The Last to Arrive

Last night was a typical Thursday where everyone got a turn to shine (save for the ABC I guess) 7 Dominated the news hour, Getaway and the Footy Show gave Nine the night and Rush pulled off another timeslot win holding its audience week to week and justifying Ten's faith in renewing the show.

The test for Rush may be after this week when Nine brings on their own Rescue: Special Ops - which, being about paramedics, is different - but to the casual observer looks like a clone. Will they be oversaturating the market with this type of show - stay tuned.

Seven absolutely collapsed after the Amazing Race. Double Take dropped 13.19% week on week but still held a decent 941k in tow - but TV Burp dropped 16.09% down to a worrying 845k.

Whilst Rules of Engagement has been subsisting on those kind of numbers for weeks now, Rules is a cheap (very cheap considering how often it's rerun) import on channel Ten, TV Burp is a cheap (read: replaceable) show on channel Seven - they're gonna need to lift in the coming weeks to keep Seven's support.

Thrilling, Dangerous maybe, but not Invincible

Woah what a day, today (Friday AEST) turned out to be!

Before I get onto that a quick rundown of the ratings, with some slight improvement for Rules of Engagement and Seven logging a win over Getaway with the combo of Thank God/Ghost Whisperer at 7.30.

Meanwhile Nine's Trouble in Paradise got off to a good start with very close timeslot win over Grey's Anatomy and a special mention to The Footy Show which actually won all its markets.

Anywa, nevermind any of that. Michael Jackson, a musician I grew up idolising, suddenly passing away from a heart attack is quite possibly the celebrity story of the year and something I gotta admit - I didn't see coming.

A lot can be said about Jackson, a lot good, and an awful lot bad, so let me just say this...

I highly doubt, given our fast moving increasingly fragmented culture, that we'll ever again see a singer with the singular star power of Michael Jackson.

Ten has a special tonight, Nine has one tomorrow (on Saturday), Music Max and VH1 have been running compilations of his video clips (I just saw the video to Man in the Mirror for the first time) and the news channels are 24/7 with this news and its associated developments.

Nine, which even after State of Origin was on a hiding to third place for the week will probably come out first on the strength of their outstanding coverage tonight as well as their special on Saturday night.

Historically Jackson has always been a ratings draw, I remember when I first started paying attention to ratings and ten had shown an Oprah special in Prime Time where she interviewed the singer - it rated through the roof, which for Ten in 1993 was a rare occurrence. Nine used to preempt popular shows whenever a new clip would debut so Richard Wilkins could host the exclusive premiere in primetime, and even after the thrill had gone there was still an unending appetite for programs as diverse as documentaries on his plastic surgeries to that landmark interview with Martin Bashir which marked the tipping point where Jackson's insane lifestyle started to come crashing down.

This is one of the less coherent blogs I've done in a while, not in a snarky mood I guess, there's all sort of memories and issues to sift through - and if you're anywhere near a media source you'll certainly have your chance over the next few days, but take a moment to appreciate the music

If you've never seen the video to Smooth Criminal do yourself a favour and check this out...

The Ascent of Anatomy

A quick one for Thursday night with Ten taking a major hit to both Rules of Engagement (with both half hours down on the previous week) and Criminal Intent which seemed to lose viewers whilst the ABC gained them with an admittedly good doco series - the Ascent of Money

That same hour recorded a timeslot win for Grey's Anatomy which seems to managed to turn a ludicrous storyline into a half decent one and revived it fortunes somewhat holding it's audience from last week fairly well.

After looking halfway promising last week, Rules of Engagement has severely fallen away which is a pity, we need sitcoms on the air right now - they are the most endangered species on television right now overrun by cheap and nasty factual shows and endless cop dramas but they are one of the big categories for the new 09-10 US season, Nine, Ten and Seven need to bed down some sitcoms now in order to prepare the ground for what's coming, otherwise they'll miss the wave.

Scoreboard
Thursday 11 June 2009

Going Up
The Ascent of Money up 18.8% week on week
The 7.30 Report up 11.7%
The Simpsons (6pm) up 11.02%
Sunrise up 10.95%
Getaway up 8.82%
Catalyst up 8.42%
Ten News at Five up 8.39%

Going Down
Criminal Intent down 19.38%
Heroes down 19.07%
Rules of Engagement (8pm) down 17.89%
Rules of Engagement (7.30pm) down 11.44%
Medium down 9.64%

A 20 to 01 shot

Thursday 4 June 2009

Biggest Disappointments
Mask & Memory
ABC 9.30pm down on Q&A by 38.58%

Sunrise
Seven Early Morning down Week on Week by 12.21%

Biggest Improvements
Rules of Engagement
Ten 8pm up 50.96% on Worst Week

Medium
Ten 9.30pm up 23.89% week on week

Well here something encouraging – another sitcom it starting to connect with the public and lo and behold it’s one them old timey laugh track shows!

Rules of Engagement, currently in it’s 3rd season (if it doesn’t feel that old that’s because all of it’s seasons have been shortened due to the dearth of available half hour timeslots on CBS and ten only debuted the show in 2008 anyway) is starting to take off achieving some of it’s highest ratings yet.

While still 3rd in the 7.30 hour the removal of the also-ran Worst Week has turned Rules into a viable competitor

Now that that’s’s sorted and Medium is lifting Thursday nights are starting to become a close-run affair, even Criminal Intent lifted its game with a 20.58% increase week on week.

It’s also the only night of the week right now where Nine has any sort of dominance, the Footy Show is on a hot streak in the southern markets right now with 687,000 tuning in to the AFL vs 375,000 rugby league tragics.

Meanwhile my hat is off to 20 to 01, back in 2006 (the show’s second season) people were wondering whether Nine could sustain the series beyond it’s initial 7 episodes but lo an behold there have been 87 episodes (yet 87) since then and the show is still going strong! Kudos!

Worst (part of Ten's) Week

Thursday 28 May 2009

Biggest Disappointment
Private Practice
Down 164,000 week on week

Biggest Improvement
Rules of Engagement
Up 84,000 week on week

So there you go, Rules of Engagement, ten's only foray into multicamera comedy is doing better while it's companion - the single camera Worst Week is trending in the wrong direction, while Rules gained 84,000, Worst Week lost 84,000 - there's some weird symmetry at work there.

I see two explanations here.

1) People are lukewarm on single camera sitcoms. Television critics may crap on ad nauseum about how a laugh track is insulting to their intelligence but the numbers tell a very different story

The top rated comedy shows over the past seven days have been
Talkin' 'bout Your Generation 1.6 million viewers
Spicks & Specks 1.6m
The Chaser 1.5m
Thank God You're Here 1.5m
Two and a Half Men 1.3m
Funniest Home Videos 1.1m
Scrubs 1.1m
Good News Week 1m

See a trend, all except Scrubs are filmed in front of a studio audience thereby featuring that dreaded laugh track. Perhaps the average viewer actually likes the live audience feel and is self assured enough not to feel their intellence is being insulted by the program's producers.

It's also a given that multicamera sitcoms tend to rely more on wit and timing while single camera coms fall back on sight gags and non sequiters.

2) Australian viewers are not so much in the dark anymore, it wouldn't a genius to work out that Worst Week is already toast in its home market - why get involved with something where there's no prospect of a future?

Rules of Sitcom Scheduling

Thursday 14 May 2009
Thursday night is such an even little night, nothing lunges much past 1 million yet nothing goes too low, each of the networks has points to be proud of and things to work on, but the folks at Ten have to be concerned over the ratings for Rules of Engagement.

Rules of Engagement is an inoffensive sitcom that plays like a cross between King of Queens and Mad About You. Its funny and if it weren’t for David Spade it would be really funny, if you happen to watch it you’ll probably enjoy it – but its not the kind of show you’d set your watch for.

Two and a Half Men used to be in the same boat, funny but non-committal. Given that Rules is a lock for renewal into 2010 Ten could do worse than stick with it and hope it catches fire, but right now the show is funny but non memorable and the non-impression that it leaves is going to hurt it.

Ten needs a genuine zinger to line it up with – they had it last year with the hilarious Back to You which unfortunately bit the dust in the US over cost/benefit issues and haphazard strike scheduling (here it was hurt with haphazard Big Brother scheduling!)

Unbeknownst to Ten they actually have a memorable, funny, water-cooler type show to line it up with, no not Worst Week (though I’ve heard good things the show is axed in the states) I’m talking about The Office.

Currently buried late on Sunday nights, The Office is a show that ten tried for 1 week in prime time (one ep on a Wednesday and two on the Thursday IIRC) and then baulked at the low ratings, its no surprise it rated badly – the first 6 episodes (the entire first season) were pretty unfunny, but the show got renewed in the states and the second season (which aired 11pm Sundays after The Ronnie Johns Half Hour) was a rare late night TV treasure, of course back then it was regularly scheduled, since it has been all over the map with no thought to consistency.

The show is suitable for a 7.30 audience, after finishing the current season late at night Ten should think about revisiting The Office in a visible prime-time slot, it’s the sort of show that viewers remember the next day, which makes them want to watch the next week, which means they may stick around for what else is on…

Abusing the fans

Thursday 7 May 2009
Lots of big changes on the Ten sked last night and not the same level of success.

Rules of Engagement, a sitcom which has had two curtailed seasons (it was a midseason launch then ran head on into the WGA Writer’s Strike) returned to less than spectacular numbers allowing Nine and Seven to divide the hour amongst themselves with Bondi Vet falling away on the back of a poor lead-in.

Criminal Intent returned to SVU like ratings, but beaten handsomely by a 20 to 01 rerun, the 8.30pm hour was hotly contested last night with 4,322,000 people tuned in across the hour, the ABC benefiting from a retrospective special on Media Watch, a 15 minutes a week that tabloid journalists dread and a show whose attention from the news media is inversely proportional to its miniscule running time! The special pulled 911,000 viewers, one of Aunty’s best performances in this slot all year.

Medium moved nights to Thursdays, dropping from last week’s occupant (an SVU rerun) by 154,000 viewers but improving on Life on Mars’ sliding ratings and improving on its own ratings which were stuck under 700,000 on a low viewing Friday night. After last night there are 7 episodes left in the current season, after which they could virtually rerun the show in this slot for the rest of the year and it would probably produce a similar, if not better, number.

Medium’s debut adversely affected Private Practice. Last night I actually sat through an episode of Grey’s Anatomy to see whether I was missing anything (and no I wasn’t) but a new disturbing trick I noticed was that Grey’s Anatomy faded to black (no logo, or EP credit or anything) and then bang, right onto Private Practice, there was no promo for next week’s episode just a jarring jump to the next show.

To whoever is in charge of playout at the Seven network – this is abuse of the fans of this show – and I hasten to add, I am not one of them, but if my favourite show ended on a dramatic note and I didn’t get that space of the credits, or a promo to decompress and reflect on what I just saw, well that’s just low.

I get accelerated flow, In fact I’m a big fan of the kind of accelerated flow that American Networks practiced in the 90’s, back then the credits were all uniform (and yes off to one side, but legible) a promo for a related show would play and then you’d get a quick bumper to flag the next program, none of this jumping straight onto the next show – that is just arse.

So faceless Seven executive, just think about what you’re doing, by denying Grey’s Anatomy fans their show as a whole, you’re not only turning them away but you’re also hurting the prospects of the show you’re trying to promote, just look at the ratings (especially for Private Practice) it isn’t working!

Finally congrats to the AFL Footy Show had a big victory at 9.30 mostly thanks to some sort of heavily publicised stunt where Sam Newman got tarred and feathered! Meanwhile one of the stars of the NRL version seems to had serious allegations made against them to be aired at a future date on Four Corners – would somebody just can the Rugby League version already!

Stuff Gardening, get back to the House! Wednesday 4 March 2008

Last night Nine saw improvement in all their skeins from 7.30 to 11.30 with Cold Case within striking distance of Seven’s soon to be gone Gangs of Oz and the 10.30 rerun dominating the timeslot.

Week on week the 9.30 Cold Case lifted 218,000 people, the week’s biggest gain, also performing well Farmer Wants a Wife added 67k, The Mentalist added 119k and the 10.30 Cold Case rerun added 106k

Seven suffered the biggest losses with Gangs of Oz shedding 101,000 viewers, still it scraped through to a timeslot win. Lost is floundering at 10.30 coming after an incompatible lead in it sunk a further 84,000 viewers to 380,000 which surely constitutes a series low for a new episode.

House lifted for Ten but still lost out to Spicks and Specks, while Life gained 105,000 viewers week on week but only managed a distant third in its timeslot for total viewers.

Interestingly The Biggest Loser and House seem to have similar numbers watching then in between 200,000 viewers disappear at the onset of Guerrilla Gardeners – it interesting to note that city by city the biggest lead in losses are in Melbourne and Adelaide the two cities with currently the harshest water restrictions where gardening is probably the furthest thing from anyone’s mind. Still at 700k against tough competition I see Ten toughing it out for a few more weeks yet but if it stays under 800,000 after Nine’s Agricultural show disappears then my tip is for a quick return from Rules of Engagement which has just returned in the US.

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.

Sudden Drop - Tuesday 16 December 2008

There was a massive week on week drop in viewership last night.

Nine’s reality double looked hot last week but lost some of it’s sheen last night thanks to reduced overall numbers with about 160,000 less viewers tuning in across the hour.

Everything on Nine dropped week on week by around 100,000 viewers, ABC experienced a slight drop across the night while for seven Eli Stone and Ghost Whisperer both dropped while their 7.30 and 10.30 hours improved.

Seven’s decision to limit Ugly Betty to one night a week in favour of yet more animal flavoured reality has paid a dividend with Wild Vets and Coastwatch both lifting their audience by an average of 70,000 viewers in the slot.

Prison Break improved week on week by 30,000 viewers.

Ten showed slight a slight loss for The Simpsons (down 13,000 viewers) but a slight life for Rules (up 29,000 viewers. Last week Rules’ retention was 83%, last night it was up to 88% which is a good sign.

NCIS improved week on week by 7,000 viewers and In Plain Sight now coming in at a more manageable hour length was up 117,000 viewers retention improved from 51% to 60% an improvement but it will need to improve more over the coming weeks to secure a berth in this slot.

Late night suprise - Tuesday 9 December 2008

Nine pulled a swifty last night and for one hour became channel seven. A new show, Sudden Impact, which is another one of these car crash doco-soaps and the return of NZ sitcom Police 10-7 did the business in the opening hour.

What’s more astonishing is that ‘tis the season for surprise hit rerun movies with Mr & Mrs Smith not too shabby for the next 2 and a half hours, the icing on the cake was Survivor which was bumped back to 11pm but still commanded a huge aud for that time period, generally after 11 shows are lucky to exceed 300,000 (unless they started earlier or are live sport) so that’s an outstanding figure.

Surely Nine will be emboldened to try out Survivor again in Prime Time especially with an extra season up their sleeves meaning they could potentially show it year round without a break.

Seven seem stuck in 3rd gear in the early evening, Ghost Whisperer did better than Dirty Sexy Money which was hurtled back to 11.30 for it’s long limp off the screen, but Nine’s movie, In Plain Sight and the incompatibility of Ghost Whisperer all combined to give Prison Break a headache down 63,000 week on week.

NCIS was again the best Prime Time series on the night but this audience didn’t carry over for the 2 hour premiere of In Plain Sight with the audience almost halving – even taking into account the drop as the night wears on that’s still a bad result.

Almost as bad was the shocking performance of Rules of Engagement, losing to a show in it’s death throes (Ugly Betty) is a bad thing on any occasion, but losing 135,000 from a compatible lead in is just tragic. Having said that The Big Bang Theory experienced a similar drop from it’s lead-in on Monday (816,000 vs 1,018,000 for Mr Sheen) but still – nobody needs under 700,000 viewers at 7.30, even at this time of year.

Fast turnaround turns bad - Wednesday 3 December 2008

Wednesday was not a good night for anyone. Summer ratings kicked in with a vengeance with the final chart resembling a Saturday more than a Wednesday, in spite of all the goodies on offer.

The Best
On Seven, aside from their News/CAf hour their best result was the ever-reliable Air Crash Investigations, for Nine it was a rerun of CSI Miami in it’s old Wednesday night stomping ground. Ten’s best was barely above Seven’s worst with a rerun of The Simpsons at 7.30 posting their best score and a dismal fourth place in the slot

Good Signs
Seven can be pleased that The Unit held almost all of it’s lead in. As can 10 with Rules of Engagement holding a large chunk of Simpsons devotees. This will be good for Rules in the new year but a lot depends on how it plays out in the US. It’s on CBS – a network with too many hits and not enough spaces – hence it’s had to wait for midseason for a slot to open up. It will need to do something pretty spectacular to make it to a fourth season otherwise Ten can look forward to even more disappointment

Bad Signs
Nine has two decent tentpoles on this Night with 10 to 01 (a shortened 20 to 01) and CSI Miami, but duh! Deadly Surf, a weak, sunless NZ import (sort of a Bondi Rescue on Lithium) does not appeal to anyone who may be watching 10 to 01.

Similarly people who enjoy the antics of David Caruso and Co on CSI Miami may find the goings on at ER a little too taxing for their brains!

The Bold and the Beautiful dropped for the third day in a row – that’s not that worrying as the drop off has not been severe like the wild fluctuations ten’s 6pm slot has had to deal with in the past, but Neighbours dropped as well, taking Friends with it.

Where is my axe?
Okaaaay, so quick turnaround for Rush, not going that well. One one hand this could be half a million people who didn’t see it the first time around and are catching up now, on the other hand the lost 130,000 from an already low lead-in and sunk to 10.30 level numbers.

So what can Ten do, we’ll I’m not sure – I think they’ll just sit tight, they’ve renewed it anyway so it’s future is somewhat assured. The quick turnaround is always a gamble because in one sense you can hit a different audience, in another it becomes like one of those ‘encore episode’ deals which are all to common these days.

Gossip Girl, wrong channel, wrong timeslot, wrong show. Why Nine even hung onto the rights is one of life’s unsolved mysteries. The Foxtel showing will probably capture more actual viewers than last night’s 3rd placer.

Just as with my assessment of 90210, there is no buzz about Gossip Girl, I don’t see any of the stars of this show gracing magazine covers, even TV Tattle has given up covering it, to be blunt I see the following scenario in a few weeks, extra rerun of CSI at 9.30 (look at how NCIS does with two in a row!) ER at 10.30, with Gossip Girl either at 11.30 or 11.00 on some other night.