Find my 90 million

Seven had a perfect convergence of events last night, the long awaited return of Packed to the Rafters and in the first ad break the biggest lottery draw in the history of this country.

The OZ Lotto draw ended up drawing 2,283,000 viewers in the five markets - a huge audience but frankly given the amount of news coverage I would've expected bigger to be honest! Nonetheless, it all added up to an emphatic win for the network.

We also see the curious phenomenon of a lead-on lifting on the back of a big lead out - it was a regular feature early this year for Find My Family a schmaltzy reality show reuniting adopted kids with their natural parents or something worthwhile (OK I've never watched it but then I'm not in the target audience of 80-100 year olds)

Family was much stronger with Rafters following it than without it - similarly we saw another reverse timeslot hit this year on Nine with Customs, a mash-up of several Brit lurkers that curiously got a huge benefit by being before Underbelly rather than after it.

Accepted wisdom is that a strong show should deliver audiences to the show afterwards - so what's causing this phenomenon with the show before benefiting more.

I think I have the explanation - overruns!

You See both Seven and Nine run their current affairs shows long on any given night they can run up to 5 or 10 minutes out meaning that viewers tuning in for Packed to the Rafters at 8.30pm actually see the tail end of the preceding show, the practice has gotten so bad with the two tabloid shows that you can tune in on any given half hour mark to Seven or Nine when you switch you'll likely be on a commercial break with one whole act of the show yet to run!

This appalling practice helps out shows running before a tentpole show because even though the viewer thinks Rafters will start at 8.30, both Seven and OzTam have it marked for 8.35 giving the preceding show the benefit of the Rafters aud for 5 minutes.

It's one of the sneakiest practices devised in television since Turner Time (look that up if you have a spare evening!) and one that would make old Ted proud!

One thing that cannot be fudged by timeslot shennanigans is the absolutely stunning turnout for 10 Year Younger at 10.30pm, 710,000 has to be some sort of record for this slot and proves that the show's audience, while having dwindled to a point, was extremley faithful.

Show's Over, everyone spread out - Tuesday 31 March 2009

First Tuesday without Packed to the Rafters provides an opportunity for channel Ten to grow at Seven’s expense.

NCIS grew 159,000 viewers to a massive 1.55 million, Bondi Rescue followed it right up the charts growing by a whopping 345,000 viewers week on week. 132,000 of those came from Wipeout whilst 204,000 of them came from Find My Family which suffered slightly from the loss of its lead-out, confirming that at least some of the people were hanging around for the following show.

Two and a Half Men also gained week on week with an extra 134,000 viewers at 8.30 whilst All Saints saw a modest increase from its 9.30 numbers – all in all 426,000 metropolitan viewers deserted FTA at 8.30 with the conclusion of Packed to the Rafters.

Tuesday 24 March 2009

Some big movements last night but very little change in the rankings as Seven brought the season of Packed to the Rafters to a close, the show gained 147,000 viewers on last week to close out over 2 million, a sign that the show is an entrenched hit.

Similarly Find My Family found another 132,000 viewers this week, while it’s main competition Bondi Rescue lost 176,000 viewers week on week.

Wipeout improved on last week dismal number to keep itself in the game, while another finale, this time Ladette to Lady saw an extra 66,000 people tuning in (for what exactly I’m not sure – it was a reunion special)

Bondi to the Rescue – Tuesday 17 March 2009

Sometimes you wonder why ten, a network focussed on youth demographics and differentiating itself from its opposition would continue to bother churning out factual programs and then you see a result like last night where Bondi Rescue put on a healthy 279,000 viewers week on week

Non fiction programming also fared well elsewhere with Find My Family adding 15,000 viewers, RSPCA adding 87,000 strays and The Biggest Loser putting on 93 kilos week on week

Perhaps the family pitched Wipeout will soon have to front up to Find My Family as a further 42,000 people quit the obstacle course, it’s a pity because the show is getting a lot slicker several weeks in than on its stilted debut.

For Fictional Programming it was more of a mixed bag, NCIS, Lie to Me, All Saints and Two and a Half Men all lost viewers week on week while Today Tonight actually gained an extra 107,000!

Nine’s new 10.30 entrant Bridezilla’s (an old cable staple from Arena) turned out a disappointing 379,000 while Ten’s News and Eli Stone both had marginal increases.

Tuesday Stimulus Package - 3 February 2009

Now here’s what happens to Ten when they clean up their early evenings – after fumbling around for the better part of last year in the wake of a disastrous Big Brother season, Ten have finally righted their sked – and it turns out the problem was 7pm after all!

It may be that unless Ten takes a gamble and moves in on 6pm news then they’ll never break a mill in that hour but with the return of The Biggest Loser, a show with broad demographic appeal, they’re resuscitating their evenings quite nicely.

After a slight dip on Monday, TBL recovered somewhat to post some healthy figures against some stiff competition in that hour.

The opening ep for the Australian Wipeout did OK but Seven still owns the hour with their feel good factuals, however the ratings for Wipeout, Bondi Rescue and Find My Family show that all three can co-exist in the slot, between then they kept almost 4 million viewers entertained, which is a good result for everyone.

An extra 443,000 people tuned in at 8.30, with Packed to the Rafters gaining 220,000 on it’s lead-in to become the night’s top show (like any of you were surprised!) and NCIS gaining 318,000, Two and a Half Men lost 93,000 viewers from Wipeout.

The Adults Only ep in question was the subject of a PTC (Parents Television Council – US) campaign for a bizarre lap dance scene but wasting fresh episodes of one of your top shows against gargantuan competition is not the way to go. Hopefully Nine finds an alternative (other than TBA) in two weeks time when they have to front up again.

On to 9.30 and something expected and something unexpected happened.

The expected was the dismal performance of The Allan Border Medal, honestly who even watches sports awards? I get the Brownlow Medal to an extent, AFL devotees are nuts about their sport and devour anything and everything about it, but Cricket has a more general audience not made up of fanboys and furthermore, football awards like the Brownlow are covering a whole competition with many teams and hundreds of players so there is a degree of suspense and chance but with this, there is exactly one team, it’s like a club presentation and probably not worth broadcast time, cable would love it though!

The unexpected was Lie to Me, here I am thinking nothing will work after NCIS unless it’s NCIS, well I stand corrected, Tim Roth hit one out of the park for Ten last night with almost 1.5 million viewers, a timeslot win and the night’s 5th most watched show, well done!

Also In the category of amazingly unexpected – check out the ratings for Eli Stone and Ten’s Late News – hope none one was hoping for Out of the Blue back at 10.30 because Ten news just proved why it’s lasted so long at 10.30 (the big 42 billion stimulus package from Mr Rudd didn’t hurt them either!)

And Eli Stone must’ve have made a lot of friends over the summertime, kudos indeed, big 10.30 ratings are back!

Primetime Preview: Tuesdays

7.30 – 8.30
RSPCA Animal Rescue/Find My Family vs Wipeout vs The Biggest Loser/Bondi Rescue

OK, now we’re talking competition. Seven is wasting no time and is bringing back their mega-Tuesday without delay. Both the pet show and Find My Family were big drawcards late last year and Seven is looking to keep the buzz going. Both Nine and Ten are reviving their Tuesday success stories from last year to compete with an Australian version of Wipeout and ten’s Bondi Rescue returning for a fourth season.

The hot tip…

Seven will win, but they will be strongly challenged by Wipeout which has a suitable hosting team (James Brayshaw and Josh Lawson) and is one of the few fun family shows on TV (sorry seven watching sick pets or families in despair is not fun). Bondi Rescue is likely to falter with the factual aud disappearing up seven’s fundament.


8.30 – 9.30
Packed to the Rafters vs TBA vs NCIS

Do I even need to analyse this? Nine is competing at first with an Adults Only Two and a Half Men but no word on whether that will continue beyond one week.

The hot tip…

Rafters first, NCIS second, Nine third.


9.30 – 10.30
All Saints vs TBA vs Lie to Me

Again no idea what Nine is screening in this slot - but I'll hazard a guess and say that a retooled All Saints will romp home the winner, Lie to Me may be good or whatever - but we seem to be chock-a-block full of quirky weird dude procedurals right now, plus Tim Roth - he may be in movies but he ain't no star.

The hot tip...
All Saints, until Ten put NCIS reruns back in the slot, then they are frakked!

Chink in the armour – Tuesday 14 October 2008

Not much of one – but enough to provide a ray of hope to the other nets particularly Ten. Whilst Seven’s 7.30 hour increased week on week, Packed to Rafters reduced by 93,000 viewers and All Saints lost 175,000 week on week

Most of those viewers must’ve found their way up the dial. Ten recorded increases for NCIS (40,000) and Rush (94,000), and Nine increased Two and a Half Men by 93,000 viewers.

The prescence of The Chopping Block was a blow to Nine’s 7.30 hour and seemed to bolster the fortunes of Seven’s 7.30 shows – especially RSPCA which gained almost 100,000 viewers week on week.

Kenny’s Toilet Tour benefited from the move to Tuesday nights but still lost viewers from The Simpsons. Which is vernturing back into more respectable territory increasing week on week by 49,000 people (and by 145,000 over last weeks new 7.30pm ep!)

Overall it was a fairly stable night with some good gains to ten, they now have three shows over the million and have improved there other timeslots, can they keep it going or will they falter again with House tomorrow night, it remains to be seen but the can be encouraged by the stronger performance for Rush, one of the year’s best new shows – here’s hoping it’s numbers improve.

As for Nine – it is hard to imagine where else they could put The Chopping Block, but Nine doesn’t tolerate sub-million figures for long (Battlefronts has just been axed), Tuesday night has been a free-for-all up to The Olympics at which time Seven got the night in a headlock, the other two will be lucky just to keep their head above water on this night – and for the most part last night – that’s what they did.

The Seven Steamroller - Tuesday 7 October 2008

This is becoming a familiar story on Tuesday night with Seven having locked in it’s audience for yet more doco-dramas at 7.30 and the all conquering Packed to the Rafters which jumped an astonishing 143,000 viewers in a week.

Pulling off a quadrella for Seven is the long running All Saints which hung on to 69% of it’s lead in to win the timeslot.

This is obviously a massive boost for Australian drama which since 2007 has been heavily invested in by both Nine and Seven with very few flops.



A different story is playing out over at Ten, having put all their chips in the reality pile at the start of the year their schedule has fallen apart and their one attempt at scripted Australian television this year, Rush, which is as good any cop show that you’ll see, has been scheduled – in a moment of breath-taking stupidity – against All Saints.

Ten’s programmers obviously judged that All Saints would be ripe for the picking, indeed it was been beaten regularly by reruns of NCIS, but nobody counted on the confluence of three factors – the promotional push given by Seven’s Olympic coverage in August, the lead-in delivered by the year’s most watched regular series and the tragic death of one of the show’s actors which focused media attention on All Saints in it’s first week back.

If the brains behind Ten are smart they will swap out Rush for Life and give their cop show the benefit of a better lead-in and a clear run on a Wednesday. But I don’t think they’re that smart…

Even more disastrous than the non-performance of Rush is the failure of The Simpsons at 7.30. With the Simpsons being the perennial Tuesday Family Hour occupant and having so many reruns on the schedule, viewers seem encouraged to check out the alternatives. For a while there the obvious alternative was Wipeout a show dedicated to people making fools of themselves on a giant obstacle course in the mold of a Japanese game show, but Wipeout’s last two instalments (last night was the season finale) have been clip shows which have not attracted the same audience, when Chopping Block returns next week expect a small dent in Seven’s reality hour and the remaining Wipeout viewers to flee back to The Simpsons.

The Simpsons has got to be losing ground to RSPCA/Find My Family also – especially with younger children and people in their 30’s and 40’s.

Finally the ennui over Wipeout has put the kibosh on Nine’s “Adult’s Only” Two and a Half Men, the romance isn’t over just yet because the 7pm strip still netted 1.15 million viewers and a second place in the slot but it indicates that the 8.30 competition is strong and perhaps viewers are beginning to look at the Charlie Sheen sitcom in a similar vein to the way they view The Simpsons – ‘it’s on all the time, so if I don’t catch it now – it’s alright’ Essentially Supply is beginning to outstrip demand!

A surprise of sorts was the good performance of 20 to 01 Greatest Movie Scenes, it was well promoted during the week and obviously provided a reasonable alternative to all the Australian drama on the other channels, but it’s still nowhere near it’s performance 2 years ago and it feels like the concept is on it’s last legs.

Looking forward to tonight the big question is: Will Jamie Oliver rescue Ten’s Wednesday Night?