Wednesday, 11 May 2011

Well I can't ignore them any longer, not when they get results like that - I'm putting ONE on the chart.

Sons of Anarchy had an excellent debut on the HD channel, outrating other new entrants Spartacus: Gods of the Arena on GO! and Jersey Shore on 7mate.

Indeed Ten might like to consider swapping the Bikie drama (which has 3 seasons worth of eps to get through) with Lie to Me which is dying a slow and painful death on the main channel. 347,000 isn't an acceptable figure at 9.30 on analogue TV.

For that matter, Glee isn't doing all that well either - losing 600,000 viewers from its lead in. Ten needs to a) look at what breaks they are putting between shows - they shouldn't be giving viewers a chance to switch over and b) keeping shows in CONSISTENT timeslots - how many times has Glee been moved now? Whereas Criminal Minds has pretty much been on Wednesdays (with occassional sojourns to Mondays) since the dawn of time.

No gimmick to speak of

What the hell? How on earth did Farmer Wants a Wife net more viewers for the reunion special than at any point in the entire season?

Is this a case of people saying en masse: "cut to the chase"?

Of course they were helped out no end by the moribund Lie to Me, a featureless crime show with a gimmick, drowning in a sea of crime shows with gimmicks. At this point people have to realise that these shows need engaging or interesting characters to stand out, much like a lot of Ten's procedurals the characters in this just seem to blend into the background, against Criminal Minds, a show whose premise contains no gimmick to speak of, yet their ensemble cast is a group of characters each of whom could carry a show, the difference is there for you to see on the chart.


Over on digital it was great night for Eleven and 7TWO and Decent for 7mate and GO! though how GO's programmers think its sustainable to run so many movie slots is beyond me, its almost programming by panic.

Still when you see the alternative, a steady schedule - as demonstrated by GEM, then maybe panic is the way to go, GEM's post 7.30 lineup across the week has more or less fallen off the map.

Laid over Lie

Wednesday, 9 March 2011

I thought Ten might have had some success with thier plan to sub in Modern Family reruns on a Wednesday night. Seems like I was wrong, viewers can indeed tell the difference between fresh and stale episodes.

The real casualty though is Lie To Me which was in the cushy 9.30 Tuesday slot but is now out on its own in the wilderness on Wednesdays. Why Ten didn't think it could anchor 8.30 is beyond me but leaving it with an incompatible and unpopular lead in is too much punishment. It was beaten by the largely unknown Laid FFS!

You might have noticed I've been experimenting with adding new digital channels ABC2 and now One, I'm not sure that it's worth it - ABC2 has a LOT of programs getting over the 100K mark but they are mostly daytime kids programs (by contrast Kid-Centric ABC3 is a non-event, partly because its catering to an audience - Tweens - that doesn't like what its selling.)

One HD - Ten's all sport all the time channel is now less sport and more manly stuff like Ice Road Truckers and Deadliest Catch and action movies, its interesting that these diversions rate better for One than anything else on the channel!

City Homicide is D.O.A.

Wednesday, 2 March 2011

If there's a story on Wednesdays its the slow agonising death of City Homicide over on Seven, that this once 8.30 show is now drawing less than half the audience of its first two seasons is a crying shame. I suspect its already been confirmed as the last season for the show - but even so that's kind of depressing.

Still its not as bad as Ten, holy mackeral all their shows sucked last night, Biggest Loser posted one of its lowest auds yet, Blue Bloods is surely on the way out and Lie to Me would probably be doing a lot better were it not for Blue Bloods.

I do notice that Eleven has dropped Bob's Burgers, but closer examination shows that the show took a week off in the US so maybe it'll be back, at any rate a second episode of Cleveland did better in its place!

Somebody call a doctor

Monday, 21 February 2011

In amongst the more serious news stories yesterday was a move by Kerry Stokes to merge the Seven Network and West Australian News Papers. Analysts pointed to Stokes moving while the ratings are hot.



They weren't wrong. Seven cannot put a foot wrong this season.

Monday night saw My Kitchen Rules go from strength to strength, while Bones fended off a first run Underbelly with ease.

Underbelly would be a real disappointment for Nine this year, I think the reduced viewership is mostly down to the nature of staging telemovies rather than a series - it gives the impression that the producers are at the fag end of their inspiration, if they don't have enough material for a series.

I'm not suprised the audience hasn't materialised.

NCIS did better than last week but will be benched to make way for House next Monday (itself making way for Lie to Me on Wednesdays which is making way for a second NCIS on Tuesdays - confused yet!)

Interestingly in the US, House and Bones are stablemates from the Fox network (for many years House was Bones' lead-in) now they'll be up against each other.

Whatever Ten does they'll be hoping for an improvement with Good News Week, the skein just can't make it over the half million mark which is scary stuff. Probably doesn't help that there's so much real, bad news around at the moment to distract. Also the ABC's Q&A would attract a similar young, urban audience to GNW. It might be worth it to consider moving nights.

On digital both 7 and 10 can be pleased with strong performances from Neighbours, Supernatural, Heartbeat, Jonathan Creek and Family guy. Nine on the other hand had a shocker - the Alicia Silverstone movie (there's something you don't hear very often) Excess Baggage bombed not even polling in the top 50 digital shows, as a consequence Vampire Diaries suffered its lowest numbers since the start of the season. Nine needs an alternative to movies on a Monday because people don't have the patience or attention span for them on this night, maybe later in the week.

Chopping Block

Tuesday, 15 February 2011

Packed to the Rafters was down somewhat week on week but still managed a cool 1.8 million which is more than anyone else.

The biggest week on week drop was Lie to Me which lost 412,000 viewers from last week's NCIS, next worst was Top Gear which last 147,000 viewers. Ben Elton dropped an unsavoury 71 grand week on week which puts his show squarely on the chopping block.



Best on Digital was again Neighbours which came 4th in its time slot with 383,000 viewers.

Still the one for programming disasters

Tuesday 19 May 2009
Well Ten won Tuesday night with ease on the back of a killer quadruple of Masterchef (up 39k week on week), Talkin’ Bout Your Generation (up 12k), NCIS (up 191k!) and Lie to Me (up 186k).

Seven too made gains on last week with The Zoo (up 45k), Find My Family (up 76k), All Saints (up 38k) and 10 Years Younger *up 76k) all putting in a solid night.

These gains by Seven and Ten were at the direct expense of Nine and the ABC, last week ABC had the Federal Budget which lifted their night considerably, with that out of the way the audience deserted Around the World in 80 Gardens (down 41k) and Mumbai Calling (down 111k).

But the real disaster of the night was Nine, the 7pm rerun of Two and a Half Men was the last time they saw a million, HomeMADE incredibly sunk a further 27,000 viewers week on week, the Tuesday edition a sad 140,000 viewers behind the Sunday show, suggestion that maybe it’s not the show, it’s the timeslot, although really it is the show also!

Two and a Half Men was back in reruns in the 8.30 slot giving 292,000 people an excuse to find other entertainment at 8.30. Meanwhile the continuation of Underbelly reruns at 9.30 is still the most baffling programming choice of the entire week, why are they persisting with two hours of this when they could…

a) Run Ramsay everywhere
Kitchen Nightmares might be played out but a fresh reality skein has got to do better than reruns of a drama that most people have seen – Nine would have been better holding off from rerunning the original until they could clear a broadcast in Melbourne, they risk instead tiring out the other markets, the Sydney audience of Underbelly is shocking, even for a rerun a drop of 42% from Two and a Half Men is just terrible.

b) Run Survivor
Hey remember Survivor, that reality comp on an island that still packs em in over in the states, a more natural fit with Nine’s reality night and a fresher alternative to Ramsay – plus there’s about a gazillion episodes in the can still waiting for an airing.

c) Run E.R.
Oh remember ER? Onetime anchor of Nine’s Thursday night, it finished last month in the US after 15 seasons, again, there’s a tonne of episodes, the chance of catching some of that All Saints crowd and still legions of fans that would probably like the chance to see the once great show at a decent time.

Joy in Repetition

Tuesday 28 April 2009
Well suprise suprise Nine actually did well last night with a night largely built on repetition, the 7pm rerun of Two and a Half Men was up 80,000 week on week, 20 to 01 a clip show built around rehashing favourite moments (this time iconic movie soundtracks) bested the previous week's commercial clip show by 406,000 viewers!

The new Two and a Half Men was up 206,000 week on week, while a rerun of Underbelly season 1 saw nine dominate the 10.30 hour, the network capped off the night with a rerun of that evening's Millionaire Hot Seat!

Ten and Seven, by comparison, fought it out with new fare, Masterchef took a major hit falling to 4th at 7pm against a suddenly resurgent Home and Away - to be fare to the cooking comp - once the auditions are over and we get a look at the regular shape of the competition then the show may build.

More disastrous for Ten was the performance of Lie to Me - losing 97,000 viewers week on week and dropping to its lowest figure yet - this was in spite of Seven's new hit (10 Years Younger) losing 121,000 week on week.

Another big night of TV tonight with a lot of really big questions, will viewers remember what channel Thank God You're Here is on? Will people instead feel the lure of a widescreen Simpsons? Will Russell Brand just fuck off already and let me watch Lost? These questions and more will be answered tomorrow - stay tuned

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.

Saints beat sinners - or is it just a lie? Tuesday 25 February 2009

Word has it that Nine have already greenlit a second season of Ladette to Lady (for those of you playing at home “seasons” are now about 6 episodes long, 22 episodes is so 1990s)

You’ve gotta wonder whether there’s a meeting somewhere in channel nine today where they’re looking for a way to get out of those contracts, this reality show has settled below 900,000 (which we’ll assume is the new pass-mark) now 800,000 is probably enough to keep it at 9.30 but Nine won’t be feeling too good about a renewal.

Over on Seven we learn the value of overruns, on most ratings reports this morning you will see a figure for All Saints of 1,223,000 Indeed I did and was preparing to write a paragraph on how All Saints has finally bested upstart Lie to Me, but word comes down from a reliable source that the 1.2 million figure represents 9.30 – 10.30 whereas All Saints ran from 9.45 – 10.45 and between those times Seven netted a still impressive 1,135,000 viewers.

Lie to Me was still bested in its timeslot due to the Packed to the Rafters overrun. Given that rarely anyone (including myself) checks back at the end of the week to see adjusted figures we can see how nets can use rubbery scheduling to spin the numbers their way.

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!