Sunday 22 March 2009

Sunday again continues to be close struggle for all the nets with only the 7.30 hour putting Seven out in front. Viewers have well and truly put aside 60 minutes for the more visceral experience of Seven’s factual offerings.

Meanwhile Dexter’s ratings last Sunday looked to be a mirage, either the show dropped by 342,000 viewers week on week or it was initially timecoded wrong resulting in an inflated rating for the first week.

The tussle at 8.30 continues to be tight with less than 3,000 viewers separating the crime shows. Backyard Blitz, now rumoured to be axed lost 84,000 viewers week on week while The Biggest Loser picked up an extra 94,000 and Sunday night brought in another 129,000 (the night’s biggest increase)

I've gotta follow an act like that? Sunday 1 March 2009

Second Sunday with all shows on deck and Seven shows a big week on week improvement, with City Homicide recording a half hour win and an increase of 165,000 viewers, Border Security scared an additional 122,000 people, Triple Zero Heores was up 92,000 and won its timeslot, Sunday night added 103,000 people from last week and even Bones clocked an extra 116,000 living persons to its tally.

Over on Ten both Loser (-11,000) and Dance (-18,000) had negligible losses while Rove, half an hour earlier this week rakes in an extra 103,000 folks – I have no doubt Rove’s figure spikes for Petespace and the fake news segments they do at the start so the early start time is a clear benefit.

More troubling is what to do after Rove, cops shows don’t work (see NCIS), esoteric comedy flops (Californication), right now Ten is trying out movies with very poor results, after two years of Rove ten continues to have these woes in the 9.30/10pm slot, what is worse this year is than in two months they face an additional hour long hole in their Sunday night when Dance and Loser wrap up, Masterchef will only be filling one of those hours (place your bets now on whether it will be 6.30 or 7.30!)

Over on Nine they had one thing to smile about and a lot of things to worry about, first of all they can smile about CSI Miami up 158,000 viewers week on week and looking quite respectable for a 9.30 show, but their early evening lineup is floundering – Domestic Blitz has never faced the Biggest Loser before and it would seem that weight-loss comp is taking the shine off those renovators, meanwhile as the oldest thing on television 60 minutes is being hit by fresher competition – although still keeping its head above water it took a hit of 128,000 viewers the night’s biggest decline.

It’s on now!! Sunday 22 February 2009

What a night last night, very close between all nets with some unexpected results.

Firstly, viewership was well down on comparable Sunday nights with the 7pm timeslot barely breaking 4 million viewers.

Seven had a terrible night, after two solid weeks of domination over Sunday nights Nine moved in on their turf and did some real damage to their shows, Sunday Night down 264k, Border Security – a timeslot win but down 142k week on week, Triple Zero Heroes down 241k, City Homicide down 115k and third in its timeslot behind CSI, which last year it managed to hold a bay, Bones (although a rerun) was down 245k week on week.

Now in one sense they can be pleased because they are up against strong competion and Border Security managed to beat 60 minutes (or is that 90 minutes), but Border Security is a half hour show and 60 minutes can be dipped in and out of easily.

The City Homicide result is a much bigger problem – here they have a show which was pulling 1.8 million viewers a week in it’s Monday night timeslot last year – until Nine got smart and moved perrenial spoiler CSI up against it, draining the show’s audience, Seven does have an advantage in that they have more Homicide up their sleeves than Nine does fresh CSI eps, but even so without CSI as competition, interest seems to have waned over the summer.

Sunday Night is another problem, just as a casual TV viewer last week (and I watched a bit of Seven on Wednesday and Thursday nights) I couldn’t tell what their stories would be on Sunday Night this week, whereas generally Nine loudly trumpets what their doing on 60 minutes from week to week – perhaps Seven need to promote it more, because of all the shows in that 6.30 timeslot the most promoted (and most memorable promo) was The Biggest Loser and the results (a massive 607,000 switch-on) speaks for itself, especially after a week of lackluster ratings for the reality comp.

60 minutes also is going to have problems – only 1.2 million for a 30th anniversary special?? That’s not an encouraging sign at all! What’s worse is that this television milestone was beaten by So You Think You Can Dance!!! I won’t be holding my breath for the Nine press release on that one!

Find that show!
I know you all love this game, and channel Nine loves you to play it – this is where we follow that show, this time CSI Miami, from a 9.30 Thursday timeslot where it won with 884k, they only lost 3,000 people with the move to Sunday nights – so all in all not a bad result for them but unfortunately for viewers – this will only encourage them to keep playing the game!

A Rising Tide - Sunday 15 February 2009

Another Sunday, another cricket match for Nine and a boost in viewers all around with all commercial nets averaging over 1 million viewers for the four hour prime time last night.

Seven can consider their Sunday night a success with Border Security and Triple Zero Heroes looking like Sunday hits, and Sunday Night losing Sydney but winning Melbourne in it’s first stoush with Domestic Blitz.

Not so lucky was City Homicide whose older Audience spent the second week in a row glued to the cricket – we’ll no more once its regular competition (CSI) moves in from next week.

So You Think You Can Dance had a great night last night with the first live performance and The Biggest Loser Weigh In improved Week on Week.

Also smart on Ten’s part was the decision to return The Simpsons to 6pm Sunday, although keeping Out of the Blue at 5.30 at the expense of Sport Tonight is still hurting their ratings in that slot.

Rove, too is hurting, unable to hurdle a rerun of Bones, one of the most boring procedurals this side of Crossing Jordan!!

Opening Night - Sunday 8 February 2009

Last night was the first night the official 2009 Australian Television Ratings season.

The night was thrown into chaos with split scheduling across the board owing to the developing news story of the Victorian Bushfires which so far has become the worst natural disaster in Australian history.

All networks devoted extended coverage to the event in their Melbourne markets as well as additional bulletins at night, pushing existing shows all over the schedule

My chart attempts to make as much sense of all the moves as possible but a clear picture of the night won’t be available until figures adjusted sometime later in the week.

Anyhow here’s how they fared on the first night in

Seven

Seven had a big night – deferring their afternoon programming for news and pushing the debut of newsmagazine Sunday Night back to 7pm in Melbourne didn’t hurt them one iota, the new lineup of Sunday Night/Border Security/Triple Zero Heroes pulled a mammoth audience for it’s first outing – it looks as if Seven has successfully transplanted their Monday shows to Sunday night – but the real test will be up against 60 minutes next week.

Nine

Nine had the cricket all day and reaped a huge rating as a result, but it was their news coverage of the fires which stood out for this viewer, they seemed to have almost every reporter in their employ out at a different location bringing some truly memorable vision of the day.

Ten

Ten had the most uneven day and they were partly to blame. Ten have the unique advantage on big news days of being the first cab off the rank at 5pm, but Saturday, when these fires started (not to mention the hottest day in Melbourne’s history) saw Ten run with a national Sydney based bulletin, giving Sydney stories priority over the unfolding crisis.

Sometimes Ten’s national weekend bulletins are interesting because you get to see a bit of what is going on across the country as compared to the more parochial market leaders – but on days like this a local approach is really needed.

By Sunday Ten had realised their error and had brought in Mal Walden for a special hourlong Sunday bulletin but viewers ignored them in favour of Seven’s early coverage.

This result, and the decision to persist with Out of the Blue saw Ten’s share fall dramatically last night. The Biggest Loser was easily dropped by a news hungry public although they recovered nicely with So You Think You Can Dance – proving the show has a devoted audience – Rove got off to an inauspicious start, I suppose people weren’t much in the mood for snarky fun after all sheer horror – they’ll pick up next week.

Primetime Preview: Sundays

You may have noticed I haven't posted any updates for a few days, I decided a few days back that the info coming through this week (the second week of the tennis) was pretty sparse and would be distorted due to the sports, whereas next week (the first week of February and the last week of non ratings) would be the first major test for a lot of new and returning shows.

So lets go through what we know about returning shows in the new season - what's coming and when it'll be and most Importantly what the match-ups are...

Let's start with Sunday Nights

6.30-7.30
Sunday Night vs Domestic Blitz vs The Biggest Loser

The Unknown quantity on this night is Sunday Night a new newsmagazine from Seven. To be co-hosted from Nine defector (or is that retiree) Mike Munro, the show has an impressive roster of reporters and a one hour jump on 60 minutes foreshadowing a possible upset on this night, which has long been Nine's to lose.

Nine are slotting in Domestic Blitz, a 'feel good' renovation program (an offshoot of onetime hit Backyard Blitz) which had a successful run in this slot last year and an even bigger Monday night special late last year.

Ten, for it's part returns with the mega successful Biggest Loser with a new innovation, the contestants are all in couples which is sure to pack even more emotional punch for a show which is equal parts reality contest and maudlin tearjerker.

The hot tip...
Every show has an equal chance here - there will be a curiosity factor about Sunday Night, but ultimately that show will succeed or fail on the choice and presentation of it's stories. Without another gardening show to dampen it's aud, Backyard Blitz could run away with the slot and yet I still feel that The Biggest Loser has another big season in the tank, it will be the first show out of the blocks (this Sunday) and has a habit of building over the course of the season - however Sundays are typically it's weakest night.

On balance though - I'm going to say Backyard Blitz

7.30 - 8.30
Border Security/Triple Zero Heroes vs 60 Minutes vs So You Think You Can Dance

Again it's seven taking a leap into the unknown moving one of their proven hits (Border Security) into the path of ongoing freight train that is 60 minutes.

Put aside the dancers for a minute - that show has it's own young audience which will probably eclipse the other shows on the night - the actual timeslot battle will be between 60 minutes and Border Security - each fighting tooth and nail for the old curmudgeon audience, joined in the battle no doubt by the ABC and their endless reams of old skewing Sunday fare.

Seven has taken Border Security out of the frying pan and thrown it into the fire and I'm not sure which viewers are going to choose - my instinct says BS, which frankly could mean either show!

After the customs thing Seven goes to reality playbook and looks up rescue 911 to produce Triple Zero Heroes - I expect this to be huge - there has been a lot of pre-show buzz and this may even pick up viewers that Border Security does not have as this kind of ordinary folks in every day jeopardy stuff will skew a lot more female than people getting cavity searches.

The hot tip...
I think So You Think You Can Dance will dominate but even it could be shaded by Triple Zero Heroes which will probably exploit an untapped vein of this reality programming. The more interesting test will be whether Border Security can be a stayer against the ultimate marathon runner: 60 minutes. Me thinks that ticking clock is going to have to sing for it's supper this year...

8.30 - 9.30
City Homicide vs CSI Miami vs So You Think You Can Dance

This is weird Nine and Seven have just moved their Monday night fight to Sundays - Nine will come a close second to Seven on this one (although Seven will get a scare on William Peterson's last ep) This paves the way for Dance to cut through as the alternative but something tells me it'll be City Homicide with the other two fighting over second place.

The hot tip...
Yep City Homicide in a rerun of late last year's 8.30 monday battle.

9.30 - 10.30
Bones vs TBA vs Rove

Bones will follow its previous lead in all the way to Sundays pitting it against Rove on Ten and whatever Nine pulls out of the cupboard. Smart money is on Nine debuting Eleventh Hour in this slot (given the Bruckheimer pedigree a CSI lead in is on the cards) but Bones has been a dominant force wherever it goes in the last few months and with the City Homicide lead in I expect it to continue pulling a crowd.

The hot tip
Bones - mediocrity always wins!