Unfortunate Reality

After opening on Sunday night with a quite respectable 1.1 million viewers the Biggest Loser plummeted on its second outing falling more than 300,000 viewers in the process.

While it certainly wasn't helped by its lead in the anaemic 7pm Project (674,000 viewers and a distant fourth) a bigger problem may be the controversy surrounding one of the contestants who is up on some very unsavoury criminal charges, subsequently that contestant has had to be excised from the show in the editing room which is reportedly causing all sorts of headaches for viewers trying to follow a narrative jumping around more than your garden variety Tarantino film.

Ten just can't take a trick with their reality shows of late, last year's public lynching of Kyle Sandilands completely sucked the oxygen out of Australian Idol, now this story which is just off putting and unfortunate - what's next? Maybe a Masterchef contestant turns out to be a cannibal!!

Speaking of Masterchef, Seven's cash-in-o-rama had an uninspired sampling given the amount of promotion the show has gotten over summer, perception is working against them with this show - it feels like it's ripping of masterchef and it feels like it's ripping of My Restaurant Rules, still it did better than Loser so it could turn out very nicely for Seven.

Nine meanwhile steamrolled everyone else with their comedies and (lo and behold) a consistently programmed hour of The Mentalist all timeslot winners!

Torn between greatness and obscurity – Sunday 23 November 2008

In the United States American Idol is the top rating show on Television, a megahit in the truest sense of the word with ratings upwards of 30 million viewers per showing. In the UK, the original Pop Idol was gone after only 2 seasons.

Australian Idol is (much like Australia) torn between the two countries, no longer the megahit it was in the first two years, it still manages to keep its head above water and although it’s finale ratings were not impressive when put in context with previous years – they are good enough to ensure another season next year.

Seven obviously expected Idol to do big things because they wheeled out the movies – scoring with the kids film Over the Hedge.

Nine’s season finale of 60 Minutes did the business at 7.30, as did 6.30 lead in 20 to 01 and CSI Miami was no slouch either with their entire night offering the most obvious counterpoint to Ten’s Idol night.

Finally the reruns: Kath & Kim scored their best rerun ratings since returning as Seven’s fallback from the unwatched US remake, Figures for the NCIS rerun in other reports are inflated thanks to the Idol overrun and Thank God You’re Here cannot exit fast enough.

Praying for Summer - Thursday 20 November 2008

Nine had another great trip down memory lane back to the 90s with This is Your Life their top show for the night, all prime time shows* fell under the early evening strips as is increasingly the trend with Seven news again pulling in the most people at 6pm.

The finale of Make Me a Supermodel did the business at 7.30, personally 7.30 has become a TV dead zone where you start praying for the onset of summer programming for some sweet relief – luckily for me relief came with Comedy (113) screening two episodes of Scrubs against all this dross. I did manage to see the tail end of Oprah’s schmooze-fest where she was talking to Baz Luhrmann via Skype (hey at least it wasn’t via hologram) only two minutes of this and I felt physically ill. Ten has only been the latest to get on board a week long news and current affairs bandwagon hyping the f*ck out of this film.

Back on Tuesday Nine jettisoned any semblance of news content on A Current Affair for a half hour tie in for this movie, on Wednesday night I caught the tail end of ABC News and noticed it had morphed into Entertainment Tonight whilst I wasn’t looking, canvassing audiences at the film’s Darwin premiere, this in a week where Australia’s third largest city is being torn apart by the weather, car companies start heading for the exit door and yet another child care monolith goes down and yet the most important thing on any television news agenda is Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman – give me a break!

The 10.30 contenders (Heroes and The Strip) both got a boost with Ten News making way for Out of the Blue, which got it’s regular audience, but the surplus people up at 10.30 split between Seven and Nine (mostly to Nine).

Also that’s seven shows over the million mark for Ten, not too shabby this week, Tonight is a contest between movies Ten has You, Me and Dupree which is first run, Seven has I, Robot which is a rerun but has the stronger lead in, Nine will probably beat them all with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

*Although official Prime Time is 6pm - 12.30, I consider it to be 7.30 - 10.30 on weeknights and 6.30 - 10.30 on Saturdays and Sundays

Brisbane boosts the numbers - Monday 17 November 2008

An interesting night of TV last night with Nine getting Blitzed, Ten getting better and seven getting slightly richer. Overall viewing numbers were up last night across the board. Including SBS there were 5.1 million people watching Free to Air TV at 7.30 last night – out of a population base of 13 million (for the 5 metro cities) that’s pretty good.

ABC has been pulling respectable numbers all year for Four Corners which ended it’s season last week to make way for the four part doco – The Howard Years (one part for each term in office I believe) it was definitely interesting, especially whenever Peter Costello had something to say and I’ll definitely be either tuning in or recording the last 3 instalments.

Andrew Denton, who needs no assistance with his ratings was actually down by 200,000 on the previous week, but his show really rises and falls on the guests he has on.

Looking at the other networks – Seven had a massive start to the night with Seven News, no doubt boosted somewhat by the storms in Brisbane – both Seven and Nine News had inflated figures in Brisbane as locals tuned into the coverage with Seven Brisbane netting 400,000 (Up 110,000 or 37.9% week on week) and Nine Brisbane welcoming 322,000 (Up 110,000 or 29.3% week on week) this also proves that after years of being the last state well an truly welded to Nine’s 6pm bulletin, Brisbane has indeed made the switch.

The Rich List improved by 90,000 week on week, which is good, no doubt helped along the increased numbers watching FTA. Given how inexpensive the format is no doubt some Seven execs are hoping that it maintains a decent performance throughout November.

City Homicide tied (that’s right tied) with the Howard Years which is good for a rerun. Nine were also in a rebroadcasting mood with the 8.30 CSI a repeat, no doubt a defensive move in light of the ABC’s play into the slot for the next several weeks.

Another episode of Domestic Blitz (is this the regular timeslot now?) went very well for Nine, next year I can see a game of quick draw between Nine and Seven to see who can get their franchise into the slot with fresh eps first, Blitz or Border Security.

Over on Ten it was the first outing for Out of the Blue, while the turnout was substantially down on Ten News (Ten News typically pulls over 450,000 in this timeslot, more during winter) I would have expected that – the key is – does it build (meaning will audiences follow it and will it be worth retooling for early evenings) or will people desert it? Stay tuned for that one.

Still on Ten, something unexpected happened last night, blame the wild Brisbane weather – but they did it – they got their four shows over 1 million! That means this week they could potentially have 6 shows over 1 mill by the end of the week. It probably won’t do much for their overall shares but total audience counts as well, especially when it comes to promoting future shows.

Where are Seven Now? - Sunday 16 November 2008

A Solid night last night for Nine with the network dominate every slot from 6.30 onwards. Keeping Rugby League away from the southern states seems to be a good idea with CSI Miami picking up the slack for Nine down south.

No Dancing with the Stars meant that Seven’s Sunday went into freefall after the news. Surprisingly the (very late) return of Where are they now? Didn’t give the network any traction at 7.30 with Dancing’s viewers flocking to 60 Minutes.

Rove’s Season Finale didn’t set the house on fire but it didn’t suck either thereby ensuring Ten a shot at four millionaires this week.

Thank God You’re Here improved slightly but is now the poor cousin of 20 to 01, here’s how clever 20 to 01 is – that episode about child stars was a rerun but it’s subjects were so interesting I didn’t realise until they got to Liz Taylor! A celebrity who long ago crossed into ‘famous for fame’s sake’ territory and is now the exclusive province of gossip magazines – it was enough to snap me into reality and realise I’d seen it before!

Week on Week NCIS and The Outdoor Room both fell.

The Outdoor Room is in a particular pickle – it has the best lead in on television – Seven News yet it sheds almost 400,000 news viewers. Compare that to a recently renewed Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader which raises almost the same amount on it’s lead in and you see that networks weigh actual performance against potential performance.

The Outdoor Room is done for, you’ll probably see Durie on Seven next year but I doubt it will be in this show.

POSTSCRIPT
I thought I might end with what I watched on the box last night – since it was none of these shows and yet I found it quite entertaining.

At 7.30 after some channel surfing I discovered a series on CI called ‘The Academy’ which follows police recruits through their training – I reckon Ten will be emulating this show for their factual about Goulburn Police Academy next year.

At 8.30 E! had a premiere True Hollywood Story about Oprah Winfrey – it astonished me the whole way through how much about Winfrey I already knew just by osmosis and watching the news. A lot of the events they profiled were very familiar and yet I don’t really watch her show!

At 9.30 SBS showed the first in their Stanley Kubrick festival – 2001: A Space Odyssey – what a film, it has the most unsettling opening and closing scenes in the history of cinema (for my money anyway), I still can’t figure out what the hell is going on with that ending (the astronaut is aging so rapidly he can see his future self or something??) and it’s the only film I know of that’s ever tried to imagine the dawn of man. A classic film, and even though it was made in the 60s and set in 2001 it still looks futuristic today!

Lowering the Bar - Monday 3 November 2008

Wow, what a difference Australian Customs makes! These guys pack up and a whopping 600,000 viewers leave with them. Seven's replacement The Rich List (a last ditch attempt to save a one season wonder from the scrapheap) saw more than 700,000 viewers lost week on week.

The loss at 7.30 didn't help their 8.30 tentpole City Homicide (albeit a rerun) which recorded a timeslot loss against a first run fast tracked CSI.

By removing their factuals - Seven has essentially lowered the bar, allowing Nine to walk right over them.

Two and a Half Men pulled in it's usual good audience but the suprise was a timeslot win for Til Death finally over 1 million viewers, Nine can chalk up a win for sticking with this sitcom, unfortunately Til Death just got taken out of Fox's schedule for November sweeps - a move like that is NEVER a good sign - cancellation almost certainly follows so the Brad Garret sitcom is suddenly on the boil on it's home turf.

One of the weirder things to happen was the 9.30 timeslot. While Cold Case only retained 63% of it's CSI lead in, Bones retained a whopping 85% coming first in the slot with Andrew Denton's Enough Rope a close second.

While Nine jumped over the bar this week, Ten continued to limbo right on under it with nothing acheiving. Australian Idol had their best result on the night, but still copped a third place in the slot. Good News Week is struggling to get noticed at 8.30 - it doesn't help that runs against 4 Corners in what is a resurgent year for the ABC Public Affairs program, last night profiling the American state of Ohio in the lead up to tomorrow's presidential election.

A bright spot for Ten though was Will & Grace improving week on week by 12%, is it just a fluke or will Ten's health in the slot start to improve. Keep watching this space...

Viewers stuck in the outdoor room - Sunday 2 November 2008

A reprieve for the Outdoor Room? Anything is possible and the fate of Jamie Duries’ Big New Show™ looks a little healthier after it nudged a million last night – but still this is Seven and such a low figure for what does not look to be a cheap show, whilst a very cheap show (20 to 01) knocks it out doesn’t make for a good look, especially when compared to other hits on Seven coupled with the fact that they already seem to have a plan for 6.30 Sundays next year.

Ten can be happy they managed two shows over 1 mill last night (that’s as many as they got for the whole of last week) and improved ratings for the NCIS rerun.

Overall it was another low rating night (though not the dead zone that Saturday was) with a slightly lower turnout than last week although everything more or less held it’s place from the week before without much variation.

Perhaps viewers are getting the jump on the networks and starting summer non-ratings a month early.

It will be interesting to see what happens tonight when Seven switch from Border Security/The Force to The Rich List and what the knock on effect will be for the City Homicide vs CSI battle.

Watch this space.

You'll have a gay old time – Monday 27 October 2008

Well blow me down – three Mondays into this blog and still the same pattern persists, Seven first, Nine Second, Ten far away in the distance.

First up, Australian Idol improved, no thanks to it’s “new” lead in Will & Grace, the ex-Seven sitcom and current Arena time waster pulled about the same as Friends managed the week before.

It’s funny to think (and I may have only gotten this suggestion from watching PayTV) that the same people who like Friends also like Will & Grace. But does anybody else? Well frankly it’s too early to tell.

Ten was never going to bolt out of the gate with this show because a) it’s a rerun and b) viewers are by and large committed to other 7pm entertainment, their real opportunity is in six weeks time when Two and a Half Men makes way for Temptation and Home & Away shuffles off presumably to be replaced by one of Seven’s many factual half hours, that will leave an awfully huge 18-49 crowd looking for some laughs at 7pm – it’s a good bet that then Will & Grace’s ratings will spike, especially given the show wasn’t well watched in it’s initial broadcast, meaning it should repeat well it just might take a while for people to notice it.

Good News Week took a hit this week dropping 113,000, Til Death also dropped week on week (46,000) as did CSI (64,000) a rerun of CSI wiped 136,000 off the previous week’s figure for a fast tracked Cold Case, however at least Nine is willing to support it’s former hits rather than throw them to the wolves.

In fact nothing on the commercial nets impressed post 9.30 thanks to Andrew Denton interviewing Michael Parkinson on the soon to be retired Enough Rope hitting a very nice 1.2 million viewers.

Channel Nine rides again – Sunday 19 October 2008.

Nine would be well pleased that the Mentalist is picking up steam becoming the night’s top show and giving it maximum exposure going into it’s new Wednesday slot, it will be interesting to see whether viewers stick with Criminal Minds on a Wednesday or drop it like a bad habit for local boy made good (Simon Baker for those keeping score!)

Nine in fact can be pleased with their whole night, 20 to 01 will cause problems for Thank God You’re Here next week, while Seven caused problems for themselves with Kath & Kim losing 34% of it’s lead in and pushing into channel Ten territory.

Elsewhere the continuing Financial Crisis was a theme with Seven snaring a timeslot win at 6.30, all but sealing their current affairs plans for next year and Nine’s 60 Minutes answering a question that has been on my mind since this sub-prime mess blew up – “Are many people being made homeless from this” the answer was a distressing yes.

Dancing with the Stars did alright with no Idol to go against, the ARIA awards kept Ten respectable but didn’t do anything spectacular on the night.

Can Idol’s results show pull out of it’s slump tonight or will it continue to drag Ten’s Monday into the abyss, also did last night’s encore of CSI encourage any more City Homicide viewers to make the switch tonight.

Stay Tuned.

Seriously F*cked – Monday 13 October 2008

Ten Execs could have been forgiven for having some optimism going into Monday night – their Sunday night performed nicely and Good News Week was coming back to take back some audience share.

The only thing Ten didn’t count on was Channel Nine…

Nine Launched a bold assault to take on Seven’s dominant Monday lineup with the return of CSI and Cold Case. It wasn’t a win but it really did some considerable damage leeching away all of City Homicide’s younger viewers blasting the show into third place for the all important 18-49 Demographic and propelling CSI into first place for 18-49 and a very close second overall. This is the first time in a long time where someone has fought fire with fire and it has paid off so Nine can be pleased.

Nine, or anyone else for that matter cannot be pleased with what happened next – perhaps everyone is just exhausted after a big Monday but the post 9.30 audience just evaporated with nothing over 1 million

Look at the comparison at 8.30 (excluding SBS) there were 4,444,000 viewers watching FTA TV, at 9.30 that figure dropped dramatically to 3,434,000 – that’s over a million people switching off, to add insult to injury ABC beat the imported dramas with Andrew Denton’s Enough Rope which pulled 979,000 viewers. The 9.30 switch off is a worry these days – especially after a high yielding 8.30 hour.

Finally what to do about ten, a day ago David Leckie (he of Ch 7) boasted that Ch 9 was f&*$%d and Ch 10 was the Pocket Money network. Given that Cold Case, a well established favourite with higher peaks than Bones has ever achieved was wiped by the low rent Fox procedural and given that two Channel Ten former hits Australian Idol and Good News Week are being pushed into Pay TV territory – he may be onto something.

For the record – Channel Ten had decent 18-49 results but that doesn’t excuse a night that never even got off the ground. Shameful.