Fresh funny skeins not stale old laughs

Well this is something new - we're in ratings on a Thursday night and not one show cracks the million mark! In fact not one cracked the 900,000 mark. There were viewers aplenty at 8.30 to watch Seven's sitcoms and SVU on Ten, so what's the go at 7.30.

I can see that the bad press and unsettled timeslot are working against Biggest Loser, I can also see that The White Room (for which I have not seen any promotion) might tank on the basis of being an unknown quantity, but what is going on with Getaway!?

I dare not get my hopes up that this mouldy cheap old Saturday Afternoon snorefest which has been keeping good alternative off Nine's Thursday sked for 18 years now might actually be ready to shuffle off, if only.

Overall channel Nine was very weak last night, the performance of 20 to 1 was remarkably weak last night - it's clear that given the choice of some guaranteed fresh laughs, people will chose that over the stale old clip show.

Even more encouraging was that the value of Thank God You're Here reruns has plummeted with the onetime megahit pulling a pretty average 700,000 in repeat. That show was overrated even when it was a hit.

Whatever we're watching - It's just not cricket

Tuesdays are another night I'll be watching with interest as Nine attempts to shake up Seven and Ten's duopoly on the night. Frankly Top Gear can't come soon enough as people seem to abandon cricket when presented with more exciting options.

Indeed both Biggest Loser and My Kitchen Rules were up 200,000 viewers a piece on the previous night, while the return of NCIS absolutely thumped channel Nine. NCIS LA - though a rerun - did not fare as well, though the 800,000 seems pretty standard for a 9.30 rerun.

While I'm talking about that - 9.30 reruns seem to be all the rage at the moment, Nine is rerunning The Mentalist 9.30 Monday and Thursday, Seven is rerunning Thank God You're Here 9.30 Thursday, perhaps with the 9.30 slot's diminishing returns we will see the advent of American style 2 Hour primetime schedules.

I hope not.

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!

Not at these prices

Last night was one of those weird TV nights.

Arguably the biggest event of the day took place outside of Primetime (at 3am to be exact) and was replayed throughout the day on many different channels.

At night we had finales, reruns, special timeslots, pre-emptions, specials, special rebroadcasts and the Ashes!

Ten had a normal primetime schedule and viewers only stuck around for Masterchef, the rest of their post 8pm sked tanking miserably.

Nine, by complete contrast, upended their schedule for a night of Michael Jackson, first a 7pm replay of the Staples Centre memorial concert from earlier in the day followed by the often played (especially on cable in the last two weeks) Live in Bucharest concert. Neither show made much of an impact which was suprising, but given that the service was replayed throughout the day on FTA, Cable and in news highlight reels, not to mention the Bucharest concert has been played ad nauseum on MAX this week as well as being among the top selling DVDs - it's a good bet a lot of people already had the chance to see this stuff.

Add to this SBS coverage of The Ashes - the Australia vs England test Cricket series which netted an average of 679,000 viewers (but this includes viewership to 2am) but surely peaked a lot higher during primetime and you see the reason for a schedule that's out of sorts.

Seven joined the Michael Jackson parade in perhaps the most obscene way possible - on a day which had largely been devoted to celebrating the man's acheivements, Seven pulled the rug out from under that fantasy with a cut down version of the doco 'Living with Michael Jackson' this was the TV show that went around the world and landed Jackson in court on child molestation charges.

Seven cut out most of the sections of the doco on which those (since acquitted) charges were based, but even so the odd behaviour of Jackson whilst visiting a Las Vegas antique store or feeding his baby a bottle was arresting enough to snap you out of the sentiment.

Elsewhere two major shows, in fact two of the year's most expensive ventures were floundering.

Thank God You're Here - poached by (or is that whored to) channel seven for more money has not translated into more ratings. Only 1.3 million averaged on the season finale - only peaking at 1.5 million, a good audience yes - but significantly lower than the show's run on channel ten.

You can almost bet - given the show's history on Ten that Seven were selling time based on about 1.8m tuning in, it hasn't worked out that way at all - Tom Gleisner's mythical "wider audience" has not materialised and if you see a lot of commercials repeating themselves on seven, or a daytime slots with suddenly national advertising attached - well that's called "make goods" where the network promised an audience which it couldn't deliver and has to give away free slots to compensate.

Thank God's problems, however, pale in comparison to The Chaser, another show which was snapped up for too high a price tag ($1 million per ep for 10 eps) the show has now sunk below a million, now this may be due to The Ashes or Michael Jackson or who knows, but you have to ask - why did the ABC agree to this ridiculous license fee for this show - there was never a report of a bidding war, there's very little prospect of a commercial net wanting to involve themselves with this show because of it's adversarial content, now they've had to preempt two weeks (with the rumour being the series has been truncated to 8 eps - that's not a series length) and watch the ratings sink week by week - not great.

Fight or Flight

Real quick blog on last night's action

When ever you have a major event on one of the networks, especially one on a weekday, the opposing nets have to consider their best option, fight or flight.

State of Origin has always been huge but it has been only recently that Nine has started airing the game live in southern states, even so both Seven and Ten gave a little bit of fight and a little bit of flight - and here's what happened...

7.30 hour up against Nine's Pre-Match and the Game proper
Ten aired Masterchef (a 90 minute special from 7pm) in all markets, this may go down as one of the boldest moves ever made against State of Origin and it paid off big time, beating Nine's pre-match coverage and becoming the number 2 show of the night helping ten to a number two overall and emphatic nightly wins in all the southern markets.

Seven aired Thank God You're Here in southern markets with Ghost Whisperer subbing in Sydney and Brisbane, Thank God will bow in Ghost Whisperer's slot this week for those markets. This was less successful, although Thank God came second in the southern markets, the female friendly alternative of Ghost Whisperer didn't raise a murmur in League heartland. Given the steamroller effect of Masterchef perhaps seven should consider moving their big 'investment' to another night in all markets.

8.30 hour
The only real competition here was from the ABC whose 8.30 hour barely missed a beat from two weeks ago, The Chaser (which last time it aired was also against Origin) was down a negligible 8,000 viewers, hardly a sign of community outrage, we'll see whether it lifts next week unencumbered by League or whether this is it's new level, presumably any advocates for sick children will be enthused to hear Nine has slotted RPA as competition in this slot for future weeks.

Ten switched from fight to flight with a new SVU in the south and a rerun Criminal Intent in the north, it got them into 3rd place in the slot, just.

Million Dollar Bogey

It’s an ironic twist that certain events have conspired to make me miss yesterday’s deadline forcing me to post two days worth of results on the one entry.

The reason is posting them together allows me to outlay a huge contrast in the fortunes of channel ten and channel seven and their dealings with production company Working Dog.

Working Dog productions is the boutique television company behind TV shows such as The Panel, The Hollowmen and Thank God You’re Here.

Thank God You’re Here was a megahit for channel ten, over the course of two years (2006-2007) the show was a top ten mainstay with in excess of two million viewers on several occasions.

After spending a year away from the screen the show’s producers late last year moved their skein to the Seven sked for an undisclosed sum which has been speculated to be up to one million dollars per episode.

At the time this was seen as yet another nail in the coffin at channel ten, the perennial third-place network was well on it’s way to coming fourth in 2008 with it’s major 7pm franchise Big Brother having failed resulting in the collapse of their Prime Time schedule.

For the last 13 weeks of the 2008 season it was rare for Ten to have more than four shows post more than 1 million viewers.

While one could look at the Working Dog decision as having the appearance of rats fleeing a sinking ship and on the other hand representing incredible business nous with the company parlaying a show nurtured by a rival broadcaster into a multi-million dollar payday, Thank God You’re Here producer Tom Gleisner sought to dampen the angry internet chatter by famously claiming that the move to Seven was about exposing the show to a wider audience.

Now 2008 rolls around and ten feels like they’ve got their mojo back, they were always going to have a respectable first quarter with The Biggest Loser a popular 7pm switch-on for the net, but it has been the performance of their Big Brother replacement, the cooking competish Masterchef, which has caught everyone by surprise.

Then there’s the case of Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation, an amiable nostalgia themed quiz show hosted by the normally avant guarde Shaun Micallef taking a rare paddle down the mainstream. It’s likely that with Thank God still on their roster, Ten wouldn’t have taken a chance on this show which was reportedly a spurr of the moment programming decision (producer Granada wasn’t even looking to pitch the show to Ten execs) but the gamble has paid off richly for the net giving them a stranglehold over Tuesday nights.

As for Thank God You’re Here. The show has performed well, but it has been repeatedly dogged in it’s Wednesday timeslot by Masterchef.

Masterchef’s second half hour on Wednesday has been butting up against the 4th season show dragging it’s ratings down significantly in the first half, last night was the first time Masterchef took on Thank God for the whole 7.30-8.30 hour and the result was an emphatic win to ten.

If the yet to be seen 7pm project is a success then Ten have indicated that skeins like Biggest Loser and Masterchef will be 7.30 starters next year, making prospects for a next season a lot bleaker for the Working Dog people

Payback’s a bitch I guess…


Tuesday 16 June 2009

Going Up
Masterchef up by 8.11%
The Bold and the Beautiful up by 7.24%
Today Tonight up by 6.96%
Around the World in 80 Gardens up by 6.83%
Ten News at Five up by 6.22%

Going Down
A Current Affair down 17.64% week on week
HomeMADE (7.30pm) down 14.93%
Artscape down 13.49% on Jennifer Byrne Presents
Two and a Half Men (8.30pm down 13.42%/7pm down 12.04%/9pm down 10.01%)
Mumbai Calling down 11.06%



Wednesday 17 June 2009

Going Up
American Dad up 103.54% over Prison Break
Masterchef up 71.49% over All New Simpsons
Masterchef up 24.78% over itself week on week
SVU New Episode up 16.36%
The Morning Show up 13.84%
SVU 9.30pm rebroadcast up 10.52%
Sunrise up 10.16%

Going Down
Cold Case down 28.37% on The Mentalist down 20.10% on itself week on week
Prison Break down 26.11% week on week
RPA down 25.31%
The Cook and the Chef down 18.82%
The New Inventors down 17.76%
Tracey Ullman’s State of the Union down 16.81%
Thank God You’re Here down 15.67%
7.30 Report down 11.36%
Two and a Half Men rebroadcast down 10.35%
Spicks and Specks down 10.11%

Numb3rs you don't want to see

Wednesday 13 May 2009

Another Wednesday night win to Seven last night. Although Thank God You’re Here was down slightly on previous performance, their post 8.30 figures lifted with Criminal Minds up 32,000 and a couple of people meters behind The Gruen Transfer, while My Name is Earl was up 64,000 viewers and Family Guy up a healthy 105,000. After a shaky start this post 9.30 lineup is beginning to acquit itself, it’s still down on Seven’s older skewing fare but with old skewing fare everywhere else they need to make up ground on the young demographics where they often miss out.

As a rabid fan of Lost I considered the intrusion of Ponderland to be an affront to people everywhere who took up this show in 2005, but I have to admit waiting around between Family Guy and Lost this odd little show has grown on me.

Also up at 9.30 was Cold Case which added 141,000 viewers week on week, all these shows are benefiting from Numb3rs a 4 year veteran for Ten which has never performed that well (usually hovering around the 800,000 mark) I would remind Ten that this is the second 9.30 show that is woefully underperforming for them, a few years ago they pulled Smallville from a 7.30 timeslot when it was getting 1 million viewers! Now they’re allowing all sorts of failure in the 9.30 slots.

Perhaps they’re hoping for a boost when the stronger SVU comes online in a few weeks to battle for the 8.30 slot, perhaps this is just warming the bench for Rush which will need a timeslot very soon if they’re going to run 22 episodes.

House also suffered an embarrassing fall dropping 91,000 viewers week on week and back under the 900,000 mark, similarly The Simpsons fell 107,000 viewers week on week making Wednesday a bad night for Ten.

It was, however, a great night for Nine, achieved somewhat at its own expense. A Current Affair ran an interview with NRL Footy Show Star/Melbourne Storm Coach Matthew Johns about a 2002 incident dissected by the ABCs Four Corners on Monday night.

That program has cost Johns two jobs and whatever good reputation preceded him. Whether its deserved or not I’m sure there are people more qualified than I to judge, but what amazes me is that Nine stands him down, he fronts up for an interview! Think about that – if you were given the sack and your employer turned around and asked you to humiliate yourself in front of the customers? Would you?

Nine should cut the guy a cheque – his bad behaviour gave the program a rare win over Today Tonight and a week on week boost of 277,000 viewers. Now it remains to be seen if this train wreck can revive interest in the NRL Footy Show – don’t hold your breath…

Still waiting... Dog

Wednesday 6 May 2009

Well week two of Thank God You’re Here and we’re still waiting for that massive audience that will discover the show now that its on the Seven Network! Seems like some of that aud has discovered Masterchef, the cooking game show virtually tied with the defecting superhit in the 7.30 – 8pm half hour!

The Simpsons has proved a good move to Wednesday nights with the aging show pulling some decent numbers as opposed to its more subdued Friday night outings – I expect it to stay on Wednesdays for the remainder of the year.

More troubling is the performance of House, the show is stuck, Grey’s Anatomy like, just below 1 million, it’s going to get worse next season when Seven has two shiny new medical dramas to dilute the market with (the paramedic themed Trauma and a nurse-centric Mercy both of which have been picked up by NBC and are made by NBC-Universal)

Actually I can see why viewers are flocking to The Gruen Transfer (a very smart and easy to watch show) and Criminal Minds (which I occasionally watch, and saw again last night. Flicking between Criminal Minds and House last night (sorry but couldn’t less interested in The Mentalist) the FBI drama just seemed punchier and less predictable than House which feels played out, at one point House was even talking to a ghost??? Cuz yeah that really worked for Grey’s Anatomy!

The night’s other FBI drama, Numb3rs didn’t fare too well, partly because with all of ten’s launches this week it’s been a little under the radar, and secondly, the show has always struggled here for some reason – it’s a pity because it’s one of the more inventive procedurals out there.

In other news My Name is Earl went up by 79,000 viewers the night’s biggest week on week increase, of course this good news is tempered by the news in America the show is teetering on the edge of cancellation.

What lies in the shadow of the statue?

Wednesday 29 April 2009

Well one of the most shocking moves in TV land in the last year was the defection of Thank God You’re Here, a theatresports skein where celebrities imrpov their way thru a preset scene, from Ten to a much more cashed up Seven.

Seven reportedly paid between 1 – 1.3 million per episode for the rights to the show – you would think that’s a steep price but given it’s an hourlong format which will pull in excess of 1.5 million and repeats well I reckon it could actually make them a profit (provided the economy holds up) so from Seven’s end, despite the fact that it’s low, it’s a very sound business decision.

So what about Working Dog Prods?

At the time Executive Producer Tom Gleisner tried to justify this cash grab with the following…

‘‘It's quite understandable for people to assume that the only reason anyone switches networks is for money,''

‘‘But in our case the decision was based upon a desire to introduce the show to a new and potentially bigger audience. If money was our major motivating factor we would never have taken a year off making the show.''

Hmmm, OK so Seven is now going to deliver to this show an audience bigger than the 2007 season average of 1.86 million and the ratings peak of 2.13 million for the first season finale, alright lets see how they go!

Well first night in and yes there was a timeslot win and an average of 1.7 million viewers – very good, but not an increase by any means – we’ll see how it goes I guess.

As for the rest of the night, Nine scared the bejesus out of its audience first of all interviewing a NZ family affected with the swine flu (complete with face masks) which netted them 158,000 extra viewers, then What’s Good For You spent a whole half hour on the pandemic boosting that show’s aud by 258,000 week on week!

Nine suffered a drop later in the night for Cold Case with 110,000 fewer tuning in whilst Family Guy built week on week by 40,000 and Life grew 60,000, although that’s it for Life, that was the season (and possibly series) finale, a show that never got out from under the shadow of its lead-in a show which is now a shadow of its former self.

Speaking of Shadows, Lost improved slightly last night with a cracker of an episode, 'Dead is Dead' which gave some definite info on the old smoke monster, but ratings wise the show continues to be held back by one dumb scheduling move after another, look at the dismal performance of those 9.30 sitcoms - move this back to 9.30 damn you Seven, or sell the show to Ten who might treat it with respect.

Ten in general had a shocker with Masterchef falling further on its third night, there is the possibility with a more ten-friendly Thursday they could pick up, but it doesn’t look good.

The first ever widescreen episode of the Simpsons did alright as well rising 34,000 viewers week on week.

Thank God They're Gone

Leave it to the silly season to throw up the most shocking story of behind the scenes wheeling and dealing. It’s rare that press releases are actually news worthy but the following release from channel seven qualifies…

There’s no doubt that this is a win for seven, a win for Working Dog and a massive kick in the nuts for Grant Blackley, David Mott and co.

I thought it might be interesting, to pull out an old article where Tom Gleisner mentions the relationship with channel ten…

From PerthNow.com, dated 7 October 2006:

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,20540889-5005382,00.html

Working Dog's long-standing relationship with Ten played a big part in the TGYH deal.

``It's called the fear-of-loss factor: Ten couldn't afford to risk having Working Dog go to Seven or Nine with it,'' a Melbourne-based producer said recently.

``If you've been going out with Miss Australia (Working Dog) for 10 years, you don't want to share her with another bloke, even for one night. She may not come back.''

Well, you heard it from the horse’s mouth, Miss Australia is officially a slut.

She’s just run off with the rich older millionaire, taken the house and kids leaving ten with only the shirt on its back

The only silver lining in any of this for ten is the likelihood that the eventual infiltration of known stinkers such as Kochie & Mel, Noni Hazelhurst and Larry Emdur could bring down this show faster than Yasmin could get married. Gleisner, Stich and Co can only Thank God that Daryl Somers and Shelley Craft had already left their new home before they moved in.

Karma’s a Bitch - Tuesday 3 December 2008

So the bitches at Seven have swiped Thank God You’re Here from channel ten, well something happened last night that I expected, and a few things that I didn’t expect.

What I expected

‘The In-Laws’ wouldn’t impress, that’s a given – movies have very rarely ever worked on Tuesday nights, Nine is clearly surrendering this night to it’s competitors and will continue to do so in the new year.

The Chopping Block held it’s numbers from the regular season – indicating a core audience who were interested in the premise. If Nine wants a third shot they’re going to have to find a way to attract more casual viewers to the show without upsetting what is a decent base.

NCIS would wipe the floor with it’s competition, that was also a given – what I didn’t expect was an incredible 93.5% retention to the 9.30 hour.

What I didn’t Expect

The 7.30 Report NEVER outrates ABC News, let alone wins it’s timeslot, I’m impressed.

A special about Britney Spears outdid Ugly Betty – didn’t see that coming, especially given that Seven had the greater opportunity for promotion.

Dirty Sexy Money completely bombs, worse than The Ex-List (which is saying something) after a much better lead-in to boot, they lost 45% of Eli Stone’s audience, a sad sad result which explains the performance of the 10.30 shows across the networks.

Friends, improves both day on day, week on week (with Will & Grace) and on it’s lead-in. Seems like one of my shakier predictions might come to fruition – that How I Met Your Mother viewers might slowly realise they’re watching a rip-off of Friends and migrate back to the original. Last night’s 7pm timeslot belonged to the ABC (and probably will all summer) but between the commercial nets it was as close as could be.

2 Channel Universe – Sunday 9 November 2008

Last night’s top rating show was Dancing with the Stars which has grown stronger in it’s last weeks, but nowhere near the dominating highs of it’s Tuesday night run. Nonetheless Seven can be happy with a night where all their shows (including one heavily rerun sitcom) performed well.

Nine too can be happy, 20 to 01 now dominates the 6.30pm timeslot and 60 Minutes continues strongly, moreover it’s North/South strategy paid dividends last night with CSI Miami picking up the slack from their underwhelming Rugby League telecast.

Ten meanwhile have locked themselves out of the competition, they got a decent figure for Australian Idol and probably won in the important young demographics (wait for the press release I guess) but their showing last night reveals a schedule with more holes than they can patch.

First of all they threw in NCIS reruns to stop the leaking at 9.30, this has shown some improvement in the slot. Californication was only retaining a woeful 54% of Rove’s Audience, the first week in for NCIS they retained 68% of same audience, this week the Naval drama did even better with 84% retention.

After patching the hole that was 9.30 they then had to try to fix the drop from Californication to The Office by scheduling the International Edition of The Daily Show but their 11pm figures have barely budged – it’s a pity because it’s currently the best post 10.30 lineup on a Sunday night but did you know that – I’m going to guess that you didn’t because Ten don’t promote it! They never promote any show properly unless it falls between 7.30 -10.30 (with the exception of Neighbours) Ten need to advertise The Daily Show and The Office then maybe some people will tune in.

The other part of their night where they’ve sprung a leak is at 6.30 – Thank God You’re Here Reruns, which at times have won their timeslot against subpar competition are now struggling where they once flourished but why?

First of all Seven and Nine have better 6pm lead ins – The News. People will usually watch the news to start their night, now Ten nets a timeslot win by slotting their news at 5pm, but those people don’t stick around for Sports Tonight or The Simpsons – what can they do about this – either Put the Simpsons at 5pm, then Sports Tonight leading up to The News at 6pm or Move Sports Tonight to 4.30 then News then find an hourlong show (it’s a weekend so it can be rated PG) to show leading up to 6.30 – just a thought.

The bigger problem though is Thank God You’re Here – the show has been in reruns forever, it is produced by Working Dog – a group which doesn’t seem to have it in them to produce anything that runs for a long time. Apparently there is another season of 10 (that’s right folks 10) episodes on the way – better savour them I guess.

It’s not like the folks at Ten haven’t tried either to coax these burnt out geniuses back for more – I’ve read numerous reports over the last two years about the back forth dance between Ten and Working Dog over this show.

In the meantime Ten has used the show to plug a hole in their schedule – but by now everyone who wanted to see it has probably already seen it – all it seems to have accomplished is whetting people’s appetite for something light and breezy in the timeslot and Nine has delivered it with the newly hot 20 to 01, a show that has been on the air for roughly the same length of time as TGYH, has approximately similar production values and the same ‘forget instantly after watching’ quality.

Strangely enough the people behind 20 to 01 haven’t attempted to ration episodes or take a year off or ruminate in public on the difficulties of producing such a show, yet that’s all we’ve heard from the producers of TGYH and yet now their precious show, preserved in amber is in the ratings toilet, no doubt it will be fished out for 10 more glorious weeks in the sun next year after which Ten’s long term problems will still persist and 20 to 01 will still be going (twice a week no less)

Consolidation Prize – Sunday 26 October 2008

All three commercial networks were in tactical retreat last night, rather than launch into something bold or new all three have (in recent weeks) fallen back on safe and predictable.

Channel Nine
Nine has been consolidating for two weeks now, extending their flexible nostalgia series 20 to 01 to a second hour in the 6.30 slot in order to stop the haemorrhaging caused by Battlefronts a widely criticised gardening show which I never personally bothered with on the sole pretence that it was a gardening show and we shouldn’t be (as a nation) encouraging this cheap trash on the airwaves. Nonetheless the show failed to fire even with the ample hordes of people who normally go for this sort of program (look at the millions transfixed to Seven on a Friday night) and Nine swiftly booted it subbing in a more broadly appealing hour.

The move paid off for Nine which now rides in first place in the timeslot

Channel Seven
Seven dropped to disastrous numbers with the US adaptation of Kath & Kim and wasted no time subbing with reruns of the original. They were duly rewarded for their diligence pushing back into second spot ahead of Ten

Channel Ten
Poor Ten, their initial move at consolidation (ie: reruns of Thank God You’re Here at 6.30) looked great until Nine put them in check with 20 to 01 a similar light appeal show which has the advantage of being able to seem fresh even when it’s not. For ten the recalcitrance of producers Working Dog is a thorn in their side with a knock down concept sitting on the shelf while a bunch of overpaid and over-respected producers whine about having to recharge their creative juices – it’s not the Sopranos people – it’s a fucking cheap concept, just make some more already!

To add to Ten’s woes they took a second tactical retreat this week, pulling back their niche comedies (Californication and The Office) to 10.30 and putting up a second hour (repeat) of NCIS, generally reruns of NCIS have done exceptionally well but the bubble may be starting to burst with last night’s instalment pulling similar embarrassing figures to it’s timeslot predecessors.

In other news
The other big thing last night was Nine’s Rugby League world cup which didn’t really set the world on fire, one wonders if it will do any better next week with a match to be staged in Melbourne, the Main Beneficiary was Dancing with the Stars which saw huge gains from stranded viewers of The Mentalist and CSI Miami to become the night’s third most watched show.

Ten Lifts, Seven Sags, Nine’s the one – Sunday 12 October 2008.

All the attention in the early evening was focused on Seven, buoyed by a generous lead in from the Bathurst 1000, the network had two aces up it’s sleeve, the US version of Kath & Kim (more on that later) and the David Koch special on what to do during the all consuming world financial crisis.

This half hour news special features Kochie at the news desk, a quick cut to Kevin Rudd (that’s the Prime Minister for any overseas readers) who announced that they’re guaranteeing deposits a la Ireland’s recent move, a response for the opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull and any number of crackpot economic theorists who varying predicted we would either “ride the storm out” or spiral in Armageddon!

It worked because people watched – shoving Thank God You’re Here under the million mark and pushing Battlefronts (how many of these Gardening makeover shows can they do) out to the boondocks.

Kath & Kim held over 80% of that Audience and wasn’t that bad really, the trick for them will be to make it there own, like they did with The Office (the first 6 episode season of The Office was shaky but from second season on they had nailed it)

Alas none of this helped Dancing with the Stars, it’s worth noting that even though this show has only been around since 2004, this is season 8 (two rounds per year in 05, 06 & 07) is it possible they’ve made one to many trips to the well, expect to see an all stars edition next year I reckon.

It was beaten by Australian Idol which cleaned up in the demographics as did it’s follow on Rove which also held over 1 million viewers, Californication even rose by 45,000 viewers.

The question for ten is – have they hit their nadir, or is there worse to come?

In the past two weeks only 3 Ten shows have over the million each week (Wk 40 TGYH, Idol Sunday, NCIS, Wk 41 Idol Sunday, NCIS, Criminal Intent) With the return of Good News Week and Download this week can they lift their performance on Mondays and Fridays or will their 6pm – 7.30pm sked keep them underwater?

Nine had the run of the night, clearly affected by Seven’s bolt out of the gate the panicking aspirationals took a look at Kath & Kim then headed over to 60 minutes for even more Kevin Rudd action.

The Mentalist dropped but still won it’s timeslot as did CSI Miami a show which once dominated Wednesday nights but is now reliant on a good lead in to get by. Will a fast-tracked CSI (Las Vegas) be the evidence viewers need to switch to Nine or will it be DOA?

Stay tuned to find out…