Sons of Liberty

Well the first big thing you'll notice is the switcheroo with George Negus moving to 6.30 to take on the big Current Affairs duopoly. I have high hopes for it so I'll reserve any comment until its had a bit of time to bed in.

Leaving that to one side there's plenty of things to be annoyed with here. A month ago Brothers and Sisters was netting 1 million viewers, now half an hour later and behind a middling show its doing half that number.

Ten have gone back to the Undercover Boss for the time being and the result is - pathetic, its funny actually - both 7pm Project and the Stand up comedy special net 750K yet 200,000 people decide to take the hour inbetween them off.

In spite of a MASSIVE amount of promotion, Two and a Half Men only netted 1 million viewers, its easy to see why - that show is now pedestrian compared to things like this...



But more of a worry for Nine is the Million Dollar Drop, 4th in it's slot and less viewers than the 5.30pm games shows, its a bonafide flop. Part of the problem IMO is that the show is nothing more than a vehicle for Eddie McGuire to sit there and chat to people (at copious length) while the rest of us wait for some sort of game show. Watching Eddie McGuire hosting a game show is like sitting through those Codec conversations in Metal Gear Solid 2 where Raiden asks every question 3 times and then bickers with his girlfriend Rose. It's frustrating and it should be ended.

On digital check out the amazing performances by 7TWO and Eleven with Neighbours, Supernatural and Raymond all netting their biggest numbers yet.

This is what it has come to... a Sour Cream Grandma

Tuesday, 8 March 2011

That's right, and dammit it worked! Talkin Bout Your Generation has struggled all month since its return, subjugated by Seven's all conquering MKR (which is still the top performer I might add) but stunt casting with the regular's family members helped Your Gen over the all important million mark.

The big loser from this was Big Bang Theory which is proof that two comedies cannot stand against each other in the same slot. I'm not sure what Nine should do here really, Tuesday has been its weakest night for years simply because of the strong offerings on the other nets.

The other thing which was weird about Tuesday night was the effect of two big shows (MKR and Rafters) on Digital TV, nothing after Neighbours broke 170,000 viewers, it was digital's lowest night in quite sometime.

Hard Habit to Break

Tuesday, 22 February 2011

Oh, that's not good. Today Ten chief Grant Blackley who has been in charge of Ten Holdings for two months, but in charge of Network Ten for eons was deposed by his board who installed Lachlan Murdoch as acting CEO.



This is the real world consequences of Ten's poor ratings performance so far this year. They literally have four shows that are doing any kind of business at the moment, NCIS, The Biggest Loser, Modern Family and Glee - everything else is flailing.

Like many in the media have noted - a major source of controversy with Ten's board is their new 6pm strategy of serious current affairs up against the entrenched news bulletins of 7 and 9. So far there hasn't been encouraging results, but it's early days and seeing as early evening viewing is built on habit - viewers attachment to Nine and Seven will be a hard habit to break and now it seems Ten may not even get the chance to try.

New debut Conviction Kitchen lost over half of its lead in from Packed to the Rafters which may not be an issue for Seven as its demographics were really good, placing in the top 3 in all 3 major age categories, which suggests a broad hit.

Meanwhile Nine dropped most of it Tuesday sked for live coverage of the shocking Christchurch Earthquake, unfortunately the audience seems to be suffering from disaster fatigue with Nine's extended bulletins placing 3rd in their respective slots.

Big digital ratings for Neighbours, Everybody Loves Raymond and Harry Potter, but not appearing in the top 50 digital shows were The Office, Nurse Jackie and ABC2's Good Game - which I personally enjoy, its sad to see it tank.

Mondayitis

Masterchef is breathing new life in Ten's previously moribund 7pm project (966,000) - something that The Biggest Loser was unable to do.

The question is how many of these people are just waiting around for Masterchef to start - we saw similar spikes last year with Neighbours' figures as Masterchef's lead in (though nothing as consistent as 7pm's improvement it must be noted)

Worryingly there is no halo effect for Neighbours and even more worryingly no impact on Good News Week which was polling better in total people earlier in the season, still it won the timeslot in the 18-49 demographic which is Ten's major focus these days.

Still it's a world of difference to Seven stuck with Mondayitis will all of their post Home & Away shows coming down under the million mark - Home & Away is also underwhelming given that it's longest serving cast member just walked away with the Gold Logie the night before.

Nine keeps chugging along nicely with good numbers for all their primetime shows and the continuing good performance of Hot Seat and Nine News versus Seven's Deal or no Deal/Seven News combo.

Today also pulled off a close win against Sunrise 386,000 to 370,000 mostly due to people hoping to see a repeat performance of Karl Stefanovic's legendary post-logies stint last year - I know I was - and I was thouroughly dissappointed in his sobriety :(

Just a flesh wound

Umm Ten's looking a bit blue of late

At the start of the week I wrote

when Neighbours is your top rating show - you're in trouble

Well, last night they went one lower - their top show was the 6pm Simpsons with a measley 687,000 viewers - the 7pm project dropped into no-mans land at 656,000 granted the network has thrown it's support behind the show and it's early days - but tell that to the staff at Nine's 'This Afternoon' who met their fate with little over two weeks under their belt in a show which was talked up to the nines from the get go.

We'll see if the 7pm figures are indicative of Ten's general day to day health (ie: strong on Mondays and Tuesdays, weak on their lower rating days) or if it's the show itself.

At 588k - Ten cannot afford to have Dance lead off it's night - just put Simpsons or Futurama in there or better yet Move the dancing show to a slot where it can't cause damage.

Thankyou MasterChef Australia

I've haven't watched more than 5 minutes of it, but I'm going to miss Masterchef.

For a ratings nerd like me the results of the past several weeks have been unadulterated fun.

Because Australia's ratings system put emphasis on the whole of prime time rather than the core 7.30 - 10.30 period, nights are often won on the strength of the 6pm hour, which for Nine and Ten means a local news bulletin followed by tabloid current affairs.

Almost two decades ago, Ten bowed out of the 6pm race preferring profit over glory, so ever since the 90s, television ratings in this country has been a two horse race, Seven and Nine. Dull, dull, boring and dull.

But not this year. Amazingly Ten's 6pm hour is unchanged for almost a decade, but this show, Masterchef, has become such a viewer magnet, a watercooler show, an all ages crowd please, it has caused all sorts of upheaval all over the schedule from one end to the other!

Ten has had successful 7pm shows before - but nothing like this, among the shows which will be glad it's over next week you can count

Better Homes & Gardens
Has seen it's aud fall away by approximately 200,000 viewers as it clashes with Masterchef's Friday Masterclass - an ingenious idea which stands apart from the competition proper as a cooking class for the masses. I knew this was a good idea when I was invited by my mother-in-law (not in ten's target demo) to try a dish she learned on the Friday night show!

Nine's Factual/Reality department
Masterchef brought a quick death to such unforgettable fare as Missing Pieces and You Saved My Life forcing Nine to fall back on their current crutch - Two and a Half Men, a show repeated so often this year it's starting to look transparent.

Working Dog
What an embarrasment, Masterchef has proven revenge is a dish best served hot! At the end of last season all looked lost for Ten as its one remaining hit show, Thank God You're Here, defected to the Seven network for more money, the expected crowds for the lazy laffer were at first subdued as the first half hour butted heads with Masterchef, later Thank God was almost totally subjugated by some strategically placed 90 minute episodes! Seven didn't buy that show to run interference, they bought it expecting a big number which never came!

Home & Away
In recent years the departure of The Biggest Loser was the signal for people to flock back to Summer Bay, not this year - the venerable soap has endured an unremittingly harsh climate for the past 7 months, first with Loser, and now Masterchef culminating in the ultimate insult for the show - the first time (in my memory at least) that it has ever been outrated by Neighbours!!!

So thankyou Masterchef, whatever your actual entertainment value, it has been fantastic to see this kind of upheaval to the status quo - wishing you all the success in the future!

Wow

Monday 27 April 2009
Wow, just fucking wow!

I didn't think a four year old show, a reality comp at that, was capable of 2 million viewers anymore especially not against the year's biggest drama Underbelly, but Ten seems to have played it right giving Loser a massive send off and delivering a huge first night for Masterchef.

Not only that - but check out the figure for Neighbours!!! Over 1 million!!! Has that even happened since the 80's??

Nine moves up the dial 22 places - Wednesday 8 April 2009

Wednesday

While Ten scores with reruns on Tuesdays, Seven drops the true crime chicanery and dishes out a double Criminal Minds with great results - at 8.30 they were only bettered by the ABC's light entertainment double, then at 9.30 they owned the hour.

Ten's House and Guerilla Gardeners were both up week on week, although Guerilla Gardeners fate has already been sealed with a move to 6pm Sundays in the wings after Easter.

Meanwhile check out the performance this week of The Simpsons and Neighbours in the 6pm hour - are the school holidays helping these shows or what?

Channel Nine meanwhile had a good night until 8.30 - a new double of What's Good For You and RPA (somewhat reminiscent of the old Our House/Money Wednesday fixture I guess) won the 7.30 - 8.30 hour, then at 8.30 everyone had the night off - Southern viewers were subjected to a two hour Footy Show, though this sort of Wednesday stunt is quite common at this time of year the Footy Show is no longer the major draw it once was, perhaps its time to limit the number of 8.30 screenings of this stuff which, rather than win local market ratings, seem to just disrupt the networks programming.

In fact Sydney - with The Mentalist and Cold Case was the only Market which resembled the network last night, Brisbane viewers got some sort of local fashion awards??!? Is this channel nine or channel 31?

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.

Monday 3 March 2009

Viewing on the whole was down on last Monday night with the biggest week on week hit going to Nine’s 9.30 hour which sunk, last week Nine followed their megahit Underbelly with a rebroadcast of the Oscar ceremony, this week forced to find a suitable lead-out for the country’s number one show they settled on Crime Investigation Australia, a doco series repurposed from the Crime & Investigation channel.

At first glance you would think that a true crime documentary would be a perfect fit with a true crime drama but it seems that it isn’t, the doco lost a whopping 1.161 million viewers (51.99%) from it’s lead in.

You would also think that Nine would want to use the most valuable real-estate on television right now to promote something that would continue on after the first 12 weeks of the season, what that would be exactly is unclear, the channel nine vault doesn’t seem to be bursting with hidden treasures lately.

Seven’s Brothers and Sisters got the predictable lift with the female skewing Oscars out of the way, while other 9.30 entries stagnated, The Cut can be considered a flop and Dexter, why Ten is persisting with this when surely there is an audience for them at 9.30, especially considering the sub-par competition, is beyond me. Call me crazy but if the mass-audience dropped Lost, Heroes and Prison Break, what makes Ten think they’ll pick up a violent, adults only serial a year into the storyline?

Some good news for Ten was that Neighbours gained while both it’s current affair competitors lost audience in the 6.30pm slot with ACA down 93,000 and Today Tonight down 121,000 – Neighbours was up 72,000 viewers and is tantalisingly close to that million mark – perhaps old Harold was holding them back!

So You Think You Can Dance appears to have fallen into a similar patters as Australian Idol last season where the Sunday show posts an acceptable figure of 1.2 – 1.3 million and the results show hovers around the 900,000 mark – given that this seems to be the pattern Ten needs to shake this up when Idol rolls around – maybe move the results show back a day or two (probably Wednesday their other struggling night) this would clear the decks and give ten the chance to develop something substantial for Mondays which could carry through the whole year, if they were game.

Meanwhile How I Met Your Mother seems to have also settled around the 900k mark which is not a disaster by any means but with Seven blowing two new eps a week they’ll run out of fresh stock before Nine run out of Sheen, that would be a massive miscalculation on Seven’s part – find a show to go at 7.30 and save the new Mother ep for 8pm, moving it out of the way of it’s main competitor – I guarantee it’s figures will look healthier – in fact I wager that if Seven split their reporting into two half hour eps we would probably see an improvement between ep 1 and ep 2.

Bad News Week - Monday 16 February 2009

Underbelly virtually held all of its gargantuan audience second week in. This is certainly shaping up to be high watermark in Australian television and channel Nine’s best chance at promoting their 2009 lineup, infact anyone with their TV tuned to Nine last night would have been inundated with promos for their struggling Wednesday lineup.

A decision which, a few weeks ago, I blasted as being sheer idiocy has actually worked out well for Nine (just a moment whilst I fetch a hat to eat) that decision being the axing of The Big Bang Theory replacing it with a hastily cobbled together factual series Customs, err sorry Vince Colosimo: Customs! I wish Nine had persisted with Big Bang in this slot because it strikes me that this Customs show is attracting a lot of folks waiting around for the next program, but anyway – despite the short-term thinking the move is still a great success.

Also a success is the Australian Ladette to Lady – question is can they carry that across to Tuesday nights and how long does the series even go for – the opening scenes suggested that the course at Eggleston Hall ran for four weeks – that doesn’t seem like a very long series to me.

Desperate Housewives lifted a little last night and incredibly Brothers & Sisters retained 94% of its audience which must be some kind of record. I fully expect to see 11 more weeks of Friday/Saturday encores for these two shows to keep the viewers up to speed while they flirt with the crims over of Nine.

Speaking of Encores, the remaining 500,000 people who haven’t seen Dexter on DVD or Showcase were entertained I guess – but Ten is hurting badly on Monday night – even after what was a fairly solid start to the evening by Neighbours and So You Think You Can Dance.

Good News Week has dropped week on week by 61,000 viewers while Four Corners rose by 143,000. Indeed these two shows seem to be fighting over largely the same audience and seeing as the ABC ain’t gonna budge it might be wise for Ten to move GNW to 9.30 (there’s a lot of Ex – Enough Rope viewers looking for something to watch) and Dexter to 10.30.

Of course that leaves the 8.30 problem – given that the slot will be a loss for the next 10 weeks anyway, why not encore screenings or Out of the Blue!! (OK maybe that’s going too far!)

Ten is a four letter word - Tuesday 20 January 2009

NCIS may roll over for the cricket, but not for Tennis, the long running Naval procedural was in fine form last night winning it’s two hour span with ease and lifting the rest of Ten tent along with it.

The day on day lift for the rest of Ten’s sked was extroadinary:

Neighbours up 40,000
Friends up 89,000
The Simpsons up 276,000
Rules of Engagement up 261,000

Seven can still be happy with a stellar performance all night long though only taking a 100,000 hit to Home & Away and the Night Session of the Tennis in the face of Ten’s resurgence.

Nine too was doing alright until their 8.30 movie – Paycheck. Not sure what it got but I know it’s under 640,000, they likely clawed back some share late in the night with the start of a marathon inauguration coverage after the movie.

Its baaaack - Monday 19 January 2009

As you would expect channel Seven romped it in on Monday night with the Tennis posting a very decent opening night rating for the network. This two weeks is seven’s turn at sporting dominance – couching their news in wall to wall tennis coverage and delivering a guaranteed audience to Home & Away for it’s first two weeks back.

Indeed Home & Away’s ratings marked a solid improvement over How I Met Your Mother reruns and put the show well ahead of it’s 7pm competition with Temptation taking the biggest hit to the groin.

Another phenomenon when one net has sport, is that other shows can unexpectedly benefit, here the main benefactors were The Big Bang Theory (up 169,000) and Crime Investigation Australia (up 135,000)

The Simpsons proved it still has devotees pushing the 6pm slot over the 500k mark for Ten for the first time in weeks and Neighbours got off to a solid start (742,000) though this decent effort was undone by every successive show on the lineup with a little known movie, The Contender, dragging Ten into SBS territory.

Meh - Thursday 4 December 2008

A mostly unremarkable night except that the re-entry of Cold Case to Wednesday nights has upset the apple cart being the only prime time show to score over 1 million and knocking Law & Order Criminal Intent into third place in the slot, the Law & Order franchise regained it’s equilibrium with SVU however, although I’m much more interested to see how the original fares tonight in it’s new timeslot.

The Bold & the Beautiful held steady but Neighbours has dropped an awful lot over the course of the week. People will be quick to finger B&B as the cause of this decline but I think we can thank the warmer weather for keeping younger audiences (Neighbours main aud) away from the box in the early evening.

Nine’s factuals did alright and their place is most likely safe unlike Wednesday’s Deadly Surf which ended up drowning on it’s way across the Tasman Sea.

Both Ugly Betty and Eli Stone took a hit from their Tuesday airings – but that could be a reflection of Thursday’s older skew and smaller crowd.

Update - Monday 1 December 2008

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

People Meter Madness - Tuesday 11 November 2008

Another Tuesday, another clean sweep for Seven, leaving Nine and Ten to fight over the scraps.

Nine came out better earlier in the night with The Chopping Block posting an encouraging number and their other shows holding that crowd through the night.

Ten on the other hand peaked for NCIS and... that was it.

One thing that is becoming clear after 3 weeks is that Will & Grace is probably hurting Ten just as badly as the rest of their 7pm disasters this year, how else do you explain a figure for the Simpsons that's barely 20,000 people more than the 6pm rerun??

Perhaps the Simpsons' core audience has hollowed out to the point where there are only half a million dedicated followers anymore, perhaps it was barely promoted during the week, perhaps it was so gut bustingly funny that several people meter users forgot to press the button while it was on only to have the unfunny Shane Jacobsen snap them back to reality, or maybe - just maybe Will & Grace is driving viewers away. Now I don't pretend for one minute that a lot of Neighbours viewers switch to Home & Away at 7pm - that's pretty logical really, which makes 7pm a switch on point for viewers and that 7m show just ain't bringing the numbers.

At the other end of the night there'll be a whole stack of people happy that Rush has been renewed for a second season but what the hell do we make of a well promoted episode, where a character dies no less, rating lower than the rest of the season?

Late Edit: There may be something wrong with the figures for The Simpsons THE SIMPSONS TUES Ten 653,000 289,000 140,000 101,000 122,000 it only covers four cities and it's not clear which ones but it's likely that either Sydney or Melbourne is missing from that list which would explain a whole lot, including why this is a rant and not a factual analysis :D

Serious Trouble - Wednesday 5 November 2008

Memo to Nine, movies shown in midweek timeslots have not worked for years, and so it is with their latest Wednesday movie – Talledega Nights. It must be especially frustrating for Nine given that the lead in was the unstoppable Wednesday edition of Two and a Half Men, they must have thought some people would stick around for the comedy movie but clearly only 46% of their 8pm audience were interested in the prospect.

Even more damning is my memo to Ten, documentaries about Animals do not work – at least not on channel ten and here’s why

a) Animal or Nature docos appeal primarily to an older viewing audience
b) At any given time, channel Ten’s share of over 55 years old viewers rarely gets above 11% therefore it’s likely the intended audience would never have seen any promotion for the show.
c) The under 40 audience avoid these shows like the plague (hence the high numbers for two and a half men ever since Jamie Oliver showed up)

Ten is in serious trouble right now – there is no good way to spin it, their most popular program of the night was outside of Prime Time (the 5pm news), Neighbours posted a good result then the whole night fell in a heap, never lifting beyond it's 6.30 "high".

These are some of the worst numbers to come off the people meters for them since the introduction of people meters, ten need to use the summer for a complete reboot otherwise they will quickly see their share decline even further in the new year, just waiting for So You Think you can Dance and The Biggest Loser to pull them out of the hole is not going to be good enough – they need action ASAP.

You'll have a gay old time – Monday 27 October 2008

Well blow me down – three Mondays into this blog and still the same pattern persists, Seven first, Nine Second, Ten far away in the distance.

First up, Australian Idol improved, no thanks to it’s “new” lead in Will & Grace, the ex-Seven sitcom and current Arena time waster pulled about the same as Friends managed the week before.

It’s funny to think (and I may have only gotten this suggestion from watching PayTV) that the same people who like Friends also like Will & Grace. But does anybody else? Well frankly it’s too early to tell.

Ten was never going to bolt out of the gate with this show because a) it’s a rerun and b) viewers are by and large committed to other 7pm entertainment, their real opportunity is in six weeks time when Two and a Half Men makes way for Temptation and Home & Away shuffles off presumably to be replaced by one of Seven’s many factual half hours, that will leave an awfully huge 18-49 crowd looking for some laughs at 7pm – it’s a good bet that then Will & Grace’s ratings will spike, especially given the show wasn’t well watched in it’s initial broadcast, meaning it should repeat well it just might take a while for people to notice it.

Good News Week took a hit this week dropping 113,000, Til Death also dropped week on week (46,000) as did CSI (64,000) a rerun of CSI wiped 136,000 off the previous week’s figure for a fast tracked Cold Case, however at least Nine is willing to support it’s former hits rather than throw them to the wolves.

In fact nothing on the commercial nets impressed post 9.30 thanks to Andrew Denton interviewing Michael Parkinson on the soon to be retired Enough Rope hitting a very nice 1.2 million viewers.