Finding your niche

There’s a weird phenomenon with Australia’s television ratings when it comes to American shows

Generally speaking a show’s performance in America is a good indicator of how it will fare in Australia

In the past shows like ER and Friends that regularly polled over 25 million US viewers in their heyday – had no trouble rounding up 2 million people here in oz.

Similarly in the 2000s big US shows like CSI and Everybody Loves Raymond had similarly big followings here, Raymond even mimicked it’s patchy start in the US where it spent two seasons admired by critics and no-one else, here it spent it’s first two seasons languishing on channel Seven while Ten paid attention to the critical press coming out of the States.

Similarly niche shows and cable shows in the states don’t fare too well here – Dexter, Californication, Flight of the Conchords, Sex and the City, The Sopranos, The Shield, The Closer, Battlestar Galactica – none of these are primetime fare here in Australia but last night something original happened...

United States of Tara pulled 1.2 million last night. A lot of people will attribute this to the lead in which was the final episode of The Chaser’s War on Everything, but that would be a mistake, plenty of sitcoms have followed this show to no avail – no, this is a new one.

In the US ‘Tara’ airs on a “premium” cable network, Showtime (think the equivalent to Showcase or Movie Extra here) meaning folks who have cable are paying extra just to get those channels, so it’s not available to everyone.

Of the 30% of American Households that pick it up, roughly 2.4 million of them watched this show – enough to see it renewed for a second season – even if Tara had 100% coverage across America you’d be looking at a maximum of 7 million people watching.

For a US show pulling less that 10 million – you’re usually looking at a summer run, if that, it’s very unusual for this kind of cable play to make it big on Australian TV. The heady combination of timeslot, heavy ABC promotion and a recognisable Australian star has added up to an unlikely 9.30 hit for Auntie! Kudos.

The Natural Order of Things

Wednesday 20 May 2009
A very good night for Seven with Thank God You’re Here holding steady, Criminal Minds on the improve (by 76,000) and My Name is Earl over the 900,000 mark!

It’s easy to forget that at one stage My Name is Earl was broadcast in tandem with How I met Your Mother and Earl was always the more popular of the two, well this week the natural order reasserted itself with the preppy New Yorker’s making only 790k. Strangely both sitcoms were upstaged by Scrubs a show that was once left for dead in an 11.30pm timeslot! Just goes to show that nothing is certain in television and nothing is forever.

It would be remiss of me to bang on about comedies without recognising that particularly Australian variety, the light entertainment/comedy show, last night the ABC had two of them and Spicks and Specks posted a whopping 1.4 million viewers – I’m almost certain that’s its biggest audience this season.

In fact the whole 8.30 hour had all the hallmarks of one of those slots where there’s something for everyone, with 5 shows over 1 million viewers and the season finale of House going out on a much better note than in recent weeks (up 213,000 viewers week on week!)

Numb3rs, however, has got to go – give it a run over Christmas or stick it on Fridays (where they don’t seem to care) but it’s not budging from 600k, this, Supernatural and Harpers Island all need to be flicked to late night, Ten can’t continue with 9.30 letting down the side like this.

Finally a special mention for Cold Case which has well and truly come back from the brink of extinction on Nine and has just been renewed for next season in the US, you’re on a winner here Nine – don’t screw it up!

Advertising on the ABC - Wednesday 19 March 2009

Well for a while myself and others in the blogosphere have been shouting at Ten to move House back to 9pm where it saw some early success this season clear of the ABC’s Spicks & Specks, well as much as I hate to admit it – moving it won’t do anything now.

ABC has filled the 9pm timeslot with the equally successful Gruen Transfer a sharp, funny show about advertising and how it works, which ironically can probably only be made on a commercial free pubcaster like the ABC. Both Shows held over 1.1 million viewers for the hour bettered only by Criminal Minds which stands at the top of Wednesday’s growing procedural pile.

Guerrilla Gardeners seems to be growing very slowly on people and had the night’s biggest lift with an additional 80,000 people watching week on week, accordingly an extra 79,000 people saw House, while The Mentalist lost 80,000 viewers and Criminal Minds lost 94,000 week on week, I guess that’s an actual Gruen transfer at work.

Less amusing is the situation with Lost which dropped back again by an alarming 80,000 viewers, the series itself is perhaps better than ever, although firmly now in the realm of science fiction rather than the action drama it masqueraded as in it’s first 3 seasons.

Even given the general antipathy towards Science Fiction in this country I cannot explain the low numbers, the show is airing only 3 weeks after the states (surely not worth wasting your broadbrand limit on) the only thing I can figure is that people are recording it to watch later, I myself watch + record the show but I do pass it along to my neighbour the next day, is it possible that this show is being taped (given the attention one needs to pay whilst watching) rather than watched live, or have Australian’s given up on the mystery?

9pm - Wednesday 25 February 2009

Lets look at the week on week progress of some series

Seven had some minor losses with Australia’s Got Talent shedding 49,000 viewers and Gangs of Oz taking out 27,000 but overall they were on par with the previous week.

Nine made some good gains particularly with News up by 119,000 viewers, as Kuttyswood pointed out on this blog yesterday the Queensland Election is proving a boost to Nine’s news ratings in Brisbane as they have more experience covering politics than Seven whose political coverage remains disappointingly lightweight. Since the bushfires in Victoria Nine News also seems to have won back some ground in Melbourne – the other state capitals however, remain largely indifferent to Nine News.

ACA also boosted by 154,000 viewers, the Two and a Half Men rerun took an extra 86,000 as a result and Farmer Wants a Wife went up by 132,000 week on week.

The Mentalist broke the magic mill going up 83,000 viewers and although stuck in second place Cold Case took the paint of Life over on ten with 155,000 viewers dumping LA for Philadelphia at 9.30

Over on Ten their early evening lifted nicely with The Simpsons up 63,000, Neighbours up 93,000 and The Biggest Loser up 92,000 week on week – but with Guerrilla Gardeners only able to add 24,000 viewers – the writing may be on the wall – even more distressing is that all those gains were in Melbourne, where it still posted under 200,000 viewers – unacceptable in Melbourne for a 8pm show.

Not sure whether the 8.30 timeslot or its 8pm lead-in is hurting House but neither is helping one iota, the sad irony for channel ten can be seen in the ABC’s figures – at 8.30 there’s over a million people watching Spicks & Specks and at 9pm 618,000 of them change the channel looking for something else to watch! All they have as an alternative of free to air is 3 American dramas half-way through the hour – c’mon Ten take advantage – move it back to 9pm.

Speaking of the ABC – what is it with their Wednesday nights becoming the cable comedy repurposing night? I’m not sure of the appeal of Chandon Pictures, it’s on a channel that even the bulk of Cable subscribers probably don’t get, it seems to be a very insider baseball premise and Aunty can only rustle up 431,000 people at 9pm to have a look? ABC don’t care about ratings – but if they do care about exposing good programs then they are wasting one of their best timeslots on a turkey.

First Friday, then Thursday, Now This?? – Wednesday, 11 February 2009

I don’t know if anyone else noticed, but last night the audience shrunk.

On Sunday night the top rated non-news program was Border Security with 1.7million viewers, on Monday Night the top rated non news program was Underbelly with 2.5 million, Tuesday the top dog was Packed to the Rafters with 1.6 million, but last night the top draw – Australia’s Got Talent – managed only 1.3 million viewers.

There was a similar trend last week as well – with Wednesday experiencing a big drop off from the first three days. So what is going on? Is there less on Wednesdays that viewers want to watch? Is the competition much tighter? Or is Wednesday the new Thursday?

Not sure – but starting tonight I will be calculating average commercial audiences (when possible) between 6pm – 10.30pm so we can get an idea of which nights are heavily patronised and which nights are for video games!

Last night was marked by three new skeins in the mix, The Farmer Wants a Wife did respectable business but was choked out of the 7.30 slot by the aforementioned Talent quest which your truly checked out for the first time last night and, well I can see the appeal – but that’s exactly the kind of show I would love on a Saturday night, oh well.

Embarrassingly for Ten So You Think You Can Dance came fourth in it’s slot behind 7.30 Report and Spicks and Specks. House recovered some dignity for the net although it was down 163,000 viewers and next week all bets are off as it moves back to 8.30 in direct conflict with perpetual spoiler Spicks and Specks!

Life lost 99,000 viewers and Flashpoint haemorrhaged 174,000 thanks to Seven premiering the heavily anticipated Gangs of Oz – it was certainly an eye opener and managed to open an extra 426,000 pairs of eyes who weren’t watching seven in this slot (24) the week before.

Lost came back with a fantastic episode but this once megahit has seen it’s Australian audience dwindle as it veered towards science fiction – whereas season two – when it was still big – you could surmise that they only had a toe in the genre pool (four toes perhaps) this season they are fully submerged – show any viewer from season one last night’s episode and they probably wouldn’t recognise it as the same show – nevertheless I was one of the 405,000 viewers who tuned in, more still (almost 600,000 were watching Nine News)

The Ten Percent Event - Wednesday 4 February 2009

Sometimes a network makes a weird move and everybody questions it, 90% of the time everybody is right and then 10% we see that the programmer had the right idea, last night was one of those 10% events.

What the hell am I talking about – oh yeah – House on at 9pm rather than 8.30pm, last season House was getting beaten at 8.30 by Criminal Minds and The Mentalist, and I don’t just mean beaten – but beat down! Usually averaging anywhere from 300,000 to 500,000 behind the second place getter!

Seems like someone at Ten has their ear to the ground, or their eye on the net – one the most frequent comments I’ve read about House over the past few years is that people like it, but Spick and Specks is their first priority, the two shows have fought over the same timeslot for years but Ten has never conceded to their non-commercial competition despite the anecdotal evidence that the aud for both shows is overlapping.

Well last night, assisted by some stunt programming, Ten kicked of House at 9pm, with Life at 10pm out of the road of Spicks and Specks but still up against 9 and 7’s dramas. The result was Ten’s best Wednesday night in forever with both shows winning their timeslot in 18-49s and 16-39s and 25-54s

We know for a fact that this 9pm start will continue for the next two weeks ensuring a switch-on point for House, expect to see the network find more ways of pushing the start time back to 9, as the season progresses.


Over on Seven the decision to move Australia’s Got Talent didn’t hurt them one iota with the series return posting a timeslot win and competitive figures in key demographics, all in all a very successful move for the show. Meanwhile Criminal Minds slipped back into Wednesdays as if it has never left, the series currently fast-tracked should present a dilemma in 18 or so weeks when Seven will have to decide whether to rest it or air reruns (last year reruns were timeslot winners also)

At 9.30 though the jig was up with 24 posting a significant timeslot loss in total people and all demographics, it will probably maintain these numbers at 10.30pm Sundays which should be the show’s regular slot in two weeks.

Over on Nine things went from grim to worse, Nine News and A Current Affair were all that the net could manage over 1 million last night, that’s only 1 hour over 1 million, whereas Ten posted 2.5 hours over the million mark – a worrying reversal of fortune for Nine which has seen it’s traditional early evening strength erode markedly over the past two years and this year looks to continue the trend.

Backyard Blitz, one of their 2008 success stories found less success wedged in on a Wednesday night as older viewers opted for crazy vaudeville of Seven’s show leaving Nine third in all demographics. Having said that it was still a competitive figures, but not the barnstorming return Nine would have hoped for.

The Mentalist and Flashpoint returned solid numbers but were hurt probably less by competition than by their scheduling over summer changing more times than connex on a hot day, hopefully now that they have a regular timeslot things will pick up.

More baffling is the 10.30 slot for Cold Case – if only they had held their nerve in summer, Cold Case was a solid Thursday performer which got shafted for (of all things) The Secret Millionaire, and by the time it returned Nine found themselves running a poor second to Ten’s dramas on the night – the show is still popular (look at the turn out for a late night slot) but if you had told me a few years ago that this procedural would see out it’s days at 10.30 I would have told you you were stupid – I guess not!

Dead in the O.R. – Wednesday 12 November 2008

Oh my God, make it stop!

Let’s all take a deep breath and look at the positives…

Two and a Half Men, this US comedy continues to dominate Wednesday nights with the lions share of 7.30 viewers tuned in, the rest all split between Seven and the ABC.

Criminal Minds, still a hit but it is quickly being matched by The Mentalist. Although The Mentalist is not attracting the sort of Audience it did on Sunday nights it’s still a hell of a lot more respectable than the turnout for Fringe so it has achieved it’s task.

Spicks and Specks – this show which I’m happy to admit I have never watched continues to attract a dedicated 1.2 million viewers every week.

Stupid Stupid Man – I’m not sure what this show rated when it was on TV1 but it’s been nicely multiplied by being broadcast on Free to Air TV and frankly stands as a model on how to justify for spending by the cable channels on original Australian content. If a drama or comedy from Foxtel can be repurposed on Free to Air TV six months later it sounds like a good deal all around.

Now the worrying signs…

A Current Affair is struggling and problem originates from WIN territory, the two Bruce Gordon owned network stations are underperforming (especially the local Perth version) It’s a pity no-one publishes overnight for the RegTAM the numbers from the network O&O NBN alone would probably eclipse the woeful performance in Adelaide and Perth.

9.30pm is a basket case timeslot, in fact total audience after 9.30 almost halves from it’s 8.30 figure, very shocking, the slot is still deadlocked between 3 cop shows with Seven coming out on top (as usual) , someone should throw something different in here to attract a different audience to the slot.

Finally, here goes – the elephant in the room…

Channel Ten. After last night’s performance they have gone from the mat to dead on the operating table, this is just awful.

For NEW episodes of Futurama (albeit available on DVD) in Widescreen no less to only attract half a million viewers is shameful.

For Neighbours to be their top rating show yet again is deplorable.

But the real sting is with House. This was once a top ten show. Upwards of 1.5 million would tune in each week to see it – it has been Fast Tracked for several weeks now and not one instalment has reached over 1 million viewers, last night it sunk to an all time low. This is the kind of baffling performance that should have Ten’s lawyers meeting with OzTAM’s lawyers, except that the performance of everything else on the night is just as bad.

Ten need to pull the show immediately, rest it over summer, find a decent timeslot and promote the hell out of it’s return, DON’T WASTE ANY MORE EPISODES!