My Kitchen Pwns

Wednesday, 9 February 2011

I had no idea that My Kitchen Rules was supposed to be on 3 nights a week - but why not with ratings like this - the reality skein just goes from strength to strength taking out not only the Biggest Loser - knocking it under a million but also (incredibly) a new episode of The Big Bang Theory.



Big Bang's lead-out, Mike & Molly held up well considering the depressed lead-in and Farmer Wants a Wife actually improved on the figure slightly but Nine won't be happy with its performance.

Indeed given the amount of advanced promotion (an admittedly stupid promo though) that Farmer has received compared to Criminal Minds - they really got shafted.

Almost tying Farmer Wants a Wife for second in the slot was the new Adam Hill's show which posted a really good (for the ABC) 889K.

City Homicide will soon be drawing a chalk outline around itself with a woeful 663K but then again nothing at 9.30 did that well even the usually reliable RPA faltered with only 744,000.

On digital Neighbours was again the top show with 7TWO's British dramas and All New Simpsons rounding out the top five - look at how an all new Simpsons ep reduces the audience for Family Guy by 50,000 viewers!

Finally it's worth noting that Two and a Half Men lost 140,000 from ACA and came fourth in its slot behind the 7PM Project, Nine might have to start looking for a 7PM alternative which is not going to be easy.

A cyclone runs through it.

Wednesday, 2 February 2011

Last night primetime programming was suspended on Seven (and to a lesser extent Nine) for rolling coverage of Tropical Cyclone Yasi as it made its way through North Queensland.



Nine already had the Cricket commitment and Ten stuck to it's schedule (for the most part) and it paid off with an excellent debut for "Blue Bloods" the new Tom Selleck/Donnie Wahlberg police skein.

Today I've decided to only list the pecking order for 1st Second and Third and to largely leave the digital channels out of it because the digital figures are so close together and so reliant on demographics for advertising dollars that pecking order comparisons become meaningless.

Yes Heartbeat dominates whenever it's run, whilst 7mate's Sitcoms and The Simpsons do good work on Wednesdays, but they're all pandering to their own audiences and neither is very much in danger from the other.

But it's still interesting to see how much they're all getting. Indeed The Simpsons has taken a real beating on it's move to digital heaven, arguably the potential audience for everything goes down when you give people more choice - so the 200 thousand turning out for New Simpsons eps are the real die-hard fans, where as there's another tier who like the Simpsons but they'll catch it when its on and still another tier that watched it because it was the best thing on at the time, that third group no longer applies in the digital age - they have too many other choices.

For this reason I think when the analogue is totally switched off we will see the figures between the main channels and the digital channels even out a bit more as more people have the choice to watch something else.

Something wrong with the mix

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

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

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

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

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

Just a flesh wound

Umm Ten's looking a bit blue of late

At the start of the week I wrote

when Neighbours is your top rating show - you're in trouble

Well, last night they went one lower - their top show was the 6pm Simpsons with a measley 687,000 viewers - the 7pm project dropped into no-mans land at 656,000 granted the network has thrown it's support behind the show and it's early days - but tell that to the staff at Nine's 'This Afternoon' who met their fate with little over two weeks under their belt in a show which was talked up to the nines from the get go.

We'll see if the 7pm figures are indicative of Ten's general day to day health (ie: strong on Mondays and Tuesdays, weak on their lower rating days) or if it's the show itself.

At 588k - Ten cannot afford to have Dance lead off it's night - just put Simpsons or Futurama in there or better yet Move the dancing show to a slot where it can't cause damage.

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.

The Chef, The King and the Perfect Vagina

Ten has made their first major change to Fridays in an attempt to revive their fortunes on the night but the results were not good. For the first week in So You Think You Can Dance posted a significant loss for the net.

Retaining only 56% of the Masterchef lead-in the US Dance comp may yet find an aud (it has built in this slot in the past after a slow start) but it would not surprise me to see it moved to 8.30 with The Simpsons back at 8pm in order to bolster Ten's share.

Without the Simpsons on deck Nine's King of Queens was able to slip into the top 30 for the first time ever (remember it doesn't play in Sydney and Brisbane)

The AFL had a huge night last night, whether it's the freezing Melbourne weather, swine flu, the split round or just a chance to see two really good teams in action the audience rose a whopping 26.84% in the southern capitals week on week.

That was still nothing compared to SBS's customary 10pm sex docos, a title like 'The Perfect Vagina' was always bound to draw a crowd I guess with an amazing 67.48% increase over last week's 'Sex Blog Girls'

The Scoreboard
Friday 12 June 2009

Going up
AFL up 26.84%
Silent Witness up 9.99%
The Simpsons (6pm) up 7.83%

Going down
So You Think You Can Dance down 27.2% on The Simpsons, down 4.92% on Law & Order
Criminal Intent 10pm rebroadcast down 17.19% on previous week's 10.30 rebroadcast

Static

Friday 5 June 2009

Biggest Disappointment
The Simpsons
Ten 6pm rebroadcast, down 11.88% week on week

Biggest Improvement
Law & Order Criminal Intent
Ten 10.30pm rebroadcast, up 37.27% on Life on Mars

Law & Order
Ten 8.30pm up 24%, 9.30pm up 21% week on week

Pretty ordinary night for TV, all the football codes were down, Silent Witness was down, oddly Law & Order was up, it was like the regular Friday crowd was out or something. I don't know why they would be - it's friggin cold at the moment (at least in this corner of the universe).

Better Homes & Gardens dropped for the second week running (albiet by a minor 3%), in the 7.30 - 8pm hour the show has competition with Ten and Nine both claiming over 1.2 million in that slot.

Since it started figures haven't been available for King of Queens so there's no idea how much it's loosing from it's lead-in and how that affecting Nine at 8pm, Next week of course Ten returns So You Think You Can Dance at 8pm which will either fizzle out unspectacularly or it will set the cat among the pidgeons on a night which has remained static for some time.

Realty Reality Bites

Sunday 10 May 2009

Another Sunday, another round of series premieres, this time Nine debuted it’s great white reality (or is realty) hope for 2009: HomeMADE.

It had the perfect lead-in for once Nine’s 6pm news tied Seven in Sydney, won in Melbourne and Adelaide with only Brisbane and Perth letting down the side, but it was a great aud for Nine news which at 6.30 – completely falls away.

HomeMADE from the much ballyhooed creators of The Block lost 471,000 or 31.5% of its lead-in, by contrast Sunday Night, Seven’s current affairs beast lost only 17% from Seven News, was up a whopping 336,000 viewers week on week, within millimetres of a timeslot win and for the first time that I’ve noticed, actually eclipsed 60 minutes in the audience stakes, with the 30 year veteran only managing 1,181,000 off the back of the HomeMADE lead-in.

Ten, however, has the most to smile about, Merlin, a retelling of the medieval tale made all the more better by the lack of Sam Neill represented a massive switch on for ten with an additional 725,000 tuning in after The Simpsons finished, representing a lead-in “retention” of 225%

Now for the real shock, Masterchef, with no Logie awards in its way, raised 376,000 week on week for an average aud of 1,470,000. The Ten reality machine has done it again!

The only thing that prevented them from winning the night was the non-performance of new limited-run serial thriller Harper’s Island, only 576k tuning in at 9.30 for the murder mystery proving that Aussies prefer to see old British geezers get offed, rather than young American hotties! (Well maybe not – I’ll leave that kind of deep cultural analysis to Tribal Mind!)

I wouldn’t be surprised to see this at 10.30 in the coming weeks, the problem is, what the hell do you put after Rove, Rove is, as a show, essentially a late night format, yet it airs at 8.30, Ten have tried just about every format under the sun after this show and nothing seems to take, part of the problem is that once you get to 9.30, the teens start going to bed for school the next day, I don’t know the demographic breakdown of Rove, but I’d imagine they make up a sizable proportion given the audience drop-off that seems to take place no matter what show follows, whatever Ten puts at 9.30 Sundays, they’re going to need something that will entice older adults to switch over from the opposition.

Headache Inducing Scheduling

Saturday 9 May 2009
Another Saturday, another unspectacular set of numbers, the 6.30-7.30 hour is good with almost 4 million watching free to air, but after that the audience tails of quickly, of course you have your AFL on Ten which did slightly less than Seven's game on Friday night, Ten had about 120k less watching in Melbourne, and a few more watching in Adelaide and Perth.

In order to acheive this comparable result, however, Ten needs to do a lot more legwork.

Seven airs the one match on Friday nights (never live because of the commitment to Better Homes and Gardens) 8.30 for all southern markets (and occasionally Brisbane), 11.30 for Sydney (and Bris at other times)

On Ten the picture isn't so clear cut, this is ten, which during the 90s was the most tightly synchronised network in this country, with little to no variation between the 5 cities, of course the territorial pursuit of Aussie Rules football has changed all that, observe...

The AFL last night aired in all 5 cities, starting at 5 different times! Perth got the game, Blues vs Dockers, from 5.30pm - 8.30pm, Adelaide picked up the game at 6.30 (after screening Before the Game, live at 6pm), Melbourne started at 7.00, in reality the same time as Adelaide - but two different games! Melbourne catching the Blues game while Adelaide opted for Kangaroos vs Port Power!

In Melbourne the Mick Molloy/Dave Hughes football talker Before the Game went from 6.30-7.00 and was Melbourne's second highest rating program of the night with 390,000 viewers.

Brisbane picked up the Blues vs Dockers match after 7.30 (Before the Game does not rate north of the Murray) and Sydney had an alternate sked featuring two Simpsons eps not seen in any other market and a movie shared with Perth viewers, finally airing the AFL to a paltry 21,000 viewers at 10.30pm!

It gives me a headache just trying to line up this insane schedule in my chart - I can only image what the oztam people (and for that matter Ten's Programmers) make of this beast.

Give the People What They Want

Friday 8 May 2009
When in doubt go with what works! Channel Nine has, for weeks now, struggled to get any sort of traction in the southern states to complement their Friday Rugby League dominance north of the Murray, we last night saw the dropping of Til Death moving The King of Queens back a half hour and putting in an extra Two and a Half Men.

The additional Two and a Half Men came second in Melbourne and Adelaide enough turn up in the top 30 on the back of only three cities. They're putting an extra episode on Mondays as well, replacing one of those factuals, that will make 8 episodes a week/9 in southern markets!

This is all well and good but I'm starting to recognise eps that I've seen before, and I'm more generous on reruns than most people so Nine is getting into dangerous territory here, betting that this sitcom has the legs of The Simpsons, all I'd ask them to do is look at what happened to Seinfeld, a show which you just can't stip early evenings anymore (save for the niche market of cable) because everybody seen the episodes three times over!

As I suggested Law & Order has hit the ground wheezing, it would be the perfect series for Friday nights, were it not for its even older skewing opposition and the fact that men are well served between Midsomer and various football codes, not to mention those war and sex docos on SBS, the real available audience is women and Medium didn't do it for them, neither do movies (it's rare that one pops into the top 30 on a Friday) the question is - what do women want?

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.

Endless Midsomer

Friday 1 May 2009

A fairly unimpressive night for everything bar the grey double of Better Homes and Gardens and Midsomer Murders.

Ten, with no sport to fall back on fared the worst of the commercial nets with only a 19% audience share and low audiences all around.

Medium, a show which deserves better, will this week be moving to 9.30 Thursdays with Law & Order doing double duty on the night.

It's a tough ask for the 19 year old procedural which is far more highbrow than its character driven offspring, an evening of Law & Order is often a trip down the complex and labyrinth playbook of the US legal system, played for realism it can often be very dry stuff and at this point it's clear that viewers prefer the abnormally murderous antics of various eccentrics in the English countryside to the gritty 'ripped from the headlines' New York experience.

You'd think Ten might be hanging hoping that ABC will run out of episodes - well don't hold your breath - last night's ep (originally shown on Nine) was episode 10 (or 3.2) that's 10 eps out of 65!!! This show ain't going anywhere soon!

Perhaps Ten should reach into the old vault for some Murder She Wrote, or maybe they still have the rights to Ruth Rendell!

Something we should all Ponder

Wednesday 22 April 2009

Last night everyone had a reason to smile, and a reason to worry.

Ten can take heart that The Simpsons has settled nicely on Wednesdays and has scored some of its best numbers in years thanks to the better timeslot.

They can also worry about Life a show whose audience won't grow no matter what Ten does, it's very likely when Life leaves the stage in a week's time it will be for good, soon to be replaced by Numb3rs, so will Numb3rs improve ten's numbers at 9.30 or is the slot itself a problem?

Nine can be pleased with Cold Case which has bounced back after erratic scheduling over summer, a breif fling with 10.30, now with Seven's Gangs of Oz dispatched we see Nine dominating the post 9.30 field.

But they should be worried as to why The Mentalist seems to be fading, for the past couple of weeks it's been neck and neck with House which indicates that perhaps either its aud have lost interest due to a cliched format or worse, erratic scheduling (witness what AFL interruptions did to Life on Mars)

Seven can be happy with Australia's Got Talent which routinely been Wednesday's best performer, and ecstatic even that the channel ten megahit Thank God You're Here will be filling that slot next week.

They can also fire someone over the boneheaded decision to move their crime docos and bump Lost for a sitcom lineup at 9.30.

My Name is Earl has always gotten good ratings on Thursdays, then late 2007 Seven started fucking with success (sound familiar) by moving the show to Sundays, now it's on 9.30 Wednesdays?? I'm all for having sitcoms later into the night, but this show was a success at 8pm, why on earth would they mess with that?

Family Guy fared even worse - I can't help but think if Ten was screening this show it would be an 8.30pm hit, instead Seven, admirably keep persisting, but the old axiom that people watch shows and not networks continues to be proven false - both show and network need to mesh and Seven does not equal Family Guy.

As for bumping Lost, how do you insult fans of this show any further??, oh yeah bump their show behind a low rent comedian whose entire schtick seems to be poking fun at old educational videos.

Seven are currently at the top of the heap in TV, so these kinds of incompetent programming mistakes probably don't bother their top brass too much, but you really have to wonder if they managed to be consistent with the scheduling of their shows, how much more dominant they'd be.

Friday 10 April 2009

Friday


Very very low rating night all around - which is to be expected for a Good Friday. Medium and Law & Order continue to struggle in the face of pretty lacklustre competition - meanwhile there's no available figures so we can't see the result of the great southern experiment by Nine to stick Sitcoms in opposition to the Simpsons on Friday night.

Meanwhile Better Homes and Gardens continues to dominate the 7.30 hour - tripped up only slightly this week by the absence of Melbourne from the network for the annual Good Friday Telethon.

Nine moves up the dial 22 places - Wednesday 8 April 2009

Wednesday

While Ten scores with reruns on Tuesdays, Seven drops the true crime chicanery and dishes out a double Criminal Minds with great results - at 8.30 they were only bettered by the ABC's light entertainment double, then at 9.30 they owned the hour.

Ten's House and Guerilla Gardeners were both up week on week, although Guerilla Gardeners fate has already been sealed with a move to 6pm Sundays in the wings after Easter.

Meanwhile check out the performance this week of The Simpsons and Neighbours in the 6pm hour - are the school holidays helping these shows or what?

Channel Nine meanwhile had a good night until 8.30 - a new double of What's Good For You and RPA (somewhat reminiscent of the old Our House/Money Wednesday fixture I guess) won the 7.30 - 8.30 hour, then at 8.30 everyone had the night off - Southern viewers were subjected to a two hour Footy Show, though this sort of Wednesday stunt is quite common at this time of year the Footy Show is no longer the major draw it once was, perhaps its time to limit the number of 8.30 screenings of this stuff which, rather than win local market ratings, seem to just disrupt the networks programming.

In fact Sydney - with The Mentalist and Cold Case was the only Market which resembled the network last night, Brisbane viewers got some sort of local fashion awards??!? Is this channel nine or channel 31?

Time for a Holiday - Sunday & Monday 5-6 April 2009

Sunday

It's Easter school holidays and by startling coincidence it also means the networks go on holidays for two weeks with all crucial series rested during the break.

On Sunday Night that meant Bones at 8.30 on Seven and this week's recipient of the "About A Boy" award for most overplayed movie: The Shawshank Redemption subbing for the CSI twins. Meanwhile Ten remained, the same with their reality comps hurtling towards the finish line, The Biggest Loser, especially has been one of the star performers of Ten's lineup in the last two weeks and the next two should be no different with the clear air of non-ratings providing more room for the show to grow in it's final weeks.

Perth is once again out of whack with the east coast over football match times and Seven's choice of a special on one of the world's worst serial killers, BTK, proved a poor option at 9.30 - especially since CI had a much more in depth look at that story about a month ago on their Serial Killer Sunday.


Monday

Nine chose to rerun Underbelly, that reruns pulled in around the million mark is impressive given there's very few who probably haven't seen the episodes at this point!

Again the story though turns out to be Seven and Nine's non-ratings capers have given ten a chance to be on top with Good News Week pulling some of it's best numbers all year (although down on last week's stand-up)

Even Four Corners, which has been in the doldrums from it's second week on received a welcome boost to 3rd place in it's slot with 957k. It's leadout - Spooks fared a lot better also than The Cut whose audience it virtually doubled.

Seven chose to replace their soaps with the lightweight comedy Father of the Bride II, this was a mistake - not only did it earn them fourth spot between 8.30 and 9.30 but it represents a missed opportunity to get a leg up for the Housewives while Underbelly is absent, instead only Ten (and ABC I guess) took advantage of the lull.

Seven's programmers should well remember back to 2006, at the start of that season (the show's second - which was generally regarded as weak) it was reported they were selling commercial time on that show for $100,000 per 30 second slot, then only 6 weeks in they took Housewives off for two weeks during the Commonwealth Games, upon the show's return the ratings had plummeted with people either weaning themselves off the habit or finding alternative means to get hold of episodes.

Now the show is operating with even less followers and Seven seems determined to drive them away also! Gottaloveit.

Friday 4 and Saturday 5 April 2009

Good News, Bad News - Thursday 2 April 2009

A Week on Week comparison for channel Ten obviously sees ten down without the aid of AFL footy but away from that schedule upheaval Ten has some good news and some bad news...

The Good News
Law & Order SVU got the better of Nine's 20 to 01 with probably its biggest audience of the season, helped along by (of all things) Bondi Vet!

Dr Chris Brown is finally over the million mark and no doubt a second season confirmation is only a formality.

For a show which is not a typical Ten format (and has therefore struggled for attention) it has grown consistently each week. Last year it seemed like the whole "Bondi" franchise would be dead on the tarmac with the abject failure of Bondi Rescue Bali, but the success here must surely be encouraging someone to hunt for the next Bondi reality skein, Crime & Investigation channel looked like they were getting in on the act last Thursday with The Bondi Gay Murders, but that was just a one-off CIA ep!

The Bad News
Oh Yeah - the disruption (two pre-emptions for AFL matches so far this season) has not been a good thing for Life on Mars which this week finished its run in the US, not sure if this show will see the other side of easter at 9.30 - we may be looking at a 10.30 move.

Some are even suggesting a Friday night swap with Medium (Personally I would swap out the male-skewing Law & Order to take it away from male-skewing sports), other have reasonably pointed out that Ten has not been so quick on the trigger this year - and that is true - but remember they still moved Dexter out of prime time and in a few weeks Guerilla Gardeners (which has been treading water at 700k) is moving to 6pm Sundays (replacing a low-rating Simpsons rerun) so even though Ten is more patient this year, I still think Life on Mars may see out its run in a different slot.

Friday 27 February 2009

Well, the overall picture for Friday is still somewhat unclear with no figures available for Seven's northern movie The Guardian, however looking at it - its just awfulm I can't even blame the programmers because looking at the lineup there was a fair spread of genres covered last night, but nobody was biting.

Ten's programs took a big hit week on week with The Simpsons down 131,000 viewers and Medium down 101,000. Nine got some absolutely deplorable figures for its movies as well, shocking given they're both recent hit films - which says to me that the people meter people were all out for the night!

Rinse and Repeat - Friday 13 February 2009

Both Nine and Seven had sporting events on Friday night which managed to fracture the schedule across the country.

Seven was split down state lines with Sydney/Bris showing encore episodes and the southern states carrying AFL.

Nine was split by time zone due to their live cricket coverage - viewers in Bris, Perth and Adelaide were treated to an encore screening of Underbelly

I'm not even going to attempt to spot a trend in all that mess - except to say that a national sport (Cricket) easily outperformed a regional sport (AFL). The irony is that I'll bet you the rights to the AFL costed Seven way more than the cricket rights costed Nine.

Ten at least ran a consistent sked - and although they were again up against a mountain of sport - they seemed to do a good job of anyone not tuned into the cricket.