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.

In Loving Memory of John Jay Smith

A Big night of TV last night threw up a few last minute schedule changes and a few surprises.

The main schedule switches were on Ten, subbing the Simpsons for a 48 Hours special on the recently deceased Michael Jackson - averaging 1.15 million it did better than any Simpsons ep since the first widescreen one back in April, though as a lot of angry Simpsons fans have pointed out in the blogosphere - where is the 3rd season premiere "Stark Raving Dad" featuring the mysteriously named 'John Jay Smith' in what was one of Jackson's only appearances on a scripted TV show.

In fact nothing better illustrates the rise and fall of Michael Jackson than The Simpsons, in it's early years Jackson was a friend to the program and a hero to it's main protagonist, Bart.

Michael Jackson wrote the song 'Do the Bartman' (true story) and Bart Simpson appeared in the full length Black or White video (the full length version hasn't really been seen since it's premiere due to it controversial content except for this week when music stations started rolling it out again), then Jacko went on to appear on the show's third season premiere, one of the first celebrity guest stars on the show, during that ep Michael Jackson was showcased as a hero and a living legend.

Contrast that to the show's seventh season with the episode 'Bart Sells His Soul' we get the following classic quote from Bart

"There's no such thing as a soul. It's just something they made up to scare kids, like the boogeyman or Michael Jackson."

Show those two episodes Ten and you've got the essence of the man's spectacular ride down the pop culture slippery dip better than just about any documentary could illustrate.

Continuing with the night's theme, Nine pushed aside Cold Case for their own MJ Documentary giving them the 9.30 hour with room to spare.

The Chaser also apparently weighed in with their own riff on the Jackson saga, but this being the first week since their premiere ep where they're not hindered by State of Origin shows up a big decline for the show - while still first in it's slot (just) it's down a sizeable 22% from it's May 27 debut, not exactly the bang you want for a million bucks a pop.

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.

Act of Contrition

It’s been one hell of a crazy week for TV with controversy never far from the prime time schedule

Over on Nine they managed to have their cake and eat it too with the caustic Gordon Ramsay in country abusing TV personalities both behind their backs and to their faces, somehow Nine managed to spin all the way from whipping the man at the start of the week to hosting his formal apology 3 days later thus “rehabilitating” his image (sufficient to spruik his future projects) and provide days of wonderful newstainment for the gawking onlookers (Myself included!)

After Ramsay’s mea culpa, Tracey Grimshaw gave a reply during which she stated regarding his apology:

"I didn't expect Gordon Ramsay to apologise. I didn't ask for it and I didn't think it would help -- but it has…”

It certainly has helped their ratings, and helped Nine smooth over an ugly scene between one of their top journalists and one of their major imports (well maybe not so much anymore)

If only the ABC could be so creative with their PR, seemingly asleep at the wheel when it came to Chaser airing a skit lampooning the Starlight foundation which gives dying children some moments of joy. Now here’s the thing, the idea behind the sketch itself was not that horrendous, “Make a realistic wish” seemed to be poking fun at the fact that some of the celebrity meetings or trips to Disneyland and other things organised by that group are very outlandish things, where they went completely wrong was somehow making it about the kids by tacking on a line at the end about how “they’re going to die anyway”

Rightly, a lot of people were outraged and unlike the usual shock jock crowd there were a lot of people with sick children who were genuinely offended by the sketch. The ABC waited until after midday on the Thursday to apologise and then took the step of removing the program from the air for two weeks

They were hit significantly in the ratings last night for their decision losing 40.41% on last week’s Chaser and 54.81% on two weeks ago (with no State of Origin in competition) with their hastily scheduled Tracy Ullman series.

Also with the Chaser out of the way ten reaped the benefit with an improved audience for Law & Order SVU up 36.26% on it’s debut 2 weeks ago

Amazing how both networks (ABC and Nine) have a had a major PR problem on their hands in the last week, Nine has dealt with it head on by actually adding content to their schedule with the net result being improved ratings and a sense that they can continue to show both ACA and Gordon Ramsay on the same network with a straight face, whereas ABC has chosen avoidance as their tactic and have paid a huge price in the ratings and there’s no guarantee that viewers will return in two weeks time.

Of course the ratings and commercial considerations don’t matter at the ABC, but when you’re forking out 1 million tax-payer dollars per episode for a show that now needs to be re-tooled, well it will matter to somebody.

The Scoreboard
Wednesday 10 June 2009
Against 2 weeks ago (State of Origin 1 was last week)

Going Down
Tracey Ullman's State of the Union down 54.81% on the Chaser
Spicks and Specks down 11.38%
SVU 9.30 rebroadcast down 10.99%
Prison Break down 9.96% on Lost

Going Up
Family Guy up 47.19% on Russell Brand, up 26.81% on last week
SVU 8.30 All New up 36.26% on debut
ACA up 24.29%
How I Met Your Mother up 12.77% on 10pm Family Guy
Masterchef up 12.7% on two weeks ago
The Simpsons up 10.13% on two weeks ago (previous all new ep)

The Danger of The Mainstream

Wednesday 4 June 2009

Biggest Programming Disappointment
Da Kath & Kim Code
Seven 7.30pm Down 37.93% of Thank God You’re Here and Down 37.58% on Criminal Minds

Biggest improvement
Duh!
State of Origin Rugby League
Nine 8pm – 10pm up 106.87% on The Mentalist and up 77.5% on RPA

Biggest Week on Week Improvement
Law & Order SVU
Ten 8.30pm up 43.58% week on week

First of all, no I didn’t see The Chaser last night, haven’t watched it since it’s return, given that these precious comedians didn’t feel obligated to produce any eps in 2008, I don’t feel particularly obligated to watch them this year, but of course you haven’t been able to turn on the radio or visit a news website without being informed of their latest transgression, which brings me to something I did watch last night…

Family Guy

Last night’s Family Guy was something a little different, a 100th episode compilation, the show mixed best of clips with bizarre commentary from Seth McFarlane and interviews with various focus group members of their opinions on the show.

It was a stark reminder that Family Guy, though successful with it’s target audience, is, in a wider sense, not a successful show, it certainly didn’t appeal to the 40-something people they interviewed for the special, most of them were either offended or at best non-plussed.

It’s funny to me that there was once another show that fit neatly into that category of appealing to 20 somethings and people with a childish sense of humour (myself included).

The Chaser

I first discovered the Chaser on the back of Kath & Kim with their news satire program CNNNN, that show was perhaps a little too focussed on politics and in-jokes to have broad appeal, but then ABC gave them another shot with the War on Everything.

At first a Friday Night skein the show got by on word of mouth alone, for a Friday night show it was like a secret treasure among a sea of mediocrity, ABC saw a show buried at 10pm Fridays after an incompatible lead-in trending up and decided to give it the coveted 9pm Wednesday slot in 2007 (an election year of all years!) the combo was pure alchemy and The Chaser morphed from an underground skein to mainstream hit.

But that mainstream success is strangling the show, last night was just the latest in a long string of incidents that seemed to have shocked the mainstream audience that has been on board since ’07, prior to this there was a major brouhaha over a weird musical number taking a swipe at the cult of dead celebrity, remember the storm that caused.

Personally I understand where a lot of the “angry viewers” are coming from on this – I have kids and jokes about kids in peril cut close to the bone in a way they never did before my parenthood, but I also remember that this sort of edginess is what drew people to the show in the first place. I wonder aloud what this means for the Chaser.

It’s audience was down last night, of course, because of the State of Origin, the Chaser experiencing a 24.16% drop week on week, but beyond that will the show start losing the viewers that brought it into the mainstream, or it persist in a love/hate relationship with the Australian public, or will a third outcome arise where the essence of The Chaser is watered down to appease the mainstream.

That would be sad, Australia already has a once-great team of risk-taking comedians who now just phone in stale comedy week to week getting fat and raking in the cheques…

What ever you do Chaser, don’t turn into Working Dog

Timeslot Flop

Wednesday 28 May 2009

Biggest Disappointment
Law & Order Special Victims Unit
Ten 8.30pm
Down 460,000 viewers on last week’s House season finale

Biggest Improvement
The Chaser’s War on Everything
ABC1 9pm
Up 228,000 viewers on last week’s Gruen Transfer season finale

Well The Chaser is back and in ratings terms at least (haven’t watched the ep yet, but I’ve heard some worrying things) it was a success.

The ABC’s comedy double caused some headaches for the commercial networks, well actually know that’s not accurate – it caused some headaches for channel ten. The very people who form Ten’s core audience all flee to the ABC at 8.30 whilst Ten is now playing a game of crime show chicken which it cannot seem to win!

You’ve heard of the phrase “timeslot hit” it was common parlance in the 90’s when NBC had a Thursday night comedy lineup consisting of Friends at 8pm and Seinfeld at 9pm, the joke was they could stick a test pattern at 8.30 and 9.30 and they would still be in the top ten for the week!

Well now we have a new term – a “timeslot flop!”

SVU has been put headlong against two crime dramas and the ABC’s most watched hour all week.

One of factors working against House in this slot was that it was a 5 year old show against two relative newbies, Criminal Minds in its fourth season is arguably at the peak of its powers, House had a refit back in season 4 and it has seen the show stumble with Australian audiences, Criminal Minds has had only one cast change (in season 3 Joe Mantegna subbing for Mandy Patinkin) and hasn’t skipped a beat, rookie drama The Mentalist is one of the year’s few shining lights out of the US.

Now Ten is replacing House with an even older drama, SVU is in its 10th season and unlike other Law & Order shows the cast of SVU have remained with the show throughout its run and the show is more character based than its sibling shows.

The 9.30 episode of SVU actually increased over the 8.30 one by 165k and over the previous week’s Numb3rs by 200k, it took Cold Case down by 110k week on week and My Name is Earl down by 114k. There is one conclusion I can draw from this, people like SVU still, there’s an audience for it – but at 8.30 that audience is watching other shows, SVU probably won’t cut through that clutter.

The only thing that could help Ten out here is that Nine and Seven will very soon be running out of episodes of their skeins, both having been fast-tracked last year, maybe Ten should put up some SVU reruns until then!

One final note, remember we're still waiting for this great new channel seven audience to surface Working Dog. If it wasn't for SVU, Seven would have recorded the night's biggest drop with Thank God You're Here plummeting 169,000 viewers week on week! Well done chumps!

It’s your money…

You know, I’m not opposed to the ABC spending taxpayer money on The Chaser, they’re a better outfit that 90% of what Aunty shows but $6 million dollars???

SMH today reports that THE CHASER boys are close to signing a $6million deal with the ABC that will see them return to screens next year.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/tv--radio/chaser-boys-sit-pretty-as-6m-deal-nears/2008/10/25/1224351610142.html

OK that’s alright I guess, Seven paid a license fee of $3 million to Jane Turner and Gina Riley for the rights to Kath & Kim and the Chaser is funnier than Kath & Kim, also for their $3 million Seven have only netted the reruns and 8 new episodes, that’s $375,000 per episode, a pretty reasonable license fee considering the material, especially given that some 24 reruns are thrown in as well bringing the per episode licence fee to $93,000 per half hour – an absolute bargain given reruns still command 1 million viewers per screening.

So I’m thinking alright, in 2007 The Chaser screened 24 episodes, so if this year they’re doing 24 new eps that means a license fee of $250,000 per episode, pretty darn good – but wait, read on (as no doubt you already have) and you see that they’re only committing to 10, that’s right, 10 episodes – that’s 600,000 per half hour which must make it one of the most expensive shows on Australian television, I hope ABC has some US currency stashed away so they can bring down the cost.

So lets review, your ABC has spent dollars which put commercial networks to shame on a program for which they cannot sell advertising time, nor claim the full profits from DVD sales – well done chumps!