Something wrong with the mix

Hmmm compared to recent Saturdays it was a bit of a quiet one for the networks.

Nine dominated held their nose in front at 6.30 with Funniest Home Videos but then slipped away at 7.30 with the often repeated Big Daddy. This and Nine's 9.30 movie (different in various markets) was enough to see them fall to fourth place on the night.

Seven drew a larger crowd with their movies The Wild (which was an almost wholesale rip-off of Madagascar) and National Treasure, both contributing to Seven's night winning share.

Ten's AFL gave them the edge in the 7.30 hour and they were competitive across prime time thanks to the sport, but lets spare a thought for The Simpsons, that extra 145,000 people watching in Sydney is probably 140,000 more than would have watched had the swans been playing!

The ABC had a shocker with New Tricks making way for the second season of East of Everything and suffering a 35% drop in their 7.30 ratings in the process, maybe they shouldn't be trying to mix Australian shows into their well established Brit line-up on this night.

Continuing the debacle

Well, they've done it Ten has won a week of television, I don't think that's happened since the final week of summer 08 (Jan 2008).

Seven didn't help their case at all with the continuing debacle that is Prime Time Rugby Union, this time the game they play in heaven (and really expensive schools) pushed Seven's news in Sydney and Brisbane back and back, by which time everyone seemed to be tuned to either New Tricks or Harry Potter.

Also I take back my quip about Harry Potter's diminishing returns, although movies 1-3 seem to be played out - the fourth installment "The Goblet of Fire" can still draw a crowd and for a long night running to 10.55pm!

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!

Americanized English

Saturday 2 May 2009
Anyone lamenting the inevitable Americanization of Australian culture can always take heart in the British hegemony going on with Saturday night television. New Tricks, Billy Connolly, The Bill, The Vicar of Dibley - these are the most popular things to watch on Saturday night.

Of course in the background is a much more ominous sign of Americanization - the low viewer numbers, the low turnout on the commercial nets indicates a fragmented audience doing something other than watching broadcast television.

I would love to see the Foxtel viewer numbers on Fridays and Saturdays, When you take out all the people going out on Saturday nights that still leaves a lot of people who are turning to cable, DVDs, Video Games and the internet for entertaining alternatives to a pretty lacklustre television lineup.

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!)

God's Waiting Room - Easter Saturday 11 April 2009

Saturday

I could have sworn that The Pink Panther was on only a few weeks ago and yet here it is again billed as a comedy premiere - well, I was half right - The Panther aired not long ago in the southern states whilst the movie last night was a Premiere in Sydney and Brisbane - well if it was some kind of bizarre programming strategy from Nine this same yer rerun only outdone by Paulie - no not the life of Pauly Shore but instead a pedestrian kids movie about a talking parrot - uggh

Ten and ABC cleaned up last night with Football and fogies - indeed 7.30 kingpin New Tricks was appropriately subtitled "God's Waiting Room" which is more a description of the main location of the show's audience.

Unanswered question of the night has to be why Seven gave up on their rerun sitcoms and Malcolm Douglas for even more boring docos and kiddie fare? I know it's Easter but why mess with what was working?

Finally a special shout out to Ten for scheduling Trading Places - one of the all time great comedy movies of the 80s and emminently watchable (even just to see a great rack!) 400,000 viewers between 11pm and 1am is no mean feat - kudos!