficiary was Dancing with the Stars which saw huge gains from stranded viewers of The Mentalist and CSI Miami to become the night’s third most watched show.

Channel Nine rides again – Sunday 19 October 2008.

Nine would be well pleased that the Mentalist is picking up steam becoming the night’s top show and giving it maximum exposure going into it’s new Wednesday slot, it will be interesting to see whether viewers stick with Criminal Minds on a Wednesday or drop it like a bad habit for local boy made good (Simon Baker for those keeping score!)

Nine in fact can be pleased with their whole night, 20 to 01 will cause problems for Thank God You’re Here next week, while Seven caused problems for themselves with Kath & Kim losing 34% of it’s lead in and pushing into channel Ten territory.

Elsewhere the continuing Financial Crisis was a theme with Seven snaring a timeslot win at 6.30, all but sealing their current affairs plans for next year and Nine’s 60 Minutes answering a question that has been on my mind since this sub-prime mess blew up – “Are many people being made homeless from this” the answer was a distressing yes.

Dancing with the Stars did alright with no Idol to go against, the ARIA awards kept Ten respectable but didn’t do anything spectacular on the night.

Can Idol’s results show pull out of it’s slump tonight or will it continue to drag Ten’s Monday into the abyss, also did last night’s encore of CSI encourage any more City Homicide viewers to make the switch tonight.

Stay Tuned.

Ten Lifts, Seven Sags, Nine’s the one – Sunday 12 October 2008.

All the attention in the early evening was focused on Seven, buoyed by a generous lead in from the Bathurst 1000, the network had two aces up it’s sleeve, the US version of Kath & Kim (more on that later) and the David Koch special on what to do during the all consuming world financial crisis.

This half hour news special features Kochie at the news desk, a quick cut to Kevin Rudd (that’s the Prime Minister for any overseas readers) who announced that they’re guaranteeing deposits a la Ireland’s recent move, a response for the opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull and any number of crackpot economic theorists who varying predicted we would either “ride the storm out” or spiral in Armageddon!

It worked because people watched – shoving Thank God You’re Here under the million mark and pushing Battlefronts (how many of these Gardening makeover shows can they do) out to the boondocks.

Kath & Kim held over 80% of that Audience and wasn’t that bad really, the trick for them will be to make it there own, like they did with The Office (the first 6 episode season of The Office was shaky but from second season on they had nailed it)

Alas none of this helped Dancing with the Stars, it’s worth noting that even though this show has only been around since 2004, this is season 8 (two rounds per year in 05, 06 & 07) is it possible they’ve made one to many trips to the well, expect to see an all stars edition next year I reckon.

It was beaten by Australian Idol which cleaned up in the demographics as did it’s follow on Rove which also held over 1 million viewers, Californication even rose by 45,000 viewers.

The question for ten is – have they hit their nadir, or is there worse to come?

In the past two weeks only 3 Ten shows have over the million each week (Wk 40 TGYH, Idol Sunday, NCIS, Wk 41 Idol Sunday, NCIS, Criminal Intent) With the return of Good News Week and Download this week can they lift their performance on Mondays and Fridays or will their 6pm – 7.30pm sked keep them underwater?

Nine had the run of the night, clearly affected by Seven’s bolt out of the gate the panicking aspirationals took a look at Kath & Kim then headed over to 60 minutes for even more Kevin Rudd action.

The Mentalist dropped but still won it’s timeslot as did CSI Miami a show which once dominated Wednesday nights but is now reliant on a good lead in to get by. Will a fast-tracked CSI (Las Vegas) be the evidence viewers need to switch to Nine or will it be DOA?

Stay tuned to find out…